“About Kazuo Ohno” by Takao Kawaguchi ((c) Takuya Matsumi/ Provided by NPO Dance Archive Network)
An “underground” festival now under way traces the history of the modern Japanese dance form of “butoh” against the backdrop of the postwar period of rapid economic growth in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Real Underground festival, which runs until Aug. 15, comprises a photo exhibition and videos of butoh performances streamed online.
Butoh was founded by Tatsumi Hijikata before its principle was taken over by Kazuo Ohno, Akaji Maro and Ushio Amagatsu. The performing art has inspired the art scene across the world since the 1960s.
The word “underground” in the festival’s title refers not only to Tokyo’s underground spaces but also to an anti-commercial, experimental art movement known as “angura,” short for underground.
The Skinny
GFF 2021: Dreams on Fire
Dance movie Dreams on Fire occasionally trades in clichés but thrives when working as an unapologetic examination of trying to make it in a precarious industry
★★★ Film title: Dreams on Fire Director: Philippe McKie
Following in the perfectly choreographed footsteps of such films as
Step Up and
Save the Last Dance,
Dreams on Fire centres on Yume (Bambi Nake), a young Japanese woman who escapes her fraught, provincial family life to throw herself headlong into Tokyo’s underground dance scene – whatever the odds.
This is well-trodden cinematic ground, and
Dreams on Fire at times fails to stake its claim within a crowded genre. The script occasionally trades in clichés (“You never believed in me,” shouts Yume tearfully at her grandfather), while the initially electrifying dance scenes lose impact towards the film’s more unfocused middle. Yet where
Mar 4, 2021
While certain Mongolians are well-known in Japan, especially the sumo wrestlers who have come to dominate the sport in the past 20 years, Mongolia the country mostly draws a blank in the popular mind.
Kentaro, a multicultural actor who goes by one name and has Hollywood credits (“Rush Hour 3,” “Taxi 2”), did not exactly set out to educate the audience with his first film as a director, “Under the Turquoise Sky,” but he still offers an affectionate, visually sumptuous love letter to Mongolia’s land, people and culture. Whether it motivates more Japanese to visit Mongolia (about 22,500 did in 2017) I have no idea, though its beauty shots of the wide open Mongolian landscape, made with an 8K video camera, may prompt many a Google search.
Feb 25, 2021
The recent vogue for international co-productions in Japanese cinema has spawned some fascinating hybrids, while transporting filmmakers to locations that seldom grace the nation’s silver screens. With overseas travel still a distant dream for most of us, this kind of escapism feels particularly welcome right now.
In “Under the Turquoise Sky,” Yuya Yagira plays a wealthy Japanese playboy, Takeshi, who gets whisked away to the steppes of Mongolia in search of a long-lost relative. The ensuing journey is full of unexpected turns, mixing realism, fantasy and comedy on the way to a surprisingly soulful conclusion.
This Japanese/Mongolian/French co-production is the debut feature by single-named director Kentaro, who is as hard to pin down as the film itself. Raised overseas, primarily in France, the Japanese filmmaker speaks English with a slight London twang, but talks the language of a Parisian cineaste.