Tokyo Weekender - February 2016

COMING TO A CINEMA NEAR YOU IN FEBRUARY
FEB 27
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
A
bulging cast of colorful character
actors, violence as comic as it
is extreme, and a liberal use of
every bit of profanity under the sun can
only mean one thing: maverick filmmaker
Quentin Tarantino is back with another
unique slice of fast-talking film action.
For “The Hateful Eight” the filmmaker
has assembled a typically eclectic cast.
Kurt Russell heads proceedings as
gruff bounty hunter John Ruth, who’s
bringing fugitive Daisy Domergue (Oscarnominated
Jennifer Jason Leigh) to the
town of Red Rock for justice. The pair
hook up with infamous bounty hunter
and former union soldier Major Marquis
Warren (Tarantino regular Samuel L.
Jackson) and a man who claims to be the
town’s new sheriff (Walter Goggins). The
four become eight when the group take
refuge from a blizzard in a stagecoach
stopover populated by a quartet of
sinister ne’er-do-wells (Tim Roth, Bruce
Dern, Michael Madsen and Demian
Bircher). Tensions rise with the storm
and it soon becomes obvious that a Red
Rock rendezvous may not be in the cards
after all…
UNBROKEN
FEB 5
Unbroken” made headlines for all the
wrong reasons last year when rightwing
activists demanded for the film
to be banned and its director, Angelina Jolie, to
be told she was no longer welcome in Japan.
Thankfully, distributors saw sense when film
industry insiders called on them to stand up
for free speech. Why were the far right so
worked up? Jolie’s film tells the remarkable
true story of former Olympian and WWII
pilot Louis Zamperini, who is shot down over
the Pacific. He and his crew members are
found, captured, and made prisoners of war.
Zamperini is sent to a camp in Tokyo were he
suffers terribly at the hands of one Japanese
corporal in particular, Mutsuhiro Watanabe
(star rocker Miyavi). A biographical war
drama that charts an incredible life and a
redemptive tale of survival.
WHILE THE WOMEN ARE SLEEPING
An eclectic assemblage of
international talent comes together
for this darkly comic tale of sex
and stalking. Hong Konger Wayne Wang,
best known to western audiences for
directing J-Lo in toothless rom-com “Maid
in Manhattan,” adapts celebrated Spanish
novelist Javier Marías’s short story “While
the Women Are Sleeping” with Japan’s
own cinema bad boy “Beat” Takeshi in a
main role. The story follows Kenji, a bored
writer on vacation who spies a young
beauty with a sinister older man. The
film marks the first time in over a decade
Kitano has appeared in another director’s
work. Mozu’s Hidetoshi Nishijima, Sayuri
Oyamada and Shiori Kutsuna join him.
FEB 27
STEVE JOBS
FEB 12
Inventor, entrepreneur, Apple cofounder
and cultural icon, Steve
Jobs—and the conflicting sides of
his personality—have warranted two
biographical films in the four years since
his 2011 death. While the Ashton Kutcher–
starring 2013 effort “Jobs” proved less than
successful at the box office, the big guns
are out for this second exploration of the
Apple genius’s life. Danny Boyle directs
Oscar nominee Michel Fassbender in a film
that covers all the behind-the-scenes action
at the launch of three of Jobs’s most iconic
products—the Apple Macintosh, the NeXT
Computer, and the iMac. Kate Winslet, Seth
Rogan and Jeff Daniels complete the cast
of this movie based on biographer Walter
Isaacson’s investigation into the life of the
digital visionary.
FEBRUARY 2016 www.tokyoweekender.com