Subway goes blog

If you'll take a peek at the column to the immediate right, which lists Links to other sites and blogs, you'll notice a new addition, to the brand-new Subway Cinema News blog. The site will soon be expanding its coverage from NY-based Asian cinema events—including the coming-sooner-than-you-can-imagine 7th edition of the New York Asian Film Festival—to take in the entire world of Asian cinema.

I happen to be a member of Subway Cinema & will be contributing to that blog, particularly some articles related to Japanese cinema. Check it out when you have a chance and add it to your list of Bookmarks, because we hope it'll soon become an indispensable part of your daily browsing.

Enjoy!

A brief hiatus

It's a quiet week currently on the Nikkatsu Action front. Last Friday saw the final screening of the series at New York's Japan Society, and the same day screenings were held in Chicago and Columbus, as well.

Next week gets busy again, with us taking a trip to hometown Pittsburgh for four screenings at the Andy Warhol Museum, as part of the Silkscreen (Asian) Film Festival. It should be a lot of fun, since Pittsburgh is where I got some of my first taste of Japanese cinema, one of the biggest events being the three times I saw Akira Kurosawa's Ran at a downtown cinema in late 1985.

Thursday, 5/15:
7:30 pm The Warped Ones
9:00 pm Glass Johnny: Looks Like a Beast

Friday, 5/16:
7:30 pm A Colt is My Passport
9:00 pm Plains Wanderer

Also next weekend are more screenings in Columbus — Roughneck and The Velvet Hustler — and Chicago — Gangster VIP. Then the Chicago screenings finish out the following Friday, May 23rd, with Roughneck. The series goes on a brief hiatus after that until July, when three shows will happen in Montreal, four in Seattle, and five in Vancouver. More details on those will be posted soon.

In other news, Discotek Media's eagerly-awaited DVD of Teruo Ishii's brain-searing Porno Period Story: Bohachi Bushido, aka Bohachi: Code of the Forgotten Eight is finally coming out at the end of this month. Our copies are on the way, and we'll post our thoughts later this week.

Oh, boy - we're in the papers

Back from the screenings in Los Angeles this week, and able to relax a bit before heading out again for the Nikkatsu series. This week there's only a dozen titles to watch for the NY Asian Film Festival programming, plans to make for the next batch of Japanese interviews, meetings, new gigs to chase after, and a few other dozen commitments. Almost a vacation!

But in the meantime, check out this article on Yahoo! Japan (courtesy of Oricon) that a friend in LA wrote about the Nikkatsu Action screenings at the American Cinematheque. It's actually quite embarrassing, giving me way too much credit not only for the series but also for my general knowledge of Japanese cinema. Still, I can't say I'm unhappy to see it! I just hope some work I do in the future really lives up to this kind of praise.

Check it out here at Yahoo! Japan.

Enjoy, and feel free to post comments that will give me a good dose of reality!