November 2010

Appearances

4 November London, UK: Lala Pipo at the Barbican Cinema – funny, engaging movie about pathetic guys, a fat Loli girl and a novel way to make a living in Japan. Written by the director of Memories of Matsuko and Kamikaze Girls, directed by one of his proteges, starring the indecently cute Hiroki Narimiya, who gives nasty boy like a young John Barrowman. Part of the Girlsworld season exploring women in contemporary Japanese cinema.

6 November London, UK: Kamizake Girls (Shimotsuma Monogatari) at the Barbican Cinema -part of the Girlsworld season exploring women in contemporary Japanese cinema, a Cosplay Special Event at Barbican LATES. A film about friendship and self-invention that keeps things real, but stays as warm and fuzzy as  girl biker gangs and Lolitas allow.

13 November London, UK: Memories of Matsuko at the Barbican Cinema – often billed as ‘the Japanese Amelie‘, more like the endearing but difficult offspring of a Bob Fosse  nu-brutal production of Chicago crossed with Mary Poppins. A must-see, and even more compelling on the big screen. Part of the Girlsworld season exploring women in contemporary Japanese cinema.

14 November London, UK: Sakuran at the Barbican Cinema – this one ticks so many Sunday supplement culture boxes it’s almost absurd. Debut feature of photographer Mika Ninagawa (daughter of internationally renowned theatre director and recent Barbican visitor Yukio Ninagawa,) based on the manga by fashion writer Moyoco Anno (wife of Hideaki Evangelion Anno,) and starring popstar/model-turned-actress Anna Tsuchiya, who eats the screen alive in a performance of astonishing intensity. Like drinking several Technicolor cocktails very fast. Part of the Girlsworld season exploring women in contemporary Japanese cinema

Events

Last call: With Words haiku competition closes 21 November 2010.

4 November-6 March 2011, London, UK: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, unmissable exhibition at the British Museum

10 November-30 January 2011, Masuda, Japan: Cristobal Balenciaga – exhibition devoted to the god of fashion design at the Iwami Art Museum

12-14 November, Copenhagen, Denmark: J-Popcon, with Vic Mignogna, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey

14-15 November, London, UK: Takeshi Kitano Directorspective at the Barbican Cinema

18 November, Leeds, UK: Women in Comics II, conference at Leeds Art Gallery.

19 November, Leeds, UK: Theory and Practice: A Conference on Comics at Leeds Art Gallery.

18-21 November, Leeds, UK: Thought Bubble four-day comic/sequential art event

20 November-10 Jan 2011, Masuda, Japan: Robots and the Arts: Visual Images in 20th Century Japan, show at the Iwami Art Museum with new Romanov Higa anime, limited edition DVD, art from Gundam, Eva, Astro Boy, Gigantor.

23-28 November, London/UK: Zipangu Fest, the UK’s first annual Japanese film festival

26 November-23 January 2011, Tokyo, Japan: Mizuki World Exhibition – Shigeru Mizuki works at Hachioji Yume Art Museum

Ongoing:

To 3 November 2010, Mizoguchi Directorspective at the Barbican – don’t miss these haunting treasures of film, rarely seen on a screen that can do them justice.

To 7 November, Shizuoka, Japan: Robots and the Arts: Visual Images in 20th Century Japan, show with new Romanov Higa anime, limited edition DVD, art from Gundam, Eva, Astro Boy, Gigantor.

To 14 November, London, UK: GirlsWorld at the Barbican Cinema. See Anna Tsuchiya eat the screen in Sakuran, see a fat loligirl own Tokyo in Lala Pipo, follow your dream in Kamikaze Girls and feel your heart break amid the glorious confusion of Memories of Matsuko. Too many good things to miss!

To 12 December, Versailles, France: Murakami Versailles

To 15 December, London, UK: Naoya Hatakeyama’s Scales at Japan House

To December, Bath, UK: Vionnet Dresses, divine confections from one of the greatest fabric technicians in Western costume history, at the Museum of Costume. Also Photographing Fashion – British Style in the 1960s.

To 16 January 2011, London, UK: Elegant Accomplishments: The Art of Noh Performance at the V&A

To 6 February 2011, London, UK: Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion, exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, curated by Akiko Fukai of the Kyoto Costume Institute.

To Spring 2011, Preston, UK: Embellished: The Art of Fabulous Fabrics, an astonishing collection of clothes, hangings and other textile treasures from the 1700s to the present, including many previously unseen, at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery.

To 26 June 2011, Manchester, UK: China – Journey to the East, British Museum touring exhibition

To 26 June 2011, Tokyo, Japan: Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace hosts exhibition documenting the struggles of wartime sex slaves. Open Wed-Sun, call 03-3203 4633 for times, info.