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Upcoming Anime Screenings at London BFI IMAX Cinema Include Cowboy Bebop Movie
posted on by Andrew Osmond
Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham, the hosts of the Ghibliotheque podcast, will be presenting three anime films at London's BFI IMAX cinemas. One screening, already announced, is of Masaaki Yuasa and Studio 4°C's Mind Game on Sunday August 25 at 12 noon (tickets). The other screenings are of Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro on Thursday September 5 (tickets) and of Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door on Sunday November 1 at 2.30 p.m. (tickets).
Based on a manga by Robin Nishi, Mind Game features a variety of experimental visual styles. The story follows Nishi, who wants to become a manga artist and marry his childhood sweetheart, Myon, but Myon is already engaged to someone else. Nishi goes to visit her family and runs into a pair of yakuza, kicking off an adventure that involves meeting God and being trapped in the belly of a whale.
From the London BFI IMAX site:
"This 2004 feature debut from the inimitable Masaaki Yuasa (INU-OH, Night is Short, Walk On Girl, Ping Pong the Animation, The Tatami Galaxy) announced the arrival of an offbeat and wholly unique visionary artist - one who has been at the forefront of Japanese and world animation ever since.
"Mashing together multiple art styles, including Yuasa's trademark elastic approach to character animation that's part Looney Tunes, part Yellow Submarine, part classic anime, Mind Game is a sight to behold: a psychedelic classic of 21st Century animation beloved by boundary-pushing animators such as Bill Plympton and Satoshi Kon."
Hayao Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro was released in 1988. The "Ghibliotheque" screening on September 5 will be subtitled. The BFI IMAX is also showing the dubbed version of the film (without introduction) from August 9 (tickets), and the website says that more subtitled screenings will be added at a later date.
From the London BFI IMAX site:
"One of the great triumphs of Studio Ghibli and acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, this is the film that introduced the animation house to the world. It's a simple tale of two girls who move to the country and uncover a magical world in the nearby forest. Satsuki and Mei's mother has taken ill. In order to be closer to her while she recovers in a rural convalescent hospital, their father moves the two sisters from their home in a city to the countryside. The house they move into is a ramshackle old place in the shadow of an ancient camphor tree, and Satsuki and Mei embark on adventures with the wondrous forest spirits who live nearby."
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door originally opened in Japan in 2001, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, and spun off from his Cowboy Bebop TV anime series. From the London BFI IMAX site:
"It's the return of the space cowboy! This spin-off from the legendary anime series finds bounty hunter Spike Spiegel and the crew of the spaceship Bebop taking on the task of tracking down a terrorist who poses a threat to all human life on Mars."
