As the New York Asian Film Festival draws to a close, Viz is releasing one of my favorite films that I saw in the festival two years ago: The Taste of Tea. In fact, several of the films I watched at NYAFF over the last few years have recently been acquired by Viz, much to my surprise and delight. I can imagine the Viz film scout attending the same festivals I did and picking out the same films I would pick.

You really can’t go wrong with Viz Picutes so far. All of their live action titles are solid entertainment. It’s almost as if Viz Pictures is your cool friend, out there attending festivals and recommending movies to you, except instead of loaning you R2 DVDs (or VCDs) they distribute R1 DVDs.

I hope they pick up Zebraman and Dasepo Naughty Girls next!

The Taste of Tea (NYAFF 2005)

Directed by Katsuhito Ishii
Viz Pictures, 143 minutes
No Rating

I haven’t seen a lot of magical realism films, so The Taste of Tea might be a first. Directed by Katsuhito Ishii, (best known for his animated sequence in Kill Bill), The Taste of Tea won the 2005 Subway Cinema audience award, as well as a truckload of awards at other festivals.

The film follows the members the eccentric Haruno family through a transition period in the lives of the characters.

Grandpa Haruno, as played by Tatsuya Gashuin, (Calcifer from Howl’s Moving Castle) is a retired animator with THE GREATEST OLD MAN HAIR IN CINEMA HISTORY. The mom, Yoshiko, is making a short animated film to get back into the anime industry now that her children are grown. The dad, Nobuo is a hypno-therapist. Hajime, the brother, is in junior high and has just fallen in love with the new transfer student Aoi (she’s also in Kamikaze Girls) whom he’s too paralyzed to speak with. Sachiko, the little sister, has the peculiar problem of seeing a giant version of herself following her around. She knows it’s in her imagination, but she can’t get the giant Sachiko to disappear. Uncle Ayano is a recording engineer who befriends an experimental dancer. The other uncle, Nobuo’s brother, is a manga artist who gets kneed in the groin by love (both physically and metaphorically).

The film is slow-paced and somewhat artsy-fartsy, but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in weirdness. For example, in one scene, a yakuza gets buried in mud past his head. He’s left to die, but Sachiko discovers this “mud man” and gets help from two stop-motion animators who happen to be working nearby.

When I think about CG or special effects in films, I usually think of action, sci-fi, or fantasy elements. The Taste of Tea cleverly uses CG to portray heartfelt moments of everyday life. Lovelorn Hajime imagines a train going straight through his head. Sachiko’s moment of triumph is a huge special effects shot that is pulled off so well that theater audiences actually applaud the scene spontaneously.

One of my friends who saw it with me at NYAFF said it best on her blog:

“As a bonus, this movie hits a whole bunch of dork buttons. Yoshiko makes anime, Nobuo’s brother is a manga artist, Hajime plays Go (look at it as equivalent to chess), the suburb has two hardcore otaku and Anno Hideaki from Gainax has a cameo role.”

The same friend shelled out $80 to get the special-edition DVD from Japan with the artwork the Grandfather in the story makes at the end of the film. Thanks to Viz, you won’t have to shell out $50 to import an R2 of this fine film–you can get it at a normal American price of $25, with a special edition DVD going for $35.

The Taste of Tea has been compared to Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, and Linda Linda Linda (below) has been compared to films by Jim Jarmusch, but honestly these are films that high schoolers and adults unfamiliar with (or alienated by) Bergman or Jarmusch could enjoy. While I’m at it, I think Kamikaze Girls compares quite favorably to Raising Arizona, but you need not have seen the Coen brothers’ back catalog to “get” it.

The Taste of Tea is a surprise and a delight. It is highly recommended.

Linda Linda Linda (NYAFF 2005)

Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita
Viz Pictures, 114 minutes
No Rating

The title of Linda Linda Linda will be lost on American audiences unfamiliar with the Japanese band The Blue Hearts. The Blue Hearts’ song titled Linda Linda Linda was a huge hit in Japan in the 1990’s and can be found in any Japanese language karaoke songbook, guaranteed.

Linda Linda Linda the film has a plot that covers three hectic days preceding a high school cultural festival. Regular anime watchers and manga readers will be familiar with the cultural festival customs, but if you’re looking for examples, there’s a plot-central festival in Kare Kano, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer (directed by Oshii), and the more recent The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (episode 12).

Kei’s band was going to perform a song in the school gym for the festival, until the guitarist Moe sprained her wrist at the last possible minute. Kei (played by Yu Kashii) decides to play at the festival anyway, substituting Moe with whomever happens to walk across the school courtyard next. The unlucky passerby turns out to be the Korean exchange student Son (played by Bae Doo-Na), who doesn’t speak Japanese fluently enough to realize that she’s accidentally agreeing to sing for the band. Over the next few days the band practices like crazy, as Son learns to sing.

The film is shot in an almost-documentary style, with straight up, un-glamorous cinematography to bring home the realism of the moment. Even if you’ve never heard of a school festival, anyone can identify with this kind of stress over a big project. An older Japanese woman watching this in the audience behind us at the ImagineAsia theater kept saying “I feel so bad for them!” in Japanese. My boyfriend loved this film, but may never watch it again because it was “so stressful.”

The DVD features audio segments by Patrick Macias explaining the historical context of The Blue Hearts. You can’t “Play All” of these segments and are forced to select each one and play it individually, which I found annoying. The audio is not accompanied by photographs or any visual elements. Although the segments are informative, the presentation is lackluster.

Like most of the other Viz Films I’m listing here, Linda Linda Linda is freaking heartwarming, but not in some obnoxious saccharine way. Even though it’s about an all girl band (or perhaps, because it’s about an all-girl band), this is still a film guys can enjoy. I mean, I’m a jaded hipster and all, but this movie touched my heart. Watching Yu Kashii and Bae Doo-Na act is like falling in love.

Train Man

I reviewed this film after watching it at a press screening last year. It’s adequately cute and charming, and a fine introduction the Densha Otoko franchise if you haven’t read the novel, read the translation of the 2channel conversation, read any of the four manga series based on the story, or seen the TV series.

Word on the street (from other podcasters) is that the real gem of the Densha Otoko DVD is the commentary by Patrick Macias. Macias fills in viewers with everything they need to know about Akihabara culture. I haven’t heard it, but apparently it’s hilariously great.

Kamikaze Girls (NYAFF 2004)

I plan to review Kamikaze Girls in more detail when I write about the book and Patrick Macias’s School Girl Inferno, since all three are Goth-loli must-haves, and really fun reading for normal people, too.

Briefly, I had heard this film was really great but missed it at the ImaginAsia theater and picked up the DVD back in January. The DVD sat on my shelf for couple of months and when I finally watched it I kicked myself for not having watched it sooner. It’s fast-paced, hilarious, and I hate to used the word “quirky” so I’m just going to say “awesome” instead.

Ping Pong (NYAFF 2003)

Katherine mentioned Ping Pong on this website previously, but I haven’t watched it yet. I borrowed it from a friend (Adan), and if the Viz Pictures track record holds true, as soon as I watch it I will start kicking myself for not having seen it sooner.