Celebrated Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki spoke this evening about the process of creating his films and the themes within those works at Zellerbach Hall, hours after officially accepting the 2009 Berkeley Japan Prize from the Center for Japanese Studies. Among the topics touched in in the hour-plus conversation with “Japanamerica” author Roland Kelts were the female protagonists in Miyazaki’s creations, his choice to rely on hand-drawn animation rather than computer-generated images, and the idea of “apocalypse” and natural disasters in his stories. In addition, a fair amount of time was devoted to a discussion of his latest work, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea.”

As expected, Miyazaki’s answers were colorful and often hilarious, as he noted how his family no longer takes him seriously when he comments that he doesn’t want to go through the filmmaking process again and compared hand-drawn animation against computer graphics to steering “a bark among high-speed boats.”

Of course, there was a wealth of information in the talk, so look to Thursday’s arts section in The Daily Californian for a detailed recap of the events of the past two days, which included a screening of “Ponyo,” a panel discussion of his works, the Berkeley Japan Prize ceremony and the Zellerbach discussion. In the meantime, you can read about Miyazaki’s films and influence in our preview of the event, which came out last Thursday.

Image Source: cyworld.com

Wouldn’t it be great if there was one day were all the theater companies in San Francisco could gather in one location and put on half-hour previews of their latest shows? And what if there where improv comedy acts, local magicians, and storytelling for kids interspersed throughout the general frivolity? What if they called it “The San Francisco Theater Festival,” and it was absolutely 100 percent free?

I think you see where I’m going with this.

The San Francisco Theater Festival is happening this Sunday, that’s tomorrow, from 11 AM to 5PM at Yerba Buena Gardens and the surrounding area. It is a full day of all the theater the Bay Area has to offer, from big, glitzy musical revues, to small, independent theater, improv shows, juggler, magicians, and all manner of performers. A big event in the city each year, the Festival draws hundreds of people out to enjoy the Bay Area theater scene. I’ll be going tomorrow (all day tomorrow!) and I can hardly wait.

The full festival program is available online, check it out, and make your plans for a full day of free theater!

Here are a few events that I am looking forward to: (Click here to read more…)

UC Berkeley’s Bollywood dance group Ishaara performed on “America’s Got Talent” on July 21. The group is comprised of students who either currently attend UC Berkeley or have recently graduated and are led by Sian Bentson and Shahil Patel, who left with degrees in environmental studies and a double major of psychology and economics, respectively. Two nights ago, they did an exciting and powerful performance to A.R. Rahman’s “Slumdog Millionaire” song “Jai Ho” and received a roar of applause from the crowd and the three judges’ approval to send them to the next round of the competition in Las Vegas.

The team is currently ranked as the number one Bollywood and Hindi Film Dance group throughout universities in the US. Many of the members have hopes to become professional dancers, and by the amount of cheering they received after the show last night it seems they definitely have a chance. We can’t wait to see them in Vegas next week, and wish them the best of luck in the competition.

Isharaa 18-23 * College Students * America’s Got Talent 2009 Ep9 [HD] [YouTube]

Derek Yee’s “Shinjuku Incident,” starring Jackie Chan, Xu Jinglei, Daniel Wu, Naoto Takenaka. 120 min, H.K.

Derek Yee’s “Shinjuku Incident” begins with a flock of illegal Chinese immigrants riding waves of opportunity to the shores of Japan in the early 1990s and ends with its most illustrious member floating away on an irreversible current of ruin; call it a reversal of karmic proportions. A search for a lost love becomes a dream for glory, and with it arrives unwelcome guests: demons of greed and complacency, tucked away under fleeting disguises of brotherhood and honor.

Much has been said about the film being Jackie Chan’s first attempt at serious drama. For all its quiet nobility, his performance here is neither revelatory nor disastrous. The venerated action icon plays the role of Steelhead, a tractor mechanic from Northeastern China who enters Japan illegally in search of his girlfriend Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei). Working a variety of meager jobs in the bustling Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Steelhead befriends Jie (Daniel Wu), a headstrong young opportunist with unspoken inner fears. Together, Steelhead and Jie form their own gang in an attempt to preserve national identity and provide a haven for other fellow Chinese immigrants.

Their idealistic ventures hardly last long, as a rise to prominence means having to deal with every other entity struggling for control of the district: city police, organized Yakuza, factions of other established Chinese and Taiwanese gangs. As he and his companions become embroiled in disputes that veer straight into perilous territory, Steelhead finally stumbles upon his former girlfriend – only to discover that she has married the local influential Yakuza boss (Masaya Kato). Through a dizzying chain of events, Steelhead makes an unlikely rise to power within the Tokyo underworld, unbeknownst to the growing chaos that threatens to split his former posse apart. A strange friendship with a tough police inspector (Naoto Takenaka) begins to play a major role as the film careens toward an improbably Shakespearean denouement.

The underlying moral of Derek Yee’s mob saga is hardly new: Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Brutal sequences of gangland retribution are juxtaposed with touching depictions of harmony and humanity. The film’s most major pitfall lies in its uneven pacing, which certainly takes away some of the narrative’s staying power and results in a somewhat unsatisfying final movement. Yet even during its weaker moments, this flawed commercial noir manages to paint a compelling portrait of fallen heroes, oddly serene in the face of certain death.

“Shinjuku Incident” premiered in major Asian countries on April 2, and is currently available in DVD/Blu-Ray format. A stateside release date has yet to be announced.

Image Source: JCE Movies Limited

GRIZZLY BEAR -- “Two Weeks”   (dir. Patrick Daughters)

Music videos, man.

I had heard Grizzly Bear’s new album Veckatimest once through and was mildly enthused, but after seeing Patrick Daughters’ video for the song “Two Weeks” I was so madly enthusiastic I could barely contain myself. The album has since become my AOTY (ahem, acronym-speak for Album of the Year).

Daughters has definitely made a name of himself with all of those whimsical Feist vids, and with Michel Gondry leading the pack of music video directors turned filmmakers, there’s a lot to be said for small beginnings… err, I mean short beginnings.

So, here’s my top music video picks, so far, of 2009. Five in all, there’s some exploding heads, rare llamas, swimming pools, and all sorts of fun gems. And yes: I consider SNL digital shorts to be music videos in certain cases. The Lonely Island released an album. End of story.
(Click here to read more…)

As someone who started this summer with the modest goals of watching at least 50 movies and plowing through a few classic novels, I already had my work cut out for me. But perhaps you, gentle reader, were not so ambitious.  Perhaps you decided you’d get a job or travel or take a class or something equally blase. I take pity on you, and as one who has almost entirely avoided conventional productivity this summer–except for a bit of hard physical labor emptying my family’s storage space–I’m here to provide you with some resources for properly squandering your time. (Click here to read more…)

Richard Kelly on the set of “Donnie Darko” in 2001.

It’s no great stretch to say that Richard Kelly’s “Southland Tales” polarized film academia back in 2007, both at Cannes in its rough form and after its theatrical release in the United States. Just as New York-based critics Manohla Dargis and J. Hoberman raved about it, so the rest of the nation was more or less baffled by it; any trace of a consensus dissipated in a firestorm of controversy over the film’s artistic merits. Kelly’s idiosyncratic pastiche of post-apocalyptic tropes was either the product of a visionary or completely, dangerously incoherent: a movie either years ahead of its time or simply an atrocious waste of time.

That a film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Justin Timberlake could generate so much attention is a testament to the promise of Richard Kelly. The 34-year old USC graduate is perhaps best known for his 2001 debut, “Donnie Darko,” a psychological thriller about a troubled teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal) apparently suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. What begins as a tale of suburban teenage angst morphs into an arrestingly original sci-fi piece, with Kelly displaying a knack for genre-bending rarely seen in first-time directors. The film quickly attained cult classic status.

While “Donnie Darko” and “Southland Tales” vary considerably, one notion is evident: Kelly is certainly no hack (although his detractors will say otherwise), and artistic integrity is an important factor in his filmmaking process. Whether he can continue his streak of individuality remains to be seen, but for now, his third film is due on October 30 and appears to be shaping up well. (Click here to read more…)

Dave Eggers has carved out an interesting place for himself in the zeitgeist. He’s a best-selling novelist, as well as editor in chief of McSweeney’s, a literary magazine that, for all the flack it gets, helped form the aesthetics of a generation of readers, this blogger included. He helped found 826, the hippest non-profit creative-writing tutoring program in the world. He recently offered to personally “buck up” anyone who doubted the future of print media. And now he’s got a hand in two high-profile film projects, one already in and probably almost out of theaters and the other coming to screens in October. (Click here to read more…)