Comments on: Choosing Your Own Adventures is FUN!

Choosing Your Own Adventures is FUN!

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:49:52 -0800

Toshio Matsumoto's (J) first film (E), Ginrin (or "Silver Ring"), once believed lost has been found! Ginrin was an English Language, "relatively avant garde" PR film that had perhaps the first use of Musique Concrete in a Japanese film -- in this case, the first score by Toru Takemitsu. The film was discovered to be lost (as a result of the firm it was made for going under) in the 1980s when it was desired for a retrospective on the 1950's Japanese Avant-Garde at the Pompidou Center. [More Inside]

By: Rev. Syung Myung Me

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:53:48 -0800

Matsumoto's most famous film, however, was Bara no soretsu, a transsexual version of Oedipus Rex that was very, very influential on Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, and is considered to be the first Japanese film to deal with Gay Culture. Unfortunately, none of Matsumoto's films are available on DVD in the US, although a box-set of four of his features is available in Japan, as is a recently-released box set of shorts (E). Very little information about Toshio Matsumoto is available in English, sadly, and as far as I know, no non-Japanese DVD releases are available (though 3 of the 4 films in the Features Box carry subtitles, including Bara no soretsu). In my dreams, the Criterion Collection will pick up these two box sets for release... that would truly make me the happiest boy in the whole USA.

By: dougunderscorenelso

dougunderscorenelso — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 17:15:26 -0800

Nice post!! Fantastic.

By: carter

carter — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 20:52:53 -0800

There's some downloads of Japanese avant-garde music/musique concrete, including works by Takemitsu, here.

By: Rev. Syung Myung Me

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 22:19:54 -0800

Awesome, thanks! I'm going to check that out, particularly since I have a tendency to eat that stuff up with a spoon.