JAPAN CUTS Cool With Hot-Hot Sellers

Helter Skelter hot, yes, but apparently this photo means nothing out of context.

With two weeks left before this year’s JAPAN CUTS film festival heats up midtown east July 11-21, there are already a handful of screenings close to selling out (spoiler alert: they probably will this weekend, so get tix now!) We asked the fest’s curator Samuel Jamier (who also co-curated the New York Asian Film Festival, which launched today), why these films are so hot.

“Of course the opening night screening of I'M FLASH! is not to be missed,” says Jamier. “Not only is it a hard, fast and fantastic gangster thriller, but festival fave director Toshiaki Toyoda will be on hand to talk about his latest UFO (Unidentified Film Objects, as I call his brand of cinema), and it is followed by one of our legendary Sapporo-sponsored after parties. The theme is bordello, and the dress is 'flashy'. Just no flashers, please.”

Helter Skelter (pictured above) is hot. “Like HOT hot,” says Jamier. “And it also contains one of the sexiest psychotic breakdowns captured on film.” The 'plastic surgery horror movie' follows a youth-obsessed, Gaga-esque pop star’s descent into hell. Apparently, a hot-hot hell.

Japan's number one box office hit of the year Rurouni Kenshin, getting its U.S. premiere screening as part of JAPAN CUTS and NYAFF, is based on manga that has sold 55 million copies and spawned several popular animated adaptations. “They couldn’t have missed if they tried,” says Jameir. “And boy didn’t they. Miss that is. It is pure manga sword-swinging bad-assery with girls in kimono. Period.”

Another near sellout is Yuichi Fukuda’s off-the-wall Hentai Kamen--a topsy-pervy twist (hentai basically means “pervert” or “perverted” in Japanese) to the superhero genre about a man who gains special powers when donning ladies underthings. The trailer alone received over 50,000 views in the first five days after it was uploaded to YouTube. When asked why, Jamier just shook his head baffled. “Because crotch jockeying action heroes is the genre we need?”

Here’s the trailer. Some might find it NSFW, but if that’s the case, you probably need to get a job somewhere with a sense of humor. Silly, earnest, epic. Enjoy!