June 2002

June 26, 2002 "Sen" at the Moscow International Film Festival
The film is showing under the festival's "National Hits" banner which is defined as "Box-office hits in the country of production in 2001".

"Sen" does not appear on the official schedule (for unknown reasons), but you can read the film's description on the festival's website (in English) or this page (in Russian).

Theater: Rolan
Date: June 29th
Time: 13:30

Any further news will be put on the 2002 Film Festivals page.

Thanks to Igor Skochinsky for posting the news to the MML.

June 21, 2002 Mamoru HOSODA Rumor
A rumor has been raging in the Japanese net community for a month or so about HOSODA quitting the Howl's Moving Castle project and/or quitting Studio Ghibli. Anime News Network has reported it as well ("Hosoda Leaves Ghibli" is the title of the article), but it is purely rumor (or a translation-caused misunderstanding) at this point.

We know the following for facts:

He has never been a regular employee of Studio Ghibli.

He was brought in to direct this one film only (similar to the director of Neko no
Ongaeshi and Umi ga Kikoeru)

There is no official word from either Studio Ghibli or HOSODA as to whether he has quit the Howl project.

Until such time as things can be confirmed or refuted by actual facts, we feel it's best to keep the rumors down.

June 14, 2002 "My Neighbors the Yamadas" in Melbourne
"My Neighbors the Yamadas" is showing at the Melbourne International Animation Festival on June 28 at 7:45pm. More details at the official website or the 2002 Film Festivals page.

Thanks to Andrew Pam for posting the news to the MML.

June 10, 2002 DVDSynth Prerelease
Ben Rudiak-Gould posted the following to the MML:

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I've been working for a while on an interesting Windows utility called DVDSynth, and I finally have a version that's ready for release. One of the things DVDSynth can do is add new subtitles to a DVD. In other words, you place a DVD in your DVD-ROM drive, and DVDSynth intercepts requests to read the DVD and inserts its own subpicture data along with what's actually on the disc. This happens at the device driver level, so it works with all Windows DVD players.

I intend to use this to add subtitles to the various unsubtitled extras on the Ghibli ga Ippai DVDs, and also to replace some of the more egregiously mistranslated main-feature subtitles (e.g. Cagliostro). For now I only have one finished subtitle file, which is an English translation of the extended five-minute preview of Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi which is on the Majo no Takkyuubin extras disc.

There's also another filter which removes DVD restrictions on fast-forwarding, menu call, angle changes, etc., so you can finally switch audio tracks easily on the US Princess Mononoke DVD. :-)

If you have a Windows machine with a DVD-ROM drive, please give this program a try! The URL is:

http://www.roundelay.net/dvdsynth/prerelease.html
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Thanks Ben!

June 10, 2002 BBC Interview with Miyazaki
BBC Choice, a free channel for UK digital TV residents, is showing a 6 part series called Japanorama, which takes a look at Japanese culture. This coming Sunday (late-night) the host, Jonathan Ross, will be interviewing Hayao Miyazaki:

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Mon 17 Jun, 00:30 - 01:00 30 mins

Children And To Laughter Were Our Future: Jonathan Ross visits the studio of Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese Walt Disney, a man behind some of the most charming and lovely animations ever made. W/S.

widescreen Stereo
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Thanks to Lalith Vipulananthan for posting the news to the MML.

June 7, 2002 "Princess Mononoke" Screening in LA
From the ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD website:

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A special theatrical showing of Hayao Miyazaki's anime masterpiece PRINCESS MONONOKE will be presented on the big screen at the Japan America theater in downtown L.A. Two performances - dubbed in English at 1pm, and presented in Japanese language with English subtitles at 5pm.

Sunday, July 14, 2002 - 1:00pm (dubbed) & 5:00pm (subbed)
JAPAN-AMERICA THEATRE
244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA
ASIFA MEMBERS: $6.00, JACCC MEMBERS: $6.00, non-members: $8.00
For more info, call: (818) 842-8330
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This and other screenings are listed on the 2002 Film Festivals page.

Thanks to Winston Jackson for the news.

June 2, 2002 "Laputa" R2 DVD Info
A flyer bundled with the R2 DVD of "Whisper of the Heart" indicates that "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" is scheduled for a September 2002 release date.

Thanks to jray for the flyer scan.

June 1, 2002 Studio Ghibli PS2 game
Garakuta Meisaku Gekijou: Rakugaki Oukoku
(Garakuta Masterpiece Theater: Kingdom of Doodling)

Company: Taito
Genre: RPG
Catalog #: SLPM-65097
Price: 6800 yen
Release Date: 2002.03.20

Front Cover: http://allsoft.scei.co.jp/jacket/l/slpm65097.jpg
Back Cover: http://allsoft.scei.co.jp/jacket/l/slpm65097b.jpg
RM movie file: http://www.scei.co.jp/soft/movie/slpm65097.rm
Created by: Garakuta Studio - http://www.garakuta-studio.com/

The DVD contains trailers for Ghiblies Episode 2, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and the Ghibli ga Ippai Collection. There are two versions of the game being exported from Japan: the Asian version (in addition to the Japanese instructions, includes English and Chinese basic control instructions), and the Japanese version (which includes only Japanese instructions).

A US release is in the works.

A preview of the game from IGN.

Thanks to Christian Nutt and Aline Taguet for the links.