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Hi, Dan Gerick here, I'm going to be working with programming for 35mm next year. I'm looking for any suggestions you may have for the 35mm theatre next year.

Please try to stay away from Miyazaki (I already know all of those) and television series. Think about things that premiered in theatres, because otherwise I probably can't get it on a 35mm print. While I do have the capability to play DVD and elsewhat, I'd like to stick to film.

I'm also looking for non-Kurosawa live action suggestions (I already know those, too)

Keep suggestions on the forums to stimulate conversations, but also, feel free to PM me about anything.

ADDITION: Also, if anyone has any information in regards to resources for acquiring 35mm prints (for sure for sure) then send me a PM with the infos. I have some already but could always use more. Feel free to do some research :mrgreen:

Have a great year, and see you at otakon 2008!

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A few live Chinese cinemas off of the top of my head:

Action Movies:

1) A Chow Yun-Fat/John Woo movie (ie. The Killer)

2) Tony Jaa (ie. The Protector)

Drama

1) Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, any of Hero/Crouching Tiger/House of Flying Daggers)

2) 2046

3) Infernal Affairs

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While it's not fast-paced, recent, or action-y, I recommend Tokyo Story, or just about anything by Ozu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasujiro_Ozu

I can put you in touch with AFI folks who screened it a year or so ago.

I'd also recommend this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersu_Uzala_%281975_film%29

But it's a long movie....

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I suppose Paprika would be nice, or any other Satoshi Kon movie. They're all quite exceptional.

Ooh, I second this. I'm interested in seeing Paprika after we had a badge for it this year - and Millenium Actress is also a great film, I think also from Satoshi Kon. (I think we might have actually shown this before; maybe in 35mm? My memory is crud.)

If we wanna show non-anime, I really like the film Suicide Club, but it's a little intense for a Saturday matinee. :) Kamikaze Girls is a fun movie also, but I think we might have shown that before too.

(sorry, I don't remember what we've had in the past.. x_x)

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Kitano Takeshi's "Dolls" perhaps? The story was good, although if I recall correctly I deemed it a snorefest. Or maybe Aniki ("taa-baa-ko" "oh, tobacco!"), or Violent Cop...

Infernal Affairs was good, but if you're going to show Infernal Affairs II, do that before Infernal Affairs. Stupid confusing prologue...

As for a Woo/Chow movie, I'd love to see Hard Boiled on a big screen, but I don't know how everyone would feel about that (considering as everyone's probably seen the movie).

Oh, and Gozu :)

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The main reason I come to Otakon is to see something I would not get a chance to. Meaning, new or unusual films that would otherwise never show here because "Middle America" wouldn't get it.

I can't recall the name at the moment, but the one that played last year, with the guy dragging the coffin, and what you think is a sword that he never unsheathed until the end of the movie, turned out to be a huge freakin' shotgun. That one was just insane!

Also I appreciate the premiers, like Zatoichi, and Hero. Really, I can't thank you guys enough.

The only criticism I have is for the older films. I know Akira Kurosawa films are classics, but I can see them on samurai Saturdays on the IFC channel. To be honest, with their mono soundtrack, it just doesn't do anything for me, to show them on the big screen. But that's just me.

I suppose, the criteria I would go by is, if a film was a modest hit this year in Asia, but Hollywood won't bring it here, because of subtitling, or it is too weird, than it will be perfect for Otakon!

Oh yeah, more Kung-Fu.

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Well, the new naruto shippuden movie comes out on 8.4.08. Maybe that can be subbed and then put on screen? That would be sooo sweet!

HEYYY!! How about some subbed One piece movies...any would be great!

Or the deathnote movies!

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Well, the new naruto shippuden movie comes out on 8.4.08. Maybe that can be subbed and then put on screen? That would be sooo sweet!

HEYYY!! How about some subbed One piece movies...any would be great!

Or the deathnote movies!

Subtitling 35mm is extremly expensive -- it's not like digisubs, you know. The film itself is a huge expense and it takes a LOT more time.

Naruto and One Piece are both pretty jealously guarded by their owners, and unless Viz or Funimation manages to produce a 35mm version for US release -- something very doubtful because of the expense and the pathetic level of support for non-Miyazaki anime in theatres -- I don't see it happening.

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alabaster, in another topic on 35mm films on the Post-Otakon 2007 section, it seemed to me that you pretty much pinned the blame of lack of 35mm support on us for not going to theaters to see these films and I'm just not quite sure how you can insinuate that.

I guess what I am saying is that I just don't understand how anyone can pin the lack of 35mm films on anime fans when the fact is that companies have shown so little interest and regard for showing anime or related films theatrically that it's no wonder they don't do particularly well.

I apologize to all the Satoshi Kon fans, but I simply don't find his films that interesting or compelling. I went to see Paprika And Tokyo Godfather each once in the theaters and that was about how much of those films I could take. Again, I should note that living very close to NYC, I actually have a good chance of being near one of those few theaters that shows these films. And even, then, where's the marketing? Where are the TV commercials? I hate to break it to Sony, but giving out posters at a convention and advertising in NewType isn't enough.

Sony/Tristar Pictures has been screwing up releases other than Satoshi Kon's as well. Metropolis was horribly marketed in the U.S. The marketing of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was equally pathetic. I know that the film's release date was delayed and delayed so many times that everyone had already downloaded the film. And was there even a domestic theatrical release? If so I don't know. Even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was given a bigger and better marketing push.

With respect to Studio Ghibli's films, I attended a series of Studio Ghibli film screenings in 2000 that were done at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and I saw a fairly large turnout there. I imagine this was partially to promote the theatrical release of Princess Mononoke, which again, I would argue that Miramax heavily bungled. It was released in a handful of theaters and horribly marketed. Even Spirited Away was pathetically marketed, even after it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. You would think that after Spirited Away's critical success that Disney might have given a bigger push to Howl's Moving Castle, which again, it did not. I mean, I know that I personally feel that Howl's Moving Castle is by far the worst of Miyazaki's films, but it's not like Disney isn't used to disguising $*%# as gold and didn't have the means to push it harder.

With respect to live-action films, did Miramax sit on Hero for nearly two years before they finally threw the film out there? Casshern was acquired by Dreamworks about three years ago. Where is it? Is it ever going to get a release or am I just going to walk into a Walmart four years from now and magically see it in a 3.99 bin and presented by Quentin Tarantino?

I really don't know what these industry contacts is telling Otakon staff, but I am very disturbed if they are spreading the message that it's our fault. The fact is, despite these anime films being released by companies with a fair amount of financial resources and industry pull, I have yet to see a major anime film given the same type of treatment that a regular domestic major theatrical film has been given. Instead, they throw the movie into a very limited release with few theaters, near zero marketing, and then cry and moan about not making any money and thus encouraging further bungled anime releases like this.

What I would like to see is a film studio nab the upcoming Evangelion movie and give it a real release. Evangelion is arguably one of the most financially and critically successful anime franchises ever created. Surely the upcoming Eva films, especially being a reboot of the series that is supposedly more accessible, if given a real and timely domestic theatrical release with a real marketing push, can make the huge bucks, especially with what seems like a relatively barren end-of-2007 film-release wise. If any film studio wants to take a chance and do this, and they still don't make their fair share of money, then I'll eat my words and apologize for what I have written here today. Until then, I just think it's ludricous that anime fans are being blamed for the lack of interest and success in domestic theatrical releases of anime.

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"something very doubtful because of the expense and the pathetic level of support for non-Miyazaki anime in theatres"

Reading Jim's quote, I can certainly see Tascar's interpretation. HOWEVER, knowing Jim, he is most likely refering to the Industry side of "support" and how the mainstream media is unwilling to take the chance to advertise and fully support anime films.

And short term advertising only works for some titles. Like seriously, who heard knew that the 3rd Bourne movie was coming out tomorrow before Monday of this week?

"The hard truth is that if you want more availability of 35mm stuff, you'll need to start supporting it in theatres. "

ok, so maybe Jim did say something to that effect! (the post 07 35mm thread got buried.) In all due respect to Jim, fans can only support what they know about, and can only fully support films when they get "wide releases." Limited city releases do not reach everyone, and will never draw enough numbers to warrant major film distribution.

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I agree that foreign films -- and anime films in particular -- have been poorly marketed, and like most non-big-budget hollywood fare, they rarely see any form of commercial success in theatres. A great deal of this is because they aren't given time to find an audience, but there's also the mainstream resistance to subtitles and the silly fear of foreign films.

But a bigger part of it is that overall, people are buying DVDs rather than going to theatres. Attendance is down throughout the industry -- and if well marketed, big budget fare struggles to find an audience, what chance does a subtitled foreign film have, unless it's up for Oscar consideration?

I'm not blaming this on our members, nor are our industry partners. But they have businesses to run, and it's simply not cost effective these days to push a theatrical release that -- if you're EXTREMELY lucky -- might find a tiny audience in tiny art house theatres and actually break even. Pokemon movies, at their most popular, are about the only ones to have any commercial success -- unless they were new Miyazaki stuff released by Disney and dubbed by famous folks.

Honestly, it doesn't make commercial sense to pay the money to have a subtitled 35mm release made unless there's at least a remote chance that they'll recoup the money -- and even then it's usually used as marketing for the DVD. So few are made to begin with.

As dire as that starting point is, there's something worse that's peculiar to many anime fans. An enormous number of them are ONLY interested in stuff they download "free" on the web. I have heard people at Otakon bragging about how many gigabytes of anime they have, and about how they have never bought a DVD in their lives.

So the commercial viability is a big problem, arguably a bigger problem for anime or foreign film releases due to their already-smaller fanbase and the percentage of that fanbase who simply doesn't ever pay for what they watch.

What, then, is the incentive for a company to spend the money in the first place? If every single attendee at Otakon, Anime Expo, Anime Central, Anime Boston, Sakura Con, A-Kon, and AnimeNext all paid to see a film in theatres....it woudl still be a massive commercial flop.

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The moral of the story is: YOU may be supporting films when you find out about them, but most people aren't, so they're not nearly as cost effective as DVD releases are. Which means that we have an ever-dwindling pool of new stuff to draw from.

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Would it be crazy of me to ask for a non-subbed/non-dubbed 35mm? I would love us to have the latest Me Tantei Conan movie to show.

I know, I know. I'm being silly, since most of our members don't know enough Japanese to follow along, but you asked for suggestions, and this is the only one I really wanted to see right now.

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Would it be crazy of me to ask for a non-subbed/non-dubbed 35mm? I would love us to have the latest Me Tantei Conan movie to show.

I know, I know. I'm being silly, since most of our members don't know enough Japanese to follow along, but you asked for suggestions, and this is the only one I really wanted to see right now.

Raw, untranslated anime would, I fear, be extremely unlikely to fill enough seats to justify putting it in a room that holds 1500 people.

OTOH, we may be able to get it on DVD, possibly even subbed, by then.

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I don't know if it ever came out on 35mm, but I would LOVE to see Dead Leaves (subbed preferably, but the dub's ok too).

Although, considering the length and content, it would probably be better served in one of the smaller screening rooms. Nuts.

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I would love to see the Zeta Gundam New Translation films! I believe their should be prints available as they were premiered in Chicago last year.

I second this since I was gonna say the same thing. I know a bunch of my friends agree too :) You'd make a lot of UC fans very happy if you got those movies.

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Would if be possible to maybe get Kamen Rider The First, or even better, Kamen Rider The Next (comes out this fall) for the 35mm room?

Newer anime fans need to be shown the roots of all the awesome stuff they get.

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Though it's a great film, I don't think a subbed print of KR The First even exists. Media Blasters basically sent it straight to DVD.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just realized I missed my very request for 08 this year :( that on top of Ms. Noto..

darn family friends I need to entertain Otakon weekend.

m

To be honest I'm really disappointed about 5cm this past Otakon because it was a DVD. That film really needs to be seen in high definition--35mm is really a must. 480p is just not going to cut it on the big screen.

Just take a look at the 720p trailer on the official Japanese site. It's eye-droppingly beautiful.

So I'm all for seeing it in '08 if it's going to be 35mm :3

We were expecting a 35mm print, honestly. When a DVD arrived instead (as happened for a few items), we opted to show what was promised even if not in the promised format.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

>.> ... <.< ...

Well I'd personally love for there to be a screening [late night if possible!] of Moon Child, that yakuza vampire drama film made by Gackt and Hyde...

*gets bricked*

Only because next year is the 5th anniversary since it debuted and we're trying to get a big group of Moon Child fans and cosplayers together at Otakon so it'd be sweet to have it playing in one of the rooms at night where we can all watch it together. Please consider!! :lol:

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I'm sure it'll be out by next year...and noting those crazy kids around the net, it'll probably be subbed and everything, but I recommend Dororo, the Live Action movie. It came out rather recently (May or April of 2007 I believe) and I saw it on the plane to Japan...it was really good.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this complaint but . . .

Each of the last two years, Princess Mononoke has run in almost exactly the same time slot (early Friday afternoon). I don't mind if you run this film every year (and there should be at least two Miyazaki or Ghibli films each year), but try to mix up the time slots, please. For many of us, Friday afternoon means dealer room, and to miss seeing the same film on a big screen, two years in a row, for the exact same reason, is quite frustrating.

Miscellaneous film suggestions: Tampopo, The 47 Ronin (both parts if possible), Woo's the Killer, and as others have stated, if at all possible, show at least one film from Satoshi Kon. I also agree that Beautiful Dreamer would be fantastic, if a subtitled print exists.

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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this complaint but . . .

Each of the last two years, Princess Mononoke has run in almost exactly the same time slot (early Friday afternoon). I don't mind if you run this film every year (and there should be at least two Miyazaki or Ghibli films each year), but try to mix up the time slots, please. For many of us, Friday afternoon means dealer room, and to miss seeing the same film on a big screen, two years in a row, for the exact same reason, is quite frustrating.

To be honest with you this was my first year heading up the 35mm department. The schedule that fell into place for this year was done without (aside from knowing which ones we replayed this year) considering on witch night the films showed. I wanted to keep the threatre running during the whole convention and I wanted to place a title that I thought would draw less of a crowd because Friday nights of the conventions are typically the lowest attended part of the con.

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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this complaint but . . .

Each of the last two years, Princess Mononoke has run in almost exactly the same time slot (early Friday afternoon). I don't mind if you run this film every year (and there should be at least two Miyazaki or Ghibli films each year), but try to mix up the time slots, please. For many of us, Friday afternoon means dealer room, and to miss seeing the same film on a big screen, two years in a row, for the exact same reason, is quite frustrating.

To be honest with you this was my first year heading up the 35mm department. The schedule that fell into place for this year was done without (aside from knowing which ones we replayed this year) considering on witch night the films showed. I wanted to keep the threatre running during the whole convention and I wanted to place a title that I thought would draw less of a crowd because Friday nights of the conventions are typically the lowest attended part of the con.

Well, yes and no -- Friday nights are pretty busy, actually, but there was also a big ol' concert, the AMV contest, and the fan parodies to deal with. They're all pretty sizable draws.

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I'm not sure if this is the right place for this complaint but . . .

Each of the last two years, Princess Mononoke has run in almost exactly the same time slot (early Friday afternoon). I don't mind if you run this film every year (and there should be at least two Miyazaki or Ghibli films each year), but try to mix up the time slots, please. For many of us, Friday afternoon means dealer room, and to miss seeing the same film on a big screen, two years in a row, for the exact same reason, is quite frustrating.

To be honest with you this was my first year heading up the 35mm department. The schedule that fell into place for this year was done without (aside from knowing which ones we replayed this year) considering on witch night the films showed. I wanted to keep the threatre running during the whole convention and I wanted to place a title that I thought would draw less of a crowd because Friday nights of the conventions are typically the lowest attended part of the con.

Well, yes and no -- Friday nights are pretty busy, actually, but there was also a big ol' concert, the AMV contest, and the fan parodies to deal with. They're all pretty sizable draws.

My mistake, I was told Friday nights were typically low attendance. I am sorry about that misinformation.

On another note please keep those 35mm requests comming.

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Fridays CAN be busy, but not nearly as much as Saturdays are. Even assuming that half the folks who'll attend Otakon have checked in by 7pm Friday, that's 11,000 people who need something to do -- and we had about a quarter of them in the concert hall. Rooms tend to be less full on Friday not just because of the smaller attendance, but also because people are still checking in with friends and figuring out what they want to do.

Don't sweat it, Andrew, it was your first year taking over a job that wasn't as easy as it looked. The thing about scheduling is that you can't ever please everyone.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As a backup in case a print that was ordered doesn't make it in time...

How about showing something on an HD DVD player or Blu-Ray player, instead of standard dvd.

HD players are going for $99 at best buy after Thanksgiving.

It's just that the 35mm room seems bit more special than the others.

I just think this would be a nice treat for people who love this theater, and keep them happy if you have to change programming.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Infernal Affairs was good, but if you're going to show Infernal Affairs II, do that before Infernal Affairs. Stupid confusing prologue...

As for a Woo/Chow movie, I'd love to see Hard Boiled on a big screen, but I don't know how everyone would feel about that (considering as everyone's probably seen the movie).

Edited by SecondChild
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Hard Boiled

The Killer (NOT Ichi the Killer, but rather John Woo's The Killer w/ Chow Yun-Fat)

Battle Royale (if not in 35mm, then maybe in a screening room)

5cm per Second

and, since a 35mm print ought to be available, as the piece is getting a limited theatrical run thanks to Bandai (license announced at NY Anime Festival):

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Edited by w-deremer
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