Chen Shizheng’s Dark Matter Receives Release

After being postponed following the Virginia Tech shootings, Chen Shizheng’s Dark Matter will finally premiere in New York on April 11. Inspired by a true story, the film won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Inspired by a true story, Dark Matter tells the story of Liu Xing (Liu Ye), one of thousands of Chinese academics awarded special visa status in the 1990’s to study in the United States. A promising graduate student in physics, Liu Xing’s goal is to win the Nobel Prize.

At university, Liu Xing devotes himself to research on the origins of the universe for the eminent and charming Professor Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn). He rises quickly to the top, establishing himself as the star pupil through his brilliant aptitude and hard work.

Liu Xing boasts to his family in China of his rapid academic progress, sending money home and promising them a life in America very soon. But his pride is tempered by his struggle to understand the social and political dynamics of American university life. Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a wealthy socialite and patron of the university, reaches out to befriend Liu Xing. A woman of great passions and a fascination for China, Joanna devotes her time to helping the Chinese students as they assimilate into American culture.

Shortly into his studies, Liu Xing fixates on the Dark Matter theory, one of the great unchartered areas of physics. Excitedly, he announces to Professor Reiser that he wants to pursue Dark Matter for his thesis. To Liu Xing’s dismay, Reiser discourages him; instead, he demands Liu Xing pursue topics that support his own research, specifically the Reiser Model. Against Reiser’s wishes, Liu Xing publishes a brilliant article on Dark Matter, but instead of finding success, he is hit with insurmountable obstacles. Soon, his dreams of a brilliant career are dashed and ultimately, destroyed. With nothing, Liu Xing lashes out at his former mentor and colleagues with tragic and devastating consequences.

A new trailer is available at Worst Previews, where an older trailer is also available, and the official site has launched. But even though it looks amazing, after watching the trailer, I’m a little worried about the reception. The Virgina Tech incident is still pretty fresh in people’s minds and, especially with the Illinois rampage earlier this month, audiences might find that it hits too close to home. It does for me, even being up here in Canada (although it might have something to do with all the bomb threats UBC received), but I’d probably still check it out if I get a chance.

KFC Cinema

Takashi Miike’s “Cell Phone Detectives”

The latest buzz on the J-cinema grapevine is surrounding TV Tokyo’s collaboration with animation studios Production I.G. and OLM to make the VFX action series, “Keitai Sosakan” (“Cell Phone Detectives”).

The stories revolve around a team of detectives who investigate digital-network-related crimes and a high school boy (Masataka Kubota) who helps them bust the bad guys with the aid of his trusty cell phone.

Variety

The 51-episode series — that’s right, 51 — will see Takashi Miike (Big Bang Love, Juvenile A) as supervising director as well as Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), Shusuke Kaneko (Death Note), Kazuya Konaka (Ultraman Moebius), Hiroyuki Tsuji (Karaoke), Norio Tsuruta (Ring 0), and Kunihiko Yuyama (Pocket Monster) as guest directors. Supporting cast includes Mickey Curtis, Yuko Ito, Kanji Tsuda, Natsuki Okamoto, Satoshi Matsuda, and Nao Nagasawa.

Now that’s all fine and dandy, and sounds like it’s going to be a huge project, but what I’m more interested in are the phones pictured above. The robot sidekick is being created by Japanese carrier Softbank, and they’ve got quite a few ideas in store. Firstly, owners will be able to attach flexible appendages to their phone and customize them with their own person poses (wow, it’s like Barbie meets cellphones). But not only that…

The phone also comes installed with an AI personality called “Buddy Talk,” which makes various expressions and responds to voice conversation, gradually improving its answers.

Electronista

Of course it’s got other features — 2.4″ QVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera — but who cares? It’s got arms. And legs. The only problem is, how the hell would you carry it around? You’d probably impale yourself putting in your pocket, and I think the Japanese already have a problem with excessive accessorizing.

KFC Cinema

Lambsey – 言葉

1. 言葉
2. スケッチ
3. ラヴメーカー
4. ペンソル~シャーペンリミックス
5. かけがえの無いゴミ箱の詩

Pop-Rock duo Lambsey (although I think the lead singer previously went by that name as a solo artist)’s latest work, a mini-album entitled 言葉, is exactly the kind of music that got me into Japanese rock — or any rock for that matter. The entire mini-album is up for streaming at their Myspace, so check it out. I’m still getting into it, but “スケッチ” is already a favourite and so is “かけがえの無いゴミ箱の詩” for its playful nature. PV for the title track is after the jump.

16-Disc Akira Kurosawa Collection

• Three Bad Men In A Hidden Fortress (1958) – 138mins
• Throne Of Blood (1957) – 104mins
• Record of a Living Being (1955) – 103mins
• The Seven Samurai (1954) – 206mins
• Ikiru (1952) – 142mins
• The Idiot (1951) – 166mins
• Scandal (1950) – 104mins
• Rashomon (1950) – 87mins
• Stray Dog (1949) – 112mins
• The Quiet Duel (1949) – 95mins
• Drunken Angel (1948) – 98mins
• One Wonderful Sunday (1947) – 110mins
• Zoku Sugata Sanshiro (1945) – 85mins
• They Who Step On The Tail Of The Tiger (1945) – 60mins
• Sugata Sanshiro (1943)- 97mins
• *Bonus: Tokyo Story (1953) – 136mins

Pretty sweet line-up, huh? Too bad it’s only available with Korean subtitles. For some reason, DVDfromKorea has been stocking up on Akira Kurosawa collections — none of which I’ve heard anything about. Now, they’ve got a pretty solid reputation, at least from my experiences, so there’s no reason to be suspicious, but it does sound too good to be true, especially at these prices. $29.99 for 16 discs!? Insane. The only question that remains is the picture quality.

If you want to take the plunge, there’s a 4-disc collection with English subtitles going for $11.99 that includes The Seven Samurai, Rashomon (In The Woods), Ikiru (Living), and Tokyo Story as a bonus.

Pickups 2/27

Not entirely for bragging purposes, here are my recent pickups (and probably the last for a long time to come…). Yes, I finally decided to go for the Namie Amuro single, marking my first Jpop and Amuro purchase ever. However, I opted out of the tour DVD. I figured I’d never watch it more than once and will probably just skip through 1/2 of it anyway. But it does look hot. Hot indeed.

The other two discs are mainly filler — I just didn’t want to get raped on shipping charges that badly — since I ordered (now) mainly for the CD’s first press bonus: a nice B2 sized poster of Namie Amuro. But I’m quite happy with them: a priced-down reissue of Blue Automobile and the indie flick Blister!. I’ve seen Blue Automobile before, and was honestly a little confused more than anything, but I stick by my belief that anything with Aoi Miyzaki simply cannot fail and am willing to give it another shot. Blister!, on the other hand, is an odd piece about an otaku’s obsession with action figures. It’s gotten favourable buyer reviews just about everywhere, and it sounds right up my alley, so why not?

Oh, and the real reason I bothered to write this post: I contacted CD Japan about the PayPal problem, mainly because they told me to (through the error message) and also because I didn’t want to miss out on my first press poster(!), and not only did they reply promptly, but the time they replied, the problem was fixed. Now I’m pretty sure my email had nothing to do with it since PayPal was down for a few days, but it always gives me a fuzzy feeling inside when stores have such great customer service. I’ll definitely order from them again.

VA – Playlist 11 NEXT ROCK ON

1. DADAS – 火の鳥
2. FAITH – Lose the fighting spirit
3. BIGMAMA – THE COOKIE CRUMBLES
4. OHASHI TRIO – BAUMKUCHEN
5. UNISON SQUARE GARDEN – 水と雨について
6. Co.In – ラストダンス
7. オトループ – 予感
8. OGRE YOU ASSHOLE – コインランドリー
9. QUBE – BLIND
10. GLORY HILL – EVERYTHING
11. ARU – CALL YOU
12. FROG PILOT – TALK TO ME
13. COWS JACKSON – MIDNIGHT DRIVE w/o ESCAPE
14. HOLIDAYS OF SEVENTEEN – DUM SPIRO
15. LAST ALLIANCE – 蒼い銃創
16. STAN – FIRE
17. かりゆし 58 – 恋唄

I know, I know. After all that bitching about compilation albums, I make yet another post about one? But this one is different…err sort of. Given out as a freebie to anyone who purchased select titles from HMV between 1/19 and 2/18, Playlist 11 NEXT ROCK ON features 17 songs from indie bands — some of which I’ve grown quite fond of.

Let me begin with OGRE YOU ASSHOLE, whose song “コインランドリー” was the first to catch my attention (and not just because their name has a swear word in it, although how awesome is that?). Like previously mentioned, I’m quite musically inept, so I can’t say much of the song except that if I were to ever wreak havoc on the city, it would definitely be my theme song. The band’s got a myspace going and you can sample some of their songs, although “コインランドリー” isn’t on there — a shame, really, because it still remains my favourite song from them.

The second band OHASHI TRIO (大橋トリオ) doesn’t really belong here. Not because they suck — quite the opposite — but because they’re not exactly a rock band. As their myspace puts it, they’re “Japanese classical music.”

Honourable mentions go to BIGMAMA, LAST ALLIANCE, and かりゆし 58. Read on for some youtube goodness.

M DVD Pushed Back…Again

I know I gushed about this before, and then cried because I missed out on the Takeshi Kitano boxset because of the wait, but it looks as if M is still not ready for private viewing. The original January release date was pushed back to an early February date, then to late February, and now, according to YesAsia, to March 4. Not only that, it looks as if retailers are getting mixed messages. DVD Asian and Sensasian had the disc ready at the beginning of the month while DVDfromKorea is still aiming for a February 28. Get it together, people!