[Specials]

The Leeds Film Festival 2008: Sword of the Stranger, Mind Game, 20th Century Boys, Detroit Metal City

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Detroit Metal City, Live events]

There’s a reason why I haven’t had chance to catch up on posting or replying to comments in the past couple of days: I met up with the UK-A crew for a weekend of socialising (for a change!) and cinematic viewing at the 22nd Leeds International Film Festival. There were some great pieces of J-cinema on offer this year (I missed L: Change the World because I wanted my lunch), some of which were interesting anime movies I’d been looking forward to watching.

This isn’t me. Cool artwork though

Leeds is a great place for this sort of thing: there are some great venues (The Light is nice and central, while the Hyde Park Picture House is wonderfully retro), it’s only an hour’s train ride away from where I live and the prices of tickets and food/drink are slightly cheaper than those in London. It might lack the glamour of the capital but it’s a great event to keep me going until the next Sci-Fi London weekend. In any case, this year I caught Sword of the Stranger, Mind Game, 20th Century Boys and Detroit Metal City. Not bad for 24 hours.

[8 Comments]

[Specials]

The BFI presents…5cm Per Second plus its director

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Live events, Makoto Shinkai, Unashamed fanboying]

In case you’re wondering why things have been quiet in recent days, I’ve been out of town. Given the time and expense involved I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing in getting the train all the way to London just to see a movie (admittedly I also met up with one of my closest friends who lives in London now, but still…I actually booked an afternoon off work for this) but as it turns out the hassle was worth it: 5cm Per Second looks great on the big screen. Fantastic actually. Shinkai is also really modest and down-to-earth when talking about his own work, which is evident in recorded interviews but all the more noticeable when you meet him in person - I made handwritten notes of the hour-long interview that followed too, which I’ve posted on the Nakama Britannica blog for those interested.

[2 Comments]

[Specials]

Sci-fi London anime all-nighter 2008

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Live events]

How hardcore am I? Apparently hardcore enough to sit for over eight hours between midnight and the break of dawn in the name of cinematic entertainment…my head aches, I’m sore all over and badly in need of a shave and a proper night’s kip and my eyes look like bloodshot piss-holes in the snow. This year marks my third successful attempt at the notorious Anime All-Nighter that forms part of the annual Sci-fi London festival; this year I dragged along one of my friends (the brave soul who’s marrying one of my sisters next year, incidentally) for the ride, which made an already entertaining evening even more fun. I’d already seen three of the evening’s offerings in some format or another but it was still great to experience them in the AAN setting. This year’s running order was an impressive one: Appleseed: Ex Machina, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tekkonkinkreet and Vexille.

Every year the AAN has a special sort of atmosphere, this time around aided by a guest appearance by the Alien (yes, the Alien) and the Predator (yes, the Predator) who wandered into the downstairs foyer beforehand, hugged my future brother-in-law among others, danced to Yoko Kanno’s Voices and left via the lift. Where’s a camera when you need one?

Need…sleep…so…zzzz

The free tea, coffee, Red Bull and various types of ice cream were on offer as in previous years and it was also good to see that the seat allocation system was repeated, because it saves a lot of hassle. The venue is pretty posh by cinema standards too, so the wide variety of stuff on offer is hosted in a clean and classy location - always pleasant and comfortable in my experience. Incidentally, we had time to kill beforehand so caught a special showing of the live-action French cyberpunk movie Chrysalis, which was really quite impressive; well worth a watch if you get the chance.

[4 Comments]

[Specials]

London Sci-fi Anime All-Nighter 2007

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Live events]

The Anime All-Nighter event has become a regular and very popular fixture in the annual Sci-Fi London event. As with previous years, it was a back-to-back showing with only breaks to answer the call of nature and load up on caffeine before the next one. Things kicked off at midnight and wrapped up at around 9a.m. Quite an experience!

[No Comments]

[Specials]

The Sci Fi London Anime All-Nighter: I am a Shinkai fanboy as of now

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Live events]

My weekend jaunt to London (the reason why I didn’t post anything yesterday) not only gave me chance to check out Cafe Manga (an eaterie that should prove to be a big hit when it properly gets off the ground) and do a bit of sightseeing but was also the night of the Anime All-Nighter at the Sci-Fi London event at the Apollo Cinema in Piccadilly. Thanks to some friendly souls in the audience (nice meeting you guys!) and a good choice of titles it was a golden opportunity to see some anime that really looks its best on the big screen. From 11.30pm till 8.00am the following morning we dosed up on generously provided tea, coffee, Red Bull and assorted snacks, before sitting back and enjoying the show…
Voices of a Distant Star
The evening kicked off with the short sci-fi romance from up-and-coming animator/director Makoto Shinkai. How this one man created such a little gem of a film (it’s only 25 minutes long, remember) with hardly any outside assistance is a mystery: in its short running time we are presented with a heartfelt and powerful drama that results from a teenage couple torn apart by intergalactic war, with visuals and characterisation that bely its indie origins.

[No Comments]