Fantasia Film Festival Archives | Otaku No Culture

When “Jumbo” is a Tilt-a-Hurl in this Quirky Romance

Her only escape is when she’s at work, alone with her amusement park rides. One night, she checks out the latest installation, a high-flying hurl-a-whirl (as shown in the movie poster) she calls “Jumbo.”

Jumbo (2020) By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 on Aug 31, 23:15 EST. Buy your virtual ticket here.

Spielberg doesn’t really need to mentor the talented Zoé Wittock. Her shorts offer great ideas featuring female protagonists struggling with their identity, and her feature film debut certainly shines. It’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Iron Giant. We will never know the origins of the park ride attraction that Jeanne (Noémie Merlant) finds a connection with.

Her rambunctious mother (Emmanuelle Bercot) and beau of the week don’t make for a simple home life. She’s not really connected with her peers either. Her only escape is when she’s at work, alone with her amusement park rides. One night, she checks out the latest installation, a high-flying hurl-a-whirl (as shown in the movie poster) she calls “Jumbo.”

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Fly Me to Saitama and Let Me Play Among the Stars

When put to live action, this movie does not hold back. Fly Me to Saitama film delivers a tale straight out of a Charles Dickens novel. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…”

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 On Demand till Sept 2. Buy your virtual ticket here.

Fly Me To Saitama does more than take inspiration from a certain Frank Sinatra song. This film easily extols why Japanese anime and manga content producers are in love with the Baroque. The Rose of Versailles anime and manga is perhaps the most well-known example. The extraordinary detail in the art and acute sense of grandeur is part of the style which spanned from the 17th-18th century. When realized in live action, you can’t help but marvel at the attention to detail in the costume and set design.

Traditionally, the term is used to describe art and music more than society (where the plot lays). The lifestyle is not about flamboyance, but rather exuberance. The hubris lays with how people changed in an era which followed the Renaissance. Societal norms were being challenged, and there was an awakening.

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Project Dreams at Fantasia 2020! How to Build Mazinger Z’s Hanger

We already have a real world project to build a 1:1 scale moving Gundam, so why can’t we have Mazinger Z too?

Mazinger By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020
International Premiere
August 29th, 2020

Just when you think real life can’t imitate fantasy–namely making a full scale RX-78-2 Gundam that can move–cinema has upped the scale by postulating if we can build a working underwater hanger bay to house the Mazinger Z. The ambition is there, with an appropriate soundtrack to boot, and I couldn’t help but cheer and yell, “gambatte”. The question is, can the civil engineering company Maeda Corporation (fantasy marketing division) build it?

To note: Yes, this company is real and yes, they actually made actual plans to build this for real.

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Wotakoi: On Why Love is Hard for Otaku in this Movie Review

This parody on otaku life updates viewers on the term and it doesn’t have to be derogatory. Some folks can get overboard with some aspect of Japanese fandom, but how is that different from Star Wars fans with rooms dedicated to merchandise since its release in 1977? Or how about Transformers or KISS?

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Fantasia Festival 2020
North American Premiere
Aug 29, 2020

Based on the manga of the same name, Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (ヲタクに恋は難しい,) by Fujita is a hilarious live action musical comedy that doesn’t require audiences to know anything about the source material.

Narumi Momose (Mitsuki Takahata) is a young office worker who reads yaoi manga. She keeps this fact hidden very well. Also, she likes Hirotaka Nifuji (Kento Yamazaki). They knew each other when really young, and now he’s working in the same building as her. He’s always had difficulty expressing his feelings to her and it’s very amusing to watch them rekindle their relationship. She’s high strung and he’s mild mannered.

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The Old Man Movie Isn’t What You Think in its Message to Drink Milk!

Narrative-wise, this film is essentially a comedy. Mart (the youngest), Priidik (middle brother) and Aiido (eldest sister) are unceremoniously dropped off at grandpa’s farm for the Summer. They discover that this elder is a few cards short of a full deck and it’s his eccentricity which really sells this movie.

Mazinger

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Playing at Fantasia Digital Film Festival 2020 On Demand till Sept 2. Buy your virtual ticket here.

The Republic of Estonia is a country not everyone will be aware of, and their animated film The Old Man Movie (Vanamehe Film) shows the wonky genre material their entertainment industry can churn out. Originally a web-series, this pièce de résistance by Mikk Mägi, Oskar Lehemaa and Peeter Ritso is now a movie. It borders on the surreal for humour and embraces Dada to create a lasting imagery which I will never forget.

Narrative-wise, this film is more comedy than horror. Mart (the youngest), Priidik (middle brother) and Aiido (eldest sister) are unceremoniously dropped off at grandpa’s farm for the Summer. They discover that this elder is a few cards short of a full deck and it’s his eccentricity which really sells this movie.

Continue reading “The Old Man Movie Isn’t What You Think in its Message to Drink Milk!”

In Conversation w/ Finn Wolfhard at Fantasia Fest’s Free YouTube Broadcast

In Conversation with Finn Wolfhard and Jay Baruchel as he discusses his debut short, Night Shifts in this free Fantasia 2020 YouTube event!

Mazinger YouTube Link
Scheduled for 29 Aug 2020, 2pm EDT

Come join Fantasia Fest 2020 with a free to view YouTube broadcast with the talent of Finn Wolfhard at hand! He has a local connection as he’s from in British Columbia, and it’s super that he’s moving on to bigger and better things.

This actor and musician burst onto the world stage in the culture-shifting Netflix series Stranger Things. With subsequent performances in the IT films, The Goldfinch, The Turning and The Addams Family, among others, and forthcoming roles in Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Guillermo del Toro & Mark Gustafson’s recently announced Pinocchio, Wolfhard has solidified his standing as a major international talent.

Now, at the age of 17, he’s completed his debut as a writer/director, the clever character-driven comedy short Night Shifts, premiering in our lineup this year. To celebrate the launch of his move into storytelling, Fantasia will be presenting a live virtual artist talk with Finn Wolfhard, in conversation with none other than How to Train Your Dragon/Popular Science for Kid‘s Jay Baruchel!