ITALY: JAPANESE FILMS MAKE THEIR MARK AT THE 61ST INTERNATIONAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 500084

  • Title: ITALY: JAPANESE FILMS MAKE THEIR MARK AT THE 61ST INTERNATIONAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 3rd September 2004
  • Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 4, 2004) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) PRODUCER OF 'FINAL FANTASY.VII', SHINJI HASHIMOTO SAYING: "I can't begin to imagine what the industry will be like in ten years time, but I can tell you in the next two or three years the games platform will be changing. Microsoft and Nantendo are all preparing new platforms with plasma. So something we can't imagine will be available and I am aware that I will have to allocate a big budget for the next series games but I am expecting big creativity from the directors so we will combine the two for something new." ARRIVAL OF TOSHIO SUZUKI, PRODUCER OF "HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE," AT THE VENICE FILM FESTIVAL (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) PRODUCER OF "HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE," TOSHIO SUZUKI SAYING: "When making these movies we only think about a Japanese audience. Unfortunately Japan is not in a good economic situation. So from young to old everyone is not very happy. So when we made this movie we wanted to give hope and perhaps a little energy to the audience. And as a result that energy has made other people around the world enjoy the movie too."
  • Embargoed: 18th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VENICE, ITALY AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA5VQL40YGDH679RL4CC6BS3ZUU
  • Story Text: Japanese films make their mark at the 61st International Venice Film Festival.
    Makers of the highly successful video game Final Fantasy VII, arrived at the 2004 Venice Film Festival to give fans a preview of their up and coming feature film, the movie adaptation of their game, 'Final Fantasy VII Advent Children'.
    Giving fans just a small preview of what to expect when the film is released in February 2005, the films thirty-year-old director, Tetsuya Nomura told Reuters in Venice, "The seventh series game was the most appreciated and loved by all the fans. Even if the idea seams old now, people love it very much. What fans can expect to see in this movie is everything that they where expecting from the game. This was the idea behind the move, to give the fans everything that was in their imagination generated by the game but this time on the screen."
    The film picks up the story two years after the colossal battle against Sephiroth in which mankind was saved from the brink of annihilation. As the long process of rebuilding begins, a new challenge stalks the survivors - a mysterious illness called geostigma torments those who remain, robbing them hope for the future.
    It is left to the film's hero Cloud to save the day, as he takes sword in hand once again this time to do battle with a new adversary, Kadaj, in a battle beyond human comprehension.
    Technology has moved on since Final Fantasy VII, the video game was first created, and the film's producer, Shinji Hashimoto, acknowledges that it won't be long before the industry will change again.
    "I can't begin to imagine what the industry will be like in ten years time, but I can tell you in the next two or three years the games platform will be changing.
    Microsoft and Nantendo are all preparing new platforms with plasma. So something we can't imagine will be available and I am aware that I will have to allocate a big budget for the next series games but I am expecting big creativity from the directors so we will combine the two for something new."
    Miyazaki put anime -- Japanese animated cartoon -- on the world entertainment map with "Spirited Away," which won accolades at festivals and an Oscar in 2003.
    "Howl's Moving Castle," the first animated film to face off in the Venice Film Festival's main competition in 30 years, is the story of how Sophie, a girl, turned into a 90-year-old woman by a witch, seeks help from the handsome wizard Howl.
    But for its makers the film is also a ray of hope in a world wracked by war, violence and economic despair.
    "It relates to the world we're living in today, so that it has a universal message," Toshio Suzuki, the film's producer and representative at its world premiere on the Lido, told Reuters in an interview.
    "When we were making it, there was the Iraq war. In Japan we were not in a very good economic situation. From young to old, people are not very happy," he said through a translator.
    In the film, a bewitched Sophie seeks refuge in Howl's fantastical moving castle - a walking, snorting contraption which can open onto four different worlds.
    Pretending to be a housekeeper, she befriends the cranky fire demon and Howl's pint-sized assistant as she tries to break the spell cast on her.
    In the end it is her love for Howl that frees them both from witchcraft and from incessant bombing and war.
    Marco Muller, director of the Venice Film Festival, called "Howl's Moving Castle" "possibly the strongest anti-war statement we have in the entire festival."
    It is also the most anticipated film in Japan this year after "Spirited Away" grossed a record-breaking $270 million.
    For Miyazaki, 63, who didn't make the trip for health reasons, the film is a gift to children in Japan and worldwide.
    "Miyazaki loves kids," Suzuki said. "He wanted to give a message to children, that the world is worth living and that it's full of beauty to be explored and discovered."
    Not in official competition but bringing this year's Venice film festival to a close will be another Japanese animated film, "Steamboy", from Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo.
    In what is thought to be one of the most expensive animated Japanese films ever made at around $20million (USD), 'Steamboy' tells the tail of a young boy inventor, Rei, living in the U.K. in the middle of the 19th century.
    Rei receives a package from his grandfather in the U.S., in which its contents holds a fantastic invention called the "Steam Ball". This device conceals a frightening power in which an outside organisation the wicked Ohara Foundation wishes to steal so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.
    On Saturday September 11th, the head of the jury, John Boorman will announce the winner of the festival's Golden Lion.
    Festival director Marco Mueller has selected a glorious array of films that includes previous Mira Nair's 'Vanity Fair' (Nair previously won a Golden Lion for 'Monsoon Wedding'), Jonathan Glazer's 'Birth', Hayao Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle', Wim Wenders' 'Land of Plenty', Mike Leigh's 'Vera Drake', Amos Gitai's 'Promised Land' and Marziyeh Meshkini's 'Stray Dogs'.
    -ENDS-
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