Actualités

Naoko Ogigami (Yoshino's Barber Shop, Kamome Diner) is one of the few female directors I truly appreciate, with Megane she holds a firm claim for the top spot. If you're looking for two hours of blissful escapism, a couch vacation like no other, you've found your film. Megane offers little, but what it offers is so pure and so relaxing that it's easily one of the best film in its genre. Make yourself a cocktail, put on something easy, sit back and just enjoy.Ogigami's films take a little preparation to enjoy. Make sure you're not looking for anything action-oriented (in the broadest sense of the word). Her films are not about events, not about "things happening" or about characters bearing their deepest emotions. Instead Ogigami's...

Ntv has posted a trailer for Kana Matsumoto‘s Mother Water, a new film featuring many of the same cast and staff from “Kamome Diner”, “Megane”, and “Pool”.

The film is set in Kyoto, and the title is a reference to the city’s large river and many waterways. In keeping with that theme, the story revolves around three women for whom water is of prime importance. Hatsumi (Mikako Ichikawa) makes and sells tofu, Takako (Kyoko Koizumi) opens a coffee shop, and Setsuko (Satomi Kobayashi) owns a whiskey bar. Like the water of Kyoto, the three women have a subtle but important impact on the people around them. Ken Mitsuishi and Ryo Kase also star as a public bath owner and furniture salesman, respectively.

The film marks the first time former classmates Koizumi and Kobayashi have acted in a movie together.

“Mother Water” will open at Cine Switch Ginza and...

Earlier today, a press event was held in Kyoto to announce the production of a new film called Mother Water, which involves many of the same cast and staff who previously brought us “Kamome Diner”, “Megane”, and “Pool”. The film’s seven main cast members were all in attendence: Satomi Kobayashi, Kyoko Koizumi, Ryo Kase, Mikako Ichikawa, Kento Nagayama, Ken Mitsuishi, and Masako Motai.

Set in Kyoto, the breezy tale focuses on circumstances surrounding three women and their relationships with other people around town. Much like “Kamome Diner”, the film has a peaceful, indifferent theme and involves ordinary characters brought together by a local establishment. However, instead of focusing entirely on one place, several different characters run their own businesses.

Kobayashi plays a whiskey bar owner named Setsuko, Ichikawa plays a tofu maker named Hatsume, Kase plays a used furniture dealer named Yamanoha, Mitsuishi plays a public bath owner named Otome,...

MUNICH -- Madonna's directorial debut will join indie films featuring such stars as Ben Kingsley and Moritz Bleibtreu among the 50 films in the Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama sidebar, organizers said Thursday.

Thirteen films have been confirmed for the Panorama's main program and Panorama Special, eight of them world premieres.

With three exceptions -- Japanese helmer Naoko Ogigami's Megane, starring Ryo Kase; Mare, Nossa historia de amor (Mare, Our Love Story) by Brazil's Lucia Murat; and Taiwanese entry Piao Lang Chi Ge (Drifting Flowers) from Zero Chou, 2007 winner of the Berlinale's gay film prize the Teddy -- all the entries are European productions or co-productions.

Madonna's film, Filth and Wisdom, is listed as a U.K. entry. It stars Richard E. Grant, Stephen Graham (Gangs of New York) and Eugene Hutz, the Ukrainian frontman for gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. Hutz also had a key role alongside Elijah Wood in Everything Is Illuminated (2005).

• There were 983 submissions from 15 countries in this category and apart from a couple of names, I know not one of the final selections below. World Cinema Dramatic Competition"Absurdistan" (Germany), directed by Veit Helmer, written by Helmer, Zaza Buadze, Gordan Mihic and Ahmet Golbol, about a sex strike by village women that threatens a young couple's first night together."Blue Eyelids" (Mexico), directed by Ernesto Contreras, about the ramifications of a single woman's winning of a beach trip for two."Captain Abu Raed" (Jordan), directed and written by Amin Matalqa, concerning an aging airport janitor who relates tall tales to local kids who think he's a pilot."The Drummer" (Hong Kong), directed and written by Kenneth Bi, the story of a young man who matures from reckless gangster to serious grownup due to the influence of Zen drumming."Elite Squad" (Brazil), directed by Jose Padilha ("Bus 174") and written by Braulio Mantovani and Padilha,

...