Invasion of the home video: third Window: Nakashima, sono and Satoshi

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One of the wonderful things about independent home video labels is that they are able to champion individual filmmakers in a way that major studios have no interest in doing.? Arrow Video has taken an interest in giving Argento, Romero, and Fulci their due; while Severin Films had their sights set on making the films of Jess Franco, Walerian Borowcyzk, and Joe D'Amato the credit they deserve.? Third Window Films is also determined to help bring some of their favorite directors some exposure, even if the Western world hasn't yet discovered them.? When I spoke to Third Window's Adam Torel, he gave me three names of filmmakers/auteurs that he really stood behind with his label, and those three are Tetsuya Nakashima, Sion Sono, and Miki Satoshi.? The first two should be names not unfamiliar to many Twitch readers, Nakashima's Kamikaze Girls and Sono's Love Exposure, among others, are some of the more innovative and expressive works from Japan in the last decade.? Miki Satoshi, on the other hand, was a bit of a surprise for me, but after looking through a couple of his films, especially Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, I think I see what Third Window sees.

Tetsuya Nakashima has been criminally under recognized in the US, at least, where only one of his films, Kamikaze Girls, has gotten any kind of recognition.? A few film festival appearances and a DVD release from Viz are really all we've seen of his works.? However outstanding that film is in my opinion, it is not his only work worth noting.? Third Window has done a great thing by taking a film ideally suited for Blu-ray, Kamikaze Girls, and making it their entry into the new format.? Their Blu-ray release is outstanding, as well.? The film was shot digitally, making for a spotless HD transfer, and Third Window have done the wise thing and separated all of the bonus features onto a second DVD disc, so as not to compromise the video quality of the feature.? They've also taken Nakashima's follow-up, Memories of Matsuko, and are preparing it for a similarly stellar treatment.? While Matsuko definitely shares Kamikaze Girls' high gloss color palette, it takes a much different trajectory, entering tragicomic terrain at times.? Third Window has a DVD of the film in print currently, and have scheduled a Blu-ray disc for February of 2011, which should be just as good, if not better, than its predecessor.? Third Window has also picked up Nakashima's Confessions, which is Japan's 2010 Oscar submission, a tale of a possibly paranoid school teacher who suspects her students of murdering her child.? Torel is giving?a theatrical run to promote the film ahead of its home video release sometime in the second quarter of 2011.? I haven't seen it yet, but there are several reviews in the Twitch archive.? I asked Adam Torel for his thoughts on Nakashima and his decision to pick up some films, but not go for others, like Nakashima's children's fable, Paco and the Magical Picture Book:

Nakashima is my favourite of these three. In his relatively short time as a director he has handled a pop-culture youth film, a musical melodrama, a children's film and a dark revenge thriller (I haven't seen his 2 earlier films so can't comment on them). Each of these four titles (and you could also lump 'Lala Pipo' in with them as he wrote it) is unique in its own way, visually stunning yet with great depth and wonderful performances coaxed from his actors. Miki Nakatani's performance in 'Matsuko' surely has to be one of her best as is Takako Matsu's turn in 'Confessions', plus remember he launched the acting career of Anna Tsuchiya in 'Kamikaze' plus boosted Kyoko Fukada into a big screen star in the same film. What got me into his films from a distributor's perspective is the way he uses striking visuals to capture an audience and then once he has them hooked in he relays his stories. While I love how gifted Lee Chang-dong is a storyteller, due to the very gritty and realistic tone of his films it's very hard for an audience to get involved. As a distributor I've come to realise that people need a lot of help getting into the right frame of mind to tackle certain subjects, and most (including myself most of the time) are not usually in the mood for such hard-hitting storytelling when it's done in the style of Lee Chan-dong, no matter how great it is. Nakashima's genius comes in the way he makes his films flashy and entertaining, yet provides strong, layered characters who tackle interesting subjects that give insight into contemporary Japanese society. How many Hollywood films get made a year which can actually create this balance between entertainment and serious storytelling? It would seem to be a lot harder than most think, so let's hope that Nakashima isn't tempted to work in the States!

I'm not too interested in releasing 'Paco' by Nakashima, as while I do like it, I do think it's not as strong as the others and also fits into a weird category for releasing overseas as it would need to be marketed to both a younger and older audience, but doesn't actually fit well in either as it probably is too adult for children and too much for children for adults to like. Then you'd also have to bring dubbing and the such into it if you released for children. I'd like to personally watch his two films from the late 90s though I'm not sure how well they would do as back catalogue titles.

Sion Sono has been on cult film fans' radars for years, beginning with his utterly bizarre and strangely engaging serial suicide film, Suicide Club (Suicide Circle).? He's made a number of similarly themed and executed horror titles in the years since that audacious beginning, but not many people really took him very seriously as an artist until 2008's Love Exposure.? Adam Torel was just such a person,

Sono takes an obviously less mainstream (than Takashima and Satoshi) and much more direct stance on his feelings towards Japanese society. His films are a lot more independently made (with the exception of 'Suicide Circle' and 'Exte') therefore allowing for more freedom of expression, though I personally believe that, while he has some very interesting things to say and makes some very unique films, he could use somebody to help mould his films a little tighter. To be honest I was never a massive big fan of his prior to 'Love Exposure'. I quite liked 'Noriko's Dinner Table', though I felt that with that, and with pretty much all his releases (bar 'Love Exposure') it could have used a lot of editing. Actually, I received a copy of 'Love Exposure' months before it played in Berlin, but I wouldn't watch it because of its running time and my lack of any major feelings towards him as a director. Just before Berlin my friend saw it and he told me how wonderful it was and I watched it and fell in love with it. Ironically though I felt that whilst I think all his films are too stretched out, that 'Love Exposure', despite its 4 hour running time, didn't drag in the least. This could possible be because with its original running time of 6 hours, that 4 hours is heavily edited, leaving it saying all it needed to say in the correct amount of time to fit it all in. Due to the subjects he continuously tackles and the way he tackles them, I would also consider him to be another 'auteur' of contemporary Japanese cinema, and while his films are a lot less mainstream than Satoshi Miki and Tetsuya Nakashima, his does have a very devoted audience who want to experience a much darker and colder view of Japanese society, especially disaffected youth.

In the wake of Love Exposure's success around the world, even garnering a "film of the year" nod from one of our reviewers, Sono now has a new film in the spotlight, Cold Fish.? We announced Third Window's acquisition of Cold Fish a few weeks ago, and with that Third Window has plans to release the film theatrically in the Spring of 2011 with DVD and Blu-ray edition to follow in the summer.? I haven't been lucky enough to see Cold Fish, yet, but there are several reviews in the archive here to choose from, both from those who loved it and from at least one person who was less than impressed.? Read them all, and then wait for Third Window's release and make up your own mind!

The third and probably least known of the trio is Miki Satoshi.? Satoshi's films are certainly far less flashy than either of the previous two, and fit more in the vein of classical Japanese filmmakers, with a slightly askance cultural view.? Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers and Instant Swamp are already in Third Window's collection, and both are quite charming.? Satoshi doesn't choose outlandish situations like Sono, nor does he use the aggressive visual approach of Nakashima, but his films still have their signature actors, characters, and situations, all of which make for very interesting takes on contemporary Japanese life.? To my knowledge, of Satoshi's films, only Adrift In Tokyo is available in the West in an English subtitled edition from Canada's Evokative label, making Third Window his biggest distributor in the English speaking world.

Satoshi Miki is another of my favourite directors of contemporary Japanese cinema, though in a slightly different way. If ever I'm looking for a great little film to amuse and entertain me I always go for a Satoshi Miki film over most other director's films, they're truly special. All his works, including the great TV shows he did such as 'Jikou Keisatsu', are very enjoyable with a very unique comedy style which I actually draw parallels with Monty Python of whom I'm a big fan of. His sense of humour is very random and strange, and his films barely have a narrative yet tend to be very engrossing. The way he looks at daily life and tries to find strange and unique aspects of it. Japanese (especially Tokyo) daily life can be thought of as very cold and boring, with people following others and doing the same menial jobs without thinking outside the box, but looking at his films such as 'Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers', 'In the Pool', 'Adrift in Tokyo', etc, we see a different side of 'daily life' in Japan. Also, by using the same cast from project to project (regulars such as Eri Fuse, Ryo Iwamatso, Noriko Eguchi, etc) his characters and stories continue to stay with you from film to film.

In reference to his decision's on Satoshi's other films, Torel says,

For Miki Satoshi, I'm a big fan of 'Adrift in Tokyo', but as it's been released in Canada with English subtitles and great extras I feel there wouldn't be enough demand for another English subtitled release. With his other titles, I think 'Insects Unlisted in the Encyclopedia' is weird enough to work as a back catalogue straight-to-dvd title, though I'd rather see what's lined up next and see if that's any good. I feel that 'Turtles...' and 'Instant Swamp' are the best example of his style from his catalogue so that's why I focused on them over the rest.

With Third Window having released the first Blu-ray from Nakashima and the first English subbed release of Sono's Cold Fish, it looks to me like he's on a roll.? I can't wait to see what he does with Matsuko when it hits Blu-ray in a couple of months and Cold Fish following that.? Unlike the labels I've profiled previously, Third Window specializes almost exclusively in new films, which means that people in the English-speaking world may no longer have to suffer through buying and rebuying the same titles as the releases come out in horrendously expensive awesome deluxe editions in Japan, possibly without English subs; then cheaper, bare-bones editions in Hong Kong, more likely with English subs for the feature but not extras; and then finally fully featured (if we're lucky) editions in the UK or US.? We have our first and last stop in many cases now, which is great!? I can no longer count the times I've upgraded the same film over and over as I've collected releases from across the world in this pattern.

I look forward to these new releases coming in 2011 and whatever else Miki Satoshi has up his sleeve for the future as well, and I feel that their work is in good hands with Third Window.

Next time, we'll talk a little bit more about some of Third Window's other Japanese offerings, of which there are many, and get some more words from Torel about these other great titles!

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