Shin Angyo Onshi by Shimura Joji, Japan/Korea, 2004, 80 min
Shin Angyo Onshi is a secret agent of the ruined country of Jushin. As the king’s ambassador, Shin Angyo Onshi visits various places: he has to defeat the misrulers and bring justice for those who are powerless. The mythical figure, Shin Angyo Onshi, with his phantom warriors, is actually contradictory: he is infact more interested to increase the established power than protecting others’ life.
Shin Angyo Onshi is the first joint Japanese-Korean production and it’s based on a popular Korean manga. It is produced off a manga, which has been serialized in Monthly Sunday Gene-X published by Shogakukan. Both the author and the artist of the comics are Koreans. It was serialized by a Japanese publisher and was made into a film by a Japanese director. Japanese and Korean companies have jointly invested in making this film. This is an epoch-making and symbolic film with the total cooperation of Korea, where it was permitted to release Japanese culture this year.
Nitaboh by Nishizawa Akio, Japan, 2004, 95 min
Japan, 1865. Young musician Nitaboh dedicates his life to learning to play shamisen, the traditional three-string Japanese lute. Passionate and hard-working, he will become an oustanding master, introducing new interpreting techniques for the instrument. Nitaboh is the first feature film realized bt WAO Corporation, a network of Japanese shools directed by Nishizawa Akio .The movie tells the spiritual and artistic path of a man who becomes an educational model.
Mc Dull Prince de la Bun by Toe Yuen, Hong Kong, 2004, 73 min
Mc Dull, Prince de la Bun is My Life as McDull’s sequel, that was directed on 2001 by the same director Yoe Yuen. McDull is a little, fat and a bit dense pink pig who lives with his mother in a big metropolis that is the Hong Kong’s imaginary trasposition. One day the mother decides to write her husband’ story, the Prince de la Bun, to teach to her child his origins. Toe Yuen places his pictures on real images, and in this way he tells the story with very suggestive scenes.
Wallace & Gromit - The Curse Of The Wererabbit by Steve Box, Nick Park, UK, 2005
As the annual Giat Vegatable Competition approaches, it’s veggie-mania in Wallace & Gromit’s neighbourhood. Suddenly a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging beat begings terrorizing the neighbourhood, attacking the town’s prized plots and night and destroying everything in its pach. Wallace & Gromit look for solving the problem with Anti-Pesto system that protect gardners from the attack from rabbits.
Wallace & Gromit – The Curse of the WereRabbit is the first feature film completely dedicated to Wallace & Gromit, the characters made of plasticine.
Terkel i Knibe (Terkel in Trouble) by Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, Thorbjørn Christoffersen, Stefan Fjeldmark, Denmark, 2004, 77 min
Terkel i Knibe is a 3D fearture film and it tells the complicated story of Terkel, a kid who must face the tough guys at the school. Terkel’s troubles become more complex and he receives a threat of death. Terkel is scared and calls for help to his teacher, Gunnar, but he will show himself to be not so reliable.
The animated movie is absolutely not politically-correct: suffles, murders and suicides happen in this amusing and extreme movie.
The italian version has been dubbed by Elio e le storie tese that will take part of Future Film Festival 2006 for the showing of Terkel i Knibe.
Nyócker! (The District) by Áron Gauder, Ungheria, 2004, 87 min
In Budapest’s 8 district the children live all the time in a un-broken rivalry between their gipsy, Hungarian, Arab and Chinese families. Richie, the main character of the movie, looks for a peaceful way to solve the conflict with the Csorba family but he isn’t able to do it. So Richie with his friends finds an other solution: thanks to a jump to the prehistory, they create a oilfield under the district. When they return to the present, they overwork the oilfield and become rich solving the problems of the entire district.
The movie is a sort of rap musical and it is extremely interesting because different techniques of animation are mixed together.
Gisaku by Baltasar Pedrosa, Spain, 2005, 77 min
Somewhere in Spain, a samurai awaits patiently to complete his long ago entrusted mission: to protect the Key of Izanagi from evil. The key, composed of powerful pieces, closes a door that gives entry to the world’s threshold.
Gisaku is the story of a fight between good and evil, in which a group of very different characters will have to work together, to stop. Gorkan, Master of the Darkness, from accomplishing his obiective: to invade the world with his demoniac horders.
During their mission Riki, Gisaku, Yohei, Linceto e Moira will find themselves compelled to overcome their inner comflicts and numerous difficulties.
Mind Game by Yuasa, Masaakim Japan, 2004, 103 min
Nishi, a manga artist, is reunited with Myon, the object of his love, and her sister Yan. They are in the pub of Myon’s father when they are interrupted by Yakuza loan sharks searching for Myon’s father. A struggle ensues in which Nishi is killed but he manages the death and return from purgatory to outsmart the yakuza and fllee the scene with Myon and Yan. A high- speed auto chase throught the street of Osaka until Nishi’s car swerves off a bridge and is swallowed whole by an enormous whale. In the belly of the whale they a old man, trapped inside the whale for thirty years. From there, they examine their lives and discover their ability to control their own destiny and realize true happiness. Mind Game is a dreamy trip after the death that explore and excell in new means of visual expression.
Yo-Rahd - Un amico dallo spazio by Camillo Teti, Victor Rambaldi, Italia, 2005, 81 min
The main character, Yo-Rahd is a baby-alien. He and his friends survive the end of their ancient society, and so now they look for a new planet to live in. Imagination, dream and friendship become intertwined facing some of the most important subjects of our time as the relation between different cultures, the tollerance, the conquest of the space and the defence of our planet.
The character design not only of the main character but also of most of the characters, has been defined by Carlo Rambaldi, the famous originator of E.T.
Inuyasha The Movie – The Crimson Hourai Island (Inuyasha Guren no houraijima) by Shinohara Toshiya, Japan, 2004, 89 minn
A new meeting removes Inuyasha and his friends from their search for the fragments of Shikon No Rama, a marble-sized sphere whose power is covered by every evil-hearted human and monster in Japan. They meet Ai, a girl who knows Inuyasha. She asks for help for her race. So there will be a great battle for saving the children of Hourai island, where the past and the present mingle in a fantastic and surprising way. In the fourth Inuyasha movie – The Crimson Hourai Island, the story leaves out the main subjects of the series focusing into the events linked to the past and conducted to an end.
Aeon Flux by Karyn Kusama, Usa, 93 min
Government agents kill Aeon Flux’ parents and she decides to revenge herself. Aeon Flux is a well trained soldier who fights a war against a perfect society. Aeon is one of the few people who suspect that perfect life hides a perfect lie. Set on 2415, Aeon Flux presents a startling vision of a future in flux from Karyn Kusama, director of the acclaimed Girlfight. Aeon Flux is written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, based on carachters created by Peter Chung in the pioneering MTV animated series.
Zathura by Jon Favreau, Usa, 2005, 113 min.
Two brothers find in the cellar a game that carries their family and their house into an intergalactic adventure. To return to the earth they must finish to play the game.
This story is adapted from the book Zathura by children’s author Chris Van Allsburg, the same author of Jumanji. Zathura has the same narrative stucture of Jumanji: the charachters of Jumanji must face the dangers of a magic game set in a jungle, but the charachters of Zathura must face the dangers of a game set on the space.
MirrorMask by Dave McKean, USA/UK, 2005
MirrorMask is the story of Helena, a fifteen-year-old girl working for her family circus, who wishes—quite ironically—that she could run away from the circus and join real life. But such is not to be the case, as she finds herself on a strange journey into the Dark Lands, a fantastic landscape filled with giants, Monkeybirds and dangerous sphinxes. Helena searches for the Mirrormask, an object of enormous power that is her only hope of escaping the Dark Lands, waking the Queen of Light and returning home. MirrorMask combines live action with digital animation to tell a fantastic and fascinating story, an oniric journey in the lands of immagination.
Casshern by Kiriya Kazuaki, Japan, 2004
In a land diseased and polluted after chemical, biological and nuclear wars, in a land without time and borders, the humankind has to fight against his imminent extinction. The geneticist Dr. Azuma creates a race of mutant humans, hoping to find a treatment against epidemics and infections. But this new race rises against his creator and it looks for destroying human being. Azuma, ravaged by his failures, brings again to life his child Tetsuya, dead in a fight. Casshern, reincarnated with an invincible body, will be the protector of the human beings.
Casshern is a hybrid movie that mixes toghether animation and live action, based on famouse anime, it has a straordinary visual strenght and a deep emotional involvement, set on a retro-futurist world.