Now Showing Nov 17

Every day lasts forever when one is a kid. Adventures are to be found whichever way one takes on the way home from school. A newly found acquaintance is soon a friend and there is fun to be had until the sun goes down. Son of Rambow came about from those glorious days of being young. This film is a funny and moving film about the friendship between two boys who are obsessed with making films. It’s a film in which viewers can relive the summer adventures of ‘Stand By Me’ or the story of a young boy’s love of ballet, set in a mining town in ‘Billy Elliot’.

The film is set in England circa 1980. Eleven year old Will is from a strict religious family; television and radio, not to mention films, are off-limits. Instead, he creates flip books in his bible using only his imagination. One day he meets Carter, who has the reputation of being the naughtiest kid at school. Carter’s family runs a nursing home, where he also lives, and it’s there that Will sees the film ‘Rambo’ for the first time. This film changes Will’s life; he becomes fascinated with Rambo, and is unable to stop daydreaming about him. The two boys decide to make a film about these daydreams and they secretly start shooting on a video camera. However, things begin to head in an unexpected direction.

The story is based on events from the director Garth Jennings’s childhood. To set the film in its time, the popular fashions and music from the times are scattered throughout. The great homage it pays to the 80s is another draw for the film. Garth is a member of the film production unit Hammer and Tongs, which has made standout music videos for musicians such as Fat Boy Slim, Beck and Radio Head. Their first feature length film ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ was a huge hit in America and the UK. Take a look back at the joys of being a kid with these up and coming filmmakers.

Son of Rambow

(C)Hammer&Tongs, Celluloid Dream, Arte France, Network Movie, Reason Pictures

UK/France/Germany, 2007
Japanese Title: Little Rambows
Opened: Nov 6
Director/Writer: Garth Jennings
Cast: Bill Milner, Will Poulter, Ed Westwick, Jules Sitruck, Neil Dudgeon, Jessica Hynes
Distributor: Stylejam
Website: rambows.jp/

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

TM & (C) 2010 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved

This is the third instalment of the hit series telling the story of forbidden love between a mortal high school girl, and a young man of the vampire persuasion. The first film tells the story of the main character, Bella, the new kid in school and her vampire classmate, Edward, up until they fall in love. In the second film, Edward and Bella reunite after he moves away for her sake. It finishes with a moving scene in which he proposes to her. In this third instalment, the ferocious vampires ask Edward’s old rival (and Bella’s best friend) Jacob and his pack of wolves to help protect her. Jacob grows closer to Bella. What will happen to this love triangle between humans, vampires and werewolves?

USA, 2010
Opened: Nov 6
Director: David Slade
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Distributor: Kadokawa Pictures
Website: www.the-twilight-saga.jp/eclipse/

Nowhere Boy

(C)2009 Lennon Films Limited Channel Four Television Corporation and UK Film Council. All Rights Reserved.

John Lennon had two mothers when he was young. One was the mother who taught him how to live and the other was the one who opened him up to music. The movie tells the story of conflict and forgiveness between John and his two mothers before he becomes an adult, bringing the 50s back to life. John lives with his aunt, Mimi, but finds out that his mother actually lives nearby. His carefree mother teaches him the joy of music while his aunt hopes that he will turn into a decent young adult. Torn by two different kinds of love, John suffers from a sense of loneliness. On John’s seventeenth birthday he learns the sad story of what his mother went through with him. In this film viewers can enjoy the ever-popular music of Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, which has a big impact on John, in addition to the Quarry Men, who were an earlier incarnation of the Beatles.

UK/Canada, 2010
Japanese title: Nowhere Boy Hitoribocchi no Aitsu
Opened: Nov 5
Director: Sam Taylor-Wood
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Aaron Johnson, Thomas Sangster, Ann-Marie Duff, David Morrissey, Ophelia Lovibond
Distributor: Gaga powered by Humax Cinema
Website: nowhereboy.gaga.ne.jp/

Buried

(C)2009 Versus Entertainment S.L. All Rights Reserved.

The ‘Saw’ series, which took the Sundance Film Festival by storm, and the following ‘Paranormal Activity’, gave birth to the ‘one-situation extrasensory thriller’. Paul Conroy, an American who drives trucks in Iraq, suddenly comes under attack. He wakes to find himself in a coffin under the earth. Next to him is an unfamiliar mobile phone with an almost dead battery, a lighter with empty fluid, a knife and a pen, and there is only a small amount of air in the box. Will he be able to escape? And why has he been buried? He tries to recall the phone numbers in his memory. Who and where is he going to call? Viewers experience a myriad of feelings: anguish, panic, despair, calm, acceptance, anger, fear, hope and sadness.

USA, 2010
Japanese title: Limit
Opened: Nov 6
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Ryan Reynolds
Distributor: Gaga
Website: limit.gaga.ne.jp/