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To celebrate the release of Fran Rubel Kuzui’s Tokyo Pop, out now – An underseen gem of ‘80s American independent cinema, we are giving away 3 copies to lucky winners!

Tokyo Pop directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), takes us on a breezy tour through bubble era Tokyo, replete with knowing nods to the city’s vibrant pop culture.

Bleach-blonde wannabe rocker Wendy (Carrie Hamilton) is disillusioned with her life in New York City. After receiving a postcard from Japan saying “wish you were here,” she spontaneously hops on a plane to Tokyo with dreams of making it big as a singer.

Quickly finding herself broke and a fish out of water, she moves into a youth hostel for gaijin (foreigners) and takes up work as a hostess at a karaoke bar. Just when she’s at her breaking point, she meets Hiro (Diamond Yukai), a rock ‘n...

“Tokyo Pop” is one of those movies that easily gets the title iconic. Written and directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, who later directed “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, it also stars Yutaka Tadokoro, leader of the rock band Red Warriors, who also appear in the movie, legendary Tetsuro Tanba, as much as a cameo appearance by X Japan. The main protagonist, actress, playwright and singer Carrie Hamilton unfortunately died at the age of 38 due to lung cancer. In honor of the film’s 35th anniversary, a 4K restoration of Tokyo Pop was released by Kino Lorber in New York City at Bam Rose Cinemas on August 4, 2023, and in Los Angeles at the American Cinematheque on August 11, followed by a national expansion.The restoration was released on Blu-ray on December 5, 2023.

Tokyo Pop is screening at Five Flavours

The story follows Wendy, a young aspiring singer in New York City, who decides to leave for Japan,...

"A sweet, cocky love-and-rock story." Kino Lorber has revealed a new official trailer for a 4K restoration of an "underseen gem of '80s American independent cinema" titled Tokyo Pop. Long before there was Lost in Translation, there was Tokyo Pop, about a young woman finding her way in Tokyo. The film premiered in 1988 at the Cannes Film Festival but that's about it. For its 35th anniversary, the film has been restored in 4K and will get a theatrical re-release. A young rock singer, played by Carrie Hamilton, not appreciated by her band gets a postcard from Japan saying "wish you were here." She takes what little money she has and flies over to Tokyo. The film takes us on a "breezy tour through bubble era Tokyo, replete with knowing nods to the city's vibrant pop culture." Sounds good to me. Tokyo Pop is a "bubbly and charming rock & roll...

Before Fran Rubel Kuzui helmed 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she debuted her first feature Tokyo Pop at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival to much acclaim. Due to its distributor going bankrupt, the film never got a fully fledged U.S. run, but now––35 years later––her bubbly pop adventure has been restored in 4K and will open in U.S. theaters (starting on August 4) from Kino Lorber.

Ahead of its release, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the new trailer for the film that follows the unlikely love story between American wannabe rocker Wendy and the struggling Japanese singer Hiro (Diamond Yukai of the Japanese band Red Warriors) as they seek music stardom in 1980s Tokyo, only to discover it might be found together.

Here’s the expanded synopsis: “Bleach-blonde wannabe rocker Wendy is disillusioned with her life in New York City. After receiving a postcard from Japan saying “wish you were here,...

Japan Society is screening the film November 19th as part of its film series, ‘Tokyo Stories: Japan in the Global Imagination’. It will be followed by a Q&a with Fran Rubel Kuzui, its creator, director and co-writer.

When I acquired Tokyo Pop for the U.S. market in 1988, none of us had any idea that this largely forgotten gem of ’80s American independent cinema by Fran Rubel Kuzui would bring such success to its director or star. Tokyo Pop’s name star, Carrie Hamilton, the daughter of Carol Burnett, was bound for stardom until her life ended prematurely (1963–2002).

The film itself is slated to be a classic, and, if I may say, it was perhaps the precursor to Sophie Coppola’s own classic, Lost in Translation.

Not only did we have no idea of what the future would bring for any of us who were then struggling to put U.

From the bustle of neon-lit Shinjuku and its ultramodern skyscrapers to the traditional scenery of Mt. Fuji, cherry blossoms, and Shinto shrines, Tokyo has served as a source of creative inspiration for generations of international filmmakers. Anticipating the 2020 Summer Games, when the eyes of the world will once again fall upon Japan’s dynamic capital, Tokyo Stories: Japan in the Global Imagination considers the ways Japan—and the elusive concept of “Japaneseness” —is rendered and interpreted outside its borders with a revealing selection of Tokyo-set films by foreign directors, including Japanese co-productions, Hollywood blockbusters, and European arthouse favorites.

The series kicks off November 8 with Werner Herzog’s latest film Family Romance, LLC, a quasi-documentary narrative feature concerning the function of role-playing in matters of love and business, screening in New York for the first time since it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Herzog is one of...

I have to admit, Sabu is one of my favorite directors, one of the main reasons I turned my attention towards contemporary Japanese cinema, and that films like “Postman Blues”, “Monday”, “Usagi Drop” , “Miss Zombie”, etc are among my all time favorites. Therefore, I was really happy to find out that Third Window has picked his debut, “Dangan Runner” to be released on digital media. Let us take things from the beginning though.

The story (which shares similarities with the 1998 film “Run Lola Run”) revolves around three individuals that could be characterized easily as losers. Yasuda is a man who is constantly bullied in the restaurant he works for, with his frustration eventually leading to a rather extreme decision, of robbing a bank. Alas, Yasuda forgets his mask during his first heist, and ends up in a convenience store, where he tries to steal one. Alas once more,...

by Steve Dollar

If there is a signature sequence that defines a movie directed by Sabu, it's the never-ending chase that pretty much consumes the entire 82 minutes of his 1996 debut, Non-Stop (aka Dangan Runner). Tomorowo Taguchi, rock singer and star of the all-time Japanese cult classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man, is Yasuda, an everyman as inept as he is desperate. His plans to pull a bank heist go haywire, since everything always goes haywire a few minutes into a Sabu plot. But they go haywire in really nutty, unpredictable ways. In this case, the would-be bandit stops by a convenience store to shoplift a gauze mask for putative use as a disguise. As we see in a fantasy staging of the robbery, it makes a lousy and absurd choice. And Yasuda isn’t even much of a petty thief: A quartet of schoolgirls observes his actions amid giggles: "It's so embarrassing,...

Bill Murray in Lost in Translation

Photo: Focus Features

I was recently sent the link to a 2003 article in the "New York Times" headlined "What Else Was Lost in Translation" and it was something I had never known about Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation having to do with Bob's (Bill Murray) filming of the Suntory Whiskey commercial.

Of course, we all knew the director (Yutaka Tadokoro) was giving Bob much more information than what his interpreter (Akiko Takesh*ta) was translating for him, but I never knew the actual English translation of what Tadokoro was saying. It would seem back in 2003 Motoko Rich was well ahead of me in getting the answer.

Rich also says the scene came out of Coppola's own experiences while promoting her first film, The Virgin Suicides, in Japan and also adds Bill Murray never knew what the director was saying. "I like the fact...

The final offering in the Fall Shooting Gallery Film Series, "Non-Stop" is the remarkable debut film of Japanese screenwriter-director Sabu. A subtitled dark comedy about three men chasing each other on foot all over Tokyo, the film was originally released in 1996 under the title "D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner". For American foreign-movie fans, it's an entertaining little nugget of world cinema that many have never heard of.

Superbly shot and edited, with scene after scene evoking the frailty of humans in a landscape of buildings and machines, "Non-Stop" has a convoluted structure and a sly sense of humor. But initially, it's a character study of downtrodden Yasuda (Tomoro Taguchi), who is pushed to desperate acts.

When he tries to rob a bank, he forgets his disguise and runs into a nearby convenience store to shoplift one. In a series of escalating events, Yasuda is challenged by the store's owner, Aizawa (Diamond Yukai), and a shooting takes place.

Aizawa, a long-haired drug addict, starts the chase when Yasuda bolts out the door. With Aizawa possessing Yasuda's gun, the runners sprint recklessly through crowded streets and markets. No bystanders or lawmen interfere, but in a collision, a woman dies from a stray shot. In the same scene, Yasuda is recognized by Takeda (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a rattled yakuza gunman who recently saw his boss and a friend assassinated. The increasingly symbolic three-way chase takes a day and a half.

While they're running, the abbreviated back stories of the leads, seen in flashbacks, peg them as losers. Along with occasional fantasy thoughts, one off-the-cuff sequence has each runner imagining having sex with a woman as he passes by.

While it inevitably comes to a grim finish, this stylish exercise is over fast, a definite plus because one starts to feel the gimmicky project losing momentum the longer it goes on.

NON-STOP

Shooting Gallery

Director-screenwriter: Sabu

Producer: Masaya Nakamura

Executive producer: Moto Seta

Director of photography: Syuji Kuriyama

Production designer: Mitsuo Endo

Editor: Shinji Tanaka

Color/stereo

Cast:

Yasuda: Tomoro Taguchi

Aizawa: Diamond Yukai

Takeda: Shinichi Tsutsumi

Running time - 82 minutes

No MPAA rating...