TIFF is screening an early work from the wizards of Studio Ghibli called Only Yesterday. It's from 1991 and takes a fond eyed look back at life in Japan during the 1960s. Isao Takahata’s film is now 25-years-old but still looks wonderful and follows a young woman who works in an office in Tokyo on a trip to the countryside where she recalls her youth. The dubbed version is screening during the day for matinees and the subtitled version is up in the evenings until next Thursday.
If you’re new to Japanese animation, and I’m certainly not the expert on the subject, a place to start is probably Hayao Miyazaki 1997 classic Princess Mononoke. It's on Mar. 7 at 7:00 p.m. at The Revue Cinema. A bit of rep cinema staple in Hogtown these days isn’t it?
The Royal is offering a chance to see Phillip Ridley’s bizarre 1991 film The Reflecting Skin, newly released on Blu-ray, restored in a new 2K digital print next week at 9:30 p.m. It has a young Viggo Mortensen in it and centres on a young boy whose visions and adventures come from a bleak upbringing on the American prairies more than a little strange.
Books on Film is back at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Mar. 7 at 7:00 p.m. This time up is director Sturla Gunnarsson talking about his film Such a Long Journey, an adaptation of Rohinton Mistry's Governor General Award–winning novel.
Before that, this weekend, the Lightbox will host the Toronto Irish Film Festival Mar. 4-6. The opening gala film (7:00 p.m.) is called You’re Ugly Too from director Mark Noonan. It was nominated for best debut feature at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival. There is also an Irish Animation Showcase Sunday at 1 p.m.
My least favourite Tarantino effort is still Death Proof, but I haven’t seen it since it came out almost ten years ago (sweet jeez…) so now might be the time to finally give it another whirl. I recall being a bit bored by Tarantino’s attempt to riff on 70s car features like Vanishing Point or Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, but back then I saw the 'Grindhouse' presentation with Robert Rodriquez’s goofy Planet Terror and a stash of fake trailers before it. It’s on at Rainbow Cinemas Market Square Mar. 8 at 11:15 p.m. for International Women’s Day.
Toronto Screengrab of the Week
We have been pelted with snow of late, so here’s a film that made Toronto look splendid in the summer. Maybe it will help get us through this last winter blast.
