Japan’s number 1 film of 2016 was Your Name from Makoto Shinkai, and it will be in movie theaters in the US beginning on April 7th. Funimation Films is presenting it, with the options of seeing it in the original Japanese with English subtitles, or with an English language soundtrack. If you don’t know Makoto Shinkai, you have probably already seen one of his groundbreaking animations, such as 5 Centimeters Per Second or the Children Who Chase Lost Voices, or the amazing Voices of a Distant Star which he did entirely himself. He is being referred to as the Next Miyazaki by a number of critics and reviewers around the world, and he has also written novels, stories, and Manga, and helped create video games. If this movie is playing anywhere near you, you should absolutely check it out. Did I mention the RADWIMPS had a hand in the soundtrack for this one, and are translating four of their songs into English for the English language version? I added the full length version of Zenzenzense as the last video in this post, the tease in the trailer was not enough.
The winner this week has to be Kung-Fu Yoga, Jackie Chan in a comedic adventure that is a joint venture between Bollywood and Chinese film production companies. And yes, that does mean he gets to sing and dance in this one, as shown in the trailer I just recently posted. It should be playing in large multiplexes in major cities, particularly AMCs. If you are not lucky enough to have it playing near you, in wide release Resident Evil: The Final Chapter may finally close out that story arc. There is also the family fantasy A Dog’s Purpose, about a reincarnating K9.
The dialog-free feature animation The Red Turtle was created by teams from France Belgium, and Japan. As the trailer makes obvious, the Japanese partner on the project was Studio Ghibli, nice to know I can see a new film by them this long after the studio closed. Also this week, the Lost in London LIVE experiment, where Woody Harrelson will create a movie live and stream it into theaters in real time. That one is on Thursday the 19th, and I might have to go see it just to find out it he succeeds.
Another good Jackie Chan film coming out later this year is Kung Fu Yoga, and the trailer looks quite amusing. This Bollywood/Chinese hybrid film should be the second in a series, since Jackie previously played an archeologist running all over the place while hunting a treasure down. That was in The Myth in 2005, with Stanly Tong directing both films. He was also supposed to be an Archeologist in the Jackie Chan Adventures animated series. Bollywood has a serious hand in this release, and it looks like he gets at least one choreographed song-and-dance sequence with his beautiful archeologist costar, Amyra Dastur. Being a big fan of Bollywood films, I am keeping my fingers crossed they get multiple songs in. This will be hitting US theaters on Friday, January 27th, only two weeks from now, and I will be there to see it!
Jackie Chan is at it again, telling a serious story by way of comedy, this time a tale of a retired railroad worker who uses his deep knowledge of the train network to steal supplies to feed his starving neighbors during World War II. This film is in the theaters now, if you are lucky enough to live by one of the ones that shows Bollywood and Chinese films, which most AMCs with more than a dozen screens do these days.
I completely missed the release of MONKEY KING 2 on Blue Ray on January 3rd, and only found out about it when a friend called to tell me they found it in a store. Good thing this isn’t my day job. So, a bit late, but here is the trailer for this fun little movie.