mcc

So I was super excited about this film festival of Japanese film I am going to in Toronto this weekend

https://tr.jpf.go.jp/kotatsu2025/

I was registered for four films which I BELIEVED were being shown over the course of Saturday and Sunday

No it's just Saturday!! I am now realizing I have signed up to watch four movies in a row over the course of one day D: D: D: ALRIGHT time to get brainfried

I guess it's a good thing I arbitrarily decided to skip the third movie in the sequence lol

KOTATSU 2025: Japanese Cinema at Innis Town Hall

Our annual winter film showcase, KOTATSU 2025: Japanese Cinema at Innis Town Hall, is back on Saturday, January 25! A perfect blend of 5 contemporary Japanese films will run from morning to night. Free admission for all films.

The Japan Foundation, Toronto
Jan 24, 2025 at 5:14pmWeb
Show threadmccJan 24, 2025

If you have never seen Inu-Oh it is INCREDIBLE. It makes a little more sense if you either watched "Heike Story"¹ or at least know what the Heike epic is but it is Science Saru running on all cylinders

¹ Tale of the Heike is kinda Japan's equivalent of Shakespeare's historical tragedies, it's traditionally sung by blind biwa players, Science Saru simultaneously made a 10-ep series telling the Heike story, and also a movie set 100 years later and positing biwa players as psychadelic j-rock stars

Show threadPerfect Butterfly AngelJan 24, 2025

@mcc my fav part is how they act like all the special effects are actually happening diagetically, so you got guys pulling ropes to make people fly and setting off fireworks and stuff

It's so sick

Show threadmccJan 24, 2025
@junebug In animation it is MORE work to have someone be pulled up by ropework than it is to have someone just fly but they were like no. We will do it the hard way
Show threadPerfect Butterfly AngelJan 24, 2025

@mcc it makes the whole thing feel a bit more real, and grounds the magic elements in a great way

And also just feels so silly given that magic is real and actually happening in the shows

Show threadwrenJan 25, 2025
@mcc oh man I've been meaning to watch this forever, I love like everything else the director has ever done
Show threadAGF : poemproducerJan 24, 2025
@mcc sounds awesome to me
Show threadmccJan 24, 2025

@poemproducer The only one of these I have seen is Inu-Oh so I am excited. I have wanted to see "Children of the Sea" for a while, it's a kids film I think but I saw some clips on YouTube once and it's super visually rich, so I bet it's gonna be great on a movie screen.

I am also glad this festival seems to try to always have one queer film on the agenda, last year they had "Close-Knit" which was great

Show threadAGF : poemproducerJan 24, 2025
@mcc awesome!
Show threadMoth Girl Amber Approaches!Jan 25, 2025
@mcc Oooohh nice

This looks really fascinating. Inu-Oh looks especially cool
Show threadmccJan 25, 2025
@silverchangeling It's really good though I think for the best effect you want to watch the series "Heike Story" the same studio did about the same time (and in our case this meant scouring wikipedia for like an hour after each episode lol)
Show threadmccJan 25, 2025
@silverchangeling ("Heike Story" is like… very very dense japanese history, it's designed so if you don't know the background you're just like "wow a lot of stuff just changed very quickly" but if you slow down to look up background you see a lot more happening. Inu-Oh is just kind of a fun, dark fairy tale)
Show threadmccJan 25, 2025
@silverchangeling Have you ever seen Mind Game?
Show threadMoth Girl Amber Approaches!Jan 25, 2025
@mcc I have! I enjoyed that one a lot
Show threadmccJan 25, 2025
@silverchangeling it's kind of in non-obvious ways but inu-oh is the most mindgame like thing the science saru crowd has made other than mindgame itself