Yamada screens final samurai flick at Tokyo festival

TOKYO - Director Yoji Yamada saw the culmination of his samurai trilogy with a special screening of “Bushi no Ichibun” (Love and Honor) on the eve of the 19th annual Tokyo International Film Festival.

“Bushi” is the first Japanese film to open the festival, which will feature Clint Eastwood’s Iwo Jima film, “Flags of Our Fathers,” on Saturday evening and close next week with director Kon Ichikawa’s mystery, “Murder of the Inugami Clan.” Read more

The Alotau Canoe Festival

ALOTAU - As John Kaniku tells it, the appropriate beginning to canoe construction is simple enough: you have to choose a tree of quality timber.

The lush, jungle-covered landscape of Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay Province, which includes strings of islands and the south-eastern section of the mainland, provides many options.

Canoe styles vary, with each region having a very distinct shape or decorative pattern - perhaps something akin to a trademark. But no matter the type, the construction procedure generally gets a little complicated after that initial selection. Read more

The Bomana War Cemetery

PORT MORESBY - Local birds on spindly legs dash between the marble headstones set within the manicured green lawn of the Bomana War Cemetery. The only sound is that of a very gentle wind ruffling the surrounding trees.

Caretaker James Kuk says that there is usually one reason why people visit Bomana, a nineteen-kilometer drive outside of Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby.

“Most tourists,” says the groundskeeper, “want to come here before going to the Kokoda Trail. Travelers will be asked by relatives in Australia to get a photo of a certain friend or family member’s grave.” Read more

The canals of Edo

TOKYO - Japan’s construction industry is renowned for its proclivity for paving over anything that does not stand still. But in terms of magnitude, today’s concrete pourers were certainly rivaled by the work of their predecessors, who cut and filled what is now Ginza into a network of canals and bridges before transforming the area into the asphalt slab it is today.

Runoff from the Tone River, which now forms a border between Chiba and Ibaragi prefectures, contributed to a marsh at the east edge of Edo Castle. With the arrival in 1603 of the Shogunate of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), who desired a steady flow of food and building products to arrive at the castle entrance, the areas to the south (today’s Ginza and Tsukiji) and further towards the Sumida River had to be developed. Read more

Couples clamor to mount where Mona was moanin’

The scandal over the extramarital dalliance between TV news anchor Mona Yamamoto, 32, and Yomiuri Giants player Tomohiro Nioka, also 32, has proved a windfall not only for the vernacular tabloids, but for the hotel in Tokyo’s Gotanda district where the alleged whoopee-making took place.

Evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai (July 18) does not identify the hotel by name, but provides a photograph with the signboard obscured. It reports the room used by the couple cost 9,800 yen. Read more

21st Tokyo International Film Festival to go green

TOKYO - The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival will have an environmental theme, organizers for the event announced today.

With a festival logo that depicts a green Earth and the message “Action! for Earth,” protection and preservation of the environment will be common themes in the films exhibited during the event. In further keeping with this message, luminaries will this year stride into the theaters upon a green (and not red) carpet. Read more

John Swope: A letter from Japan

LOS ANGELES - John Swope (1908-79) probably had quite a story to tell Jimmy Stewart and his other celebrity buddies after returning from Japan, where he photographed the devastation at the hands of the Allied forces near the conclusion of World War II.

The Hollywood photographer’s assignment from the US Navy was to photograph the Allied prisoners of war as they were being released just prior to Japan’s surrender.

With his Rolleiflex 75mm, Swope walked through rubble and burned-out structures and befriended Japanese both young and old alike during his three-week tour at the end of August 1945. Read more

Toei Animation looks back after fifty years

TOKYO - After a half-century in the cartoon business, in which it produced such television classics as “Sailor Moon” and “Dragonball Z,” Toei Animation is returning to its roots.

“Our television animations are currently going all around the world,” says Hiroyuki Kinoshita, director of the cartoon studio’s corporate strategy. “Now we are thinking back to the origin of our company, which was focused on feature films.” Read more

MAD3 get lost in Tokyo

TOKYO - As the recorded sounds of the rotating helicopter blades and the first few notes of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” begin coming over the sound system, the elbow-to-elbow crowd at rock club Shelter in Shimokitazawa know that apocalypse is now upon them.

Eddie Legend of the surf-garage band MAD3 strolls onto the stage sporting a biker cap and picks up his guitar, decorated in shiny studs. Drummer Kyo, who has already bowed to the audience and taken a seat behind his kit, then spins his stick in his right hand. Haruto, his dark wraparound glasses reflecting the stage lights, holds his bass at the ready, his legs slightly astride. Read more

CoFesta unites film, TV, gadgets, and games

TOKYO - Japanese pop culture exports - from Gundam robots to “Godzilla” pics to Sony PlayStations - have never been promoted as a single entity. Until now.

Co-sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Japan Intl. Contents Festival (CoFesta) has brought together a series of events from such industries as manga comics, animation, broadcast programming and videogames to promote the latest in Japanese coolness to the world. It also includes Tiffcom, the Oct. 22-24 Japanese film market. Read more

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