Via
Asahi Shinbun May 19, 2013
Of the 20 films vying for this year's coveted
Palme d'Or prize at the
Cannes Film Festival, two of them are popular Japanese full-length features. One is about a very difficult family situation and the other is an exciting cop thriller by
Takashi Miike.
In
Shield of Straw / "Wara no Tate" 藁の楯 leading man
Tatsuya Fujiwara plays a cold-blooded killer named Kiyomaru Kunihide who murders the granddaughter of a very powerful political figure (
Tsutomu Yamazaki). A few weeks after the murder, Kiyomaru realizes that the politician has offered one billion yen (approximately $9.7 million dollars) to anyone who kills him.
Fearing for his life, he turns himself into the Fukuoka Police and then is to be transferred to Tokyo by five elite security police. But along the way they keep running into groups of citizens and other police who want to get the reward and get revenge! Also one of the security police starts to question the morality of protecting such a vile criminal. Below is the Japanese trailer, but you don't need to understand Japanese to enjoy this exciting preview:
A light favorite for this year's top prize, "
Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son)" stars
Masaharu Fukuyama as the hard-working husband Ryota and his faithful wife Midori played by
Machiko Ono.
Their idyllic family life is suddenly turned upside down when the hospital where their son was born admits that Keita was switched at birth and is not their biological son. The couple is then faced with a difficult "nature vs nurture" decision in either swapping the boy they have raised and loved for six years for their real biological son or keep him. Ryota and Midori then meet the couple, played by Yoko Maki and Lily Franky, who have raised their real son and the film unfolds into humor and humanity. A powerful soft family drama competing against many violent films including the above, "Soshite Chichi Ni Naru (Like Father, Like Son)" is director Kore-eda Hirokazu's fourth film to compete at Cannes.
"I wanted to create this total upheaval in the morality of the main character," Kore-eda told journalists. "I wanted to create a real shock in his mind."
Here is the official trailer with English subtitles:
The winners of the world's largest film festival will be announced on May 26th.
See also:
Beat Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage Beyond"
Trailer for Jackie Chan's "Chinese Zodiac" Movie
Via Gawker May 22, 2013
In a funny scene that could have been an outtake from Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" film, 
a clever "Psy"-Borg pretender was recently spotted at the Cannes Film Festival. Somehow this unidentified man fooled everyone at the world's largest movie grand prix into believing that he was the world famous Psy (a.k.a. Park Jae-sang) the singer/songwriter from South Korea. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the look alike imposter had been spotted at parties and with celebrities who all wanted to take pictures with the web's 'horse-dance guy' all over the seaside resort town.