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Mamoru Hosoda's Wolf Children Screening at London Film Festival (Updated)

The London Film Festival in October will hold three screenings of The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, the new film by Mamoru Hosoda, director of The Girl who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. The first two lunchtime screenings will take place at the Vue Cinema on Leicester Square, on Thursday October 11 at 12.45 p.m. and on Saturday October 13 at 12.15 p.m. The third screening will be at the Rich Mix cinema on Bethnal Green road (directions) on Sunday October 14 at 1 p.m.

Tickets go on public sale on September 24 at 9.30 a.m. According to the website:

Hana, a student at Tokyo University, is intrigued by a mysterious man who sits in on lectures despite not being registered to attend. Before long, they fall in love and she discovers that he is a wolf-man; he has the blood of both man and wolf and, as wolves have been extinct in Japan for many years, he is the last of his kind. Before long, they bring two children into the world – Ame and Yuki – who begin to display wolf characteristics, and as such may need to be brought up away from the outside world. As they grow older they will have to deal with their differences and decide which path to take. This beguiling, lyrical anime is a departure of sorts for Mamoru Hosoda who takes a fantastical idea and makes it irresistibly touching and relevant without ever becoming a mere genre piece.

The London Film Festival is also screening Mika Ninagawa's live-action Helter Skelter, based on Kyoko Okazaki's award-winning manga. The film stars Erika Sawajiri (SHINOBI - Heart Under Blade, 1 Liter of Tears drama series) as Ririko, a model who underwent extensive plastic surgery to attain her beauty.

There will be two showings at the BFI Southbank, on Wednesday October 10 and Friday October 12, both at 9p.m. From the website:

The second feature by Mika Ninagawa (daughter of the celebrated theatre director Yukio Ninagawa) lives up to its name. It's a big, splashy thrill-ride, kinda reminiscent of vintage Ken Russell, which tears into the supermodel/teen-idol industries that make the world of Japanese pop culture go round. Lilico (rather bravely played by Erika Sawajiri, Japan's Kate Moss) is The Face, but her outer beauty masks the tantrums of a self-hating queen bitch – and the work of a ‘beautician’ whose clinic is under police investigation for its criminal techniques. The plot (from a manga by Kyoko Okazaki) turns on hysterical jealousy and rivalries, but it comes second to the unflagging energy and visual flash. Absolutely fabulous support from Nao Omori as the prosecutor and the magnificent Kaori Momoi as Lilico's ruthless manager.

Additionally, the festival is screening For Love's Sake, Takashi Miike's adaptation of Ikki Kajiwara's Ai to Makoto romance manga. There are two showings in the BFI Southbank, on October 12 at 12 p.m. and October 14 at 8.30 p.m

In the film, Emi Takei (live-action Rurouni Kenshin) plays an angelic high school girl named Ai Saotome, and Satoshi Tsumabuki (live-action Dororo, Dragon Head, Ikebukuro West Gate Park) plays the "ultra" high school delinquent Makoto Taiga in the love story. Kajiwara (Ashita no Joe, Kyojin no Hoshi, Tiger Mask) wrote the original manga with illustrations by Takumi Nagayasu (Mibu Gishiden, The Legend of Mother Sarah) for Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine from 1973 to 1976. From the website:

Takashi Miike does Romeo and Juliet as a 60s pop musical, and it's as if West Side Story never happened. The storyline actually derives from a much-filmed manga, but Miike gives it the particle-accelerator treatment. The demure, well-born Ai (‘Love’) stumbles upon a street brawl and recognises the scar on one fighter's forehead: Makoto (‘Sincerity’) is the guy who once saved her from a skiing accident; now a terse, embittered punk. She determines to redeem him by resurrecting his inner goodness. Phase One of her plan is to get her rich parents to pay for him to transfer to the upscale Aobadai High. But Makoto don't wanna be redeemed...

Update - For Love's Sake details added.