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Katsuhito Ishii, how far you've come. After his first two features - Shark Skin Man And Peach Hip Girl and Party 7 - many were tempted to simply write Ishii off as Japan's answer to Quentin Tarantino. He was entertaining, sure, but it all seemed to be stuff we'd seen before, just mixed up and jammed back together in slightly different form. Not helping matters on that front was Tarantino coming out as a fan of the director and also hiring him to supervise the animation sequence in Kill Bill. Since then? All Ishii has done is establish himself as one of Japan's most prolific, diverse and original talents with projects such as the upcoming anime feature Red Line, bizarre cult oddity Funky Forest and gentle observational comedies like The Taste of Tea and Yama No Anata (My Darling Of The Mountains). To put it bluntly, Ishii is one of the very best in the world and anything he does is worth paying attention to.
And what's he doing now? The latest film to come from the man - along with co-directors Shunichiro Miki and Yuuka Oosumi - is Sorasoi, a highly improvisational film made by Ishii's Nice Rainbow actors workshop. The film is a mock-doc comedy about a group of college students preparing for a dance competition at a remote hotel and while it premiered back in October at the Hawaii International Film Festival and is about to screen a part of the Berlin festival it hasn't had a trailer until now. And, heck, because someone at Nice Rainbow is fully aware of the international fan base, they've even gone and subtitled the thing. The mock-doc format means the visuals are more muted than you'd expect from this crowd but it is still very much in keeping with what we've come to expect from the Nice Rainbow trio. Check it below the break.
I'm ashamed I own Taste of Tea and Funky Forest and have not watched either one. If I could find some magic mushrooms I might give Funky Forest a shot.
Here's hoping this has some of the quirkyness of his earlier stuff -- I don't really fancy Yama No Anata or the 'ambient video' thing he did recently because of the lack of this.
[Happosai]
From the trailer it seems to have a Wes Anderson like quality to it. But that could just be the feel of the trailer and not the actual movie.
Anderson's a REALLY good comparison for Ishii's mellower stuff, actually. Surprised that's never crossed my mind before. Taste of Tea could pretty easily be an Anderson film.
Eh, I think Noah Baumbach is more spot on.