DrumSonG#2

Anchorsong's 'DrumSonG#2' from 'The Storytelling EP'. Randomly found in Tokyo shop, but now widely available at his gigs, such as his set supporting DJ Krush at The Forum in London on 01/02/2013 where these photos are taken from (apart from one - can you guess which?). Enjoy...

Politic 20

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Kikkake – DJ Kentaro and DJ Krush

Drum Song 2 – Anchorsong

Lights – Adapted A.K.A. Sein

Kuon / Far and Away – DJ Krush

5 Bit Blues – Kid Koala

Get Your Hands Off My Shoulder, Pig – El-P and The Blue Series Continuum

Lost to See – Ryu (DJ Sak) and AH

7 Bit Blues – Kid Koala

Crossfader – DJ Kentaro, Kid Koala and D-Styles (in spirit only)

The Meaning of the Name – Gang Starr

8 Bit Blues (Chicago to LA to NY) – Kid Koala

Bleeding Brain Grow – MC Paul Barman

Brooklyn Zoo – Ol’ Dirty Bastard

You Got Shot – Prince Paul, Breeze and Sha

Beautiful Night (Manic Psychopath) – Prince Paul

Aoi Ame / Green Rain – DJ Krush

Everything You Do is a Balloon – Boards of Canada

Tread water – De La Soul

D.A.I.S.Y. Age – De La Soul

I feel Alright – Steve Earle 

Kid Koala at The Scala (22/02/13)

Kid Koala doing his thing and that at The Scala in London. Probably the best live DJ performance I have seen, packed with dancing girls and puppets. Audio and visual quality assured...

I Wish (Kiseki)

Koichi (the fat one) and Ryunosuke (the ‘on acid’ one) are two brothers separated along with their parents: Koichi now living with his mother and grandparents in Kagoshima and Ryunosuke in Fukuoka with his father. Once a happy family living in Osaka, they are now divided, with Koichi in a sleepy town in southern Kyushu overlooked by a rumbling volcano; and Ryunosuke with his musician father in modern and vibrant Fukuoka to the island’s north. Wanting his family back together again, like Janet Jackson, Koichi comes up with an idea to make it happen.

Each with a group of friends, the brothers makes the trip to Kumamoto: the point they calculate where the new Sakura Shinkansen will meet in opposing directions. When this happens, miracles will follow.

Of course, this idea is childish – that’s why this is a film about children. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest feature seems to combine two of his previous releases, ‘Nobody Knows’ and the Ozu-like ‘Still Walking’, looking at the break-up of family through the eyes of a child. Using real-life brothers (well, their family name is the same, anyway) for the leads, Hirokazu again captures the imagination with a film that furthers his place among the greats of Japanese cinema.

Like many of his other films, ‘I Wish’ is simple, but effective in his tackling of subjects in modern society, like an Ozu for a new generation, with the dreams and motivations of all cast members considered.      

Once Upon a Time in Japan

February comes but once a year, and so does the Japan Foundation’s annual touring film programme. ‘But what be the theme this year?’ none of you shout in any kind of urgency. Well, to give it its full title, this year’s programme is: Once Upon a Time in Japan: Reinventing the Past through the Eyes of Japanese Contemporary Filmmakers. It’s just like loads of period pieces.

A whooping ten films are on offer this year, including the first animated offering the Japan Foundation has put forward. But are films looking at old-fashioned times in Nihon any good? I went to take a look at four examples…

Hula Girls (Hura Garu)

Being that this is a film with ‘girls’ in the title, but not also featuring the words ‘nudey’ or ‘wrestling’, this is clearly one that will require tissues for other reasons. Set in a Sheffield-equivalent, but nowhere near as depressing, ‘Hula Girls’ looks at the change in post-war Japan in the 1960s, focusing on a small mining village that is soon to see its mine closed with the company looking to move into the spa and entertainment market in-line with changing times.

She was only the coal miner’s daughter, but she knew a lot about shaking her ass. Looking to keep the community alive, a Hawaiian-themed spa is set to open, and for that we need girls dancing, with some locals signing up, much to the village elders’ dismay. Fighting their parents and lack of talent, the girls work hard to find a new place for themselves in a changing Japan.

Sang-il Lee’s ‘Full Monty’ has a lot of tears and maybe a little too much sentimentality in parts, demonstrating why you shouldn’t always go to see films with ‘girls’ in the title. But with enough good focus on changing ways and big town vs. small town differences, the film glides along nicely enough in two hours.

Ninja Kids (Nintama Rantaro)

Anything involving youth and the ninja must be good. ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles’ for example. Add the direction of one Miike Takashi and you’re on for a hit. Silly title (in the Western world, anyway), mental director: you’re in for 100 minutes of stupidity.

Based on the manga ‘Nintama Rantaro’, this is Miike for kids, once again switching styles and techniques from one film to the next. In a plot that doesn’t really hold much purpose, hero Rantaro must race against some bad-ass, but naturally incompetent, ninjas with the help of the rest of his ninja academy bitches.

Based on a manga, Miike chooses to go for a cartoon style, with fake bruises and repetitive background scenery. Fun is the aim of the game, and the film features an impressive adult cast for some downright silliness. Showing that he can appeal to kids as well as sweaty teenagers wanting blood and guts and some occasional tits, this is another box for Miike to tick on his ‘yeah, I can do that’ CV.

Mai Mai Miracle (Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Maho)

I’m not sure if I was fully in the mood for ‘Mai Mai Miracle’ when it came round. Feeling a bit worse for wear, I wasn’t quite ready for the inevitable screeching that comes with a nostalgic anime.

Running around a field all day, mental nine year-old Shinko imagines a past with a lonely girl that lived in the village a thousand years previous. Roping another girl to join in with this fantasy world, the pair run around all day in the small village.

Directed by Miyazaki protégé Katabuchi Sunao, it is easy to compare this film to ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, so easy that it almost seems a bit unnecessary having made this film. A lot of similar ideas and style are taken from it with little much added over 20 years. Not enough seems to be made of the ‘trips’ to the past, making it feel like a little side rather than a main focus of the film. But, like I said, I wasn’t probably quite in the right frame of mind when watching and could have easily said the same about Totoro if shown that at the time.

Bubble Fiction:  Boom or Bust (Baburu e go! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki)

To end, something silly. The year is 2007 and the Japanese economy is about to collapse, again. In order to try and prevent the original bubble burst at the start of the 90s, inventor Mariko goes back to the year 1990 in her time-travel washing machine that she accidentally invented (no questions asked) to try and get the Finance Ministry to change its policy and thus prevent economic disaster for years to come. With her mother trapped in the past, Mariko’s daughter steps into the washing machine to bring her mother back and save the day and all that stuff.

‘Back to the Future’ style stuff all round, with wacky kids dancing to the latest hits, like MC Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ and having crazy haircuts. It’s a light-hearted, mainstream comedy that never takes itself too seriously despite tackling a serious subject.

The fourth (I think) Japanese Foundation Touring Film Programme I have attended,  there were no great films on show this time around, but a good standard overall, with the ones seen of the more comic variety.

The tour now moves on to Sheffield, Birmingham, Belfast, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol and Nottingham, where you’ll all like films set in the past, you backward sherbet-sniffers.