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blakethinks.bsky.social
Blake Simons
@blakethinks.bsky.social
420 followers 320 following 130 posts
🎥 interview evangelist, programming @ LIFFF
✍ romance, japan, animation, queer, latam, at BFI, IndieWire, The Film Stage, ScreenAnarchy and more

Contact: blakesimons97(at)gmail(dot)com
https://muckrack.com/blakesimons
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blakethinks.bsky.social
Blake Simons @blakethinks.bsky.social · May 27
I spoke with Takashi Miike about an industry in flux, for MUBI Notebook mubi.com/en/notebook/...
Head-On: A Conversation with Takashi Miike
The genre auteur discusses queer subtexts, a changing industry, and winning a fight in one minute or less.
mubi.com
blakethinks.bsky.social
For my final interview from this year's Tokyo TIFF, I spoke with Ken Kawai, a CODA and director of quietly riotous dramedy THE CHATTERBOXES, about the importance of balancing perspectives, accessibility in subtitling, and the infuence of Italian greats

screenanarchy.com/2025/12/toky...
Tokyo 2025 Interview: THE CHATTERBOXES Director Ken Kawai Discusses Crafting Humor From Language Barriers
A rising CODA director discusses his charming dramedy of communication errors.
screenanarchy.com
December 1, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
aliciahaddick.com
And there we have it. After 22 years, the record for the highest-grossing Japanese live-action film of all time is beaten!

Kokuho has had unprecedented success, growing weekly for over a month, earning incredible word of mouth, for what is ostensibly a 3-hour dense drama about an outdated art form
eiga.natalie.mu 映画ナタリー @eiga.natalie.mu · 6d
映画「国宝」実写日本映画の興行収入で歴代1位に、22年ぶり新記録　「踊る2」超え
https://natalie.mu/eiga/news/649441?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social

#国宝
November 25, 2025 at 4:50 AM
blakethinks.bsky.social
I spoke with Tetsuya Mariko, director of fascinating Toei melting pot DEAR STRANGER, about New York, puppet theatre, Haneke, and more

screenanarchy.com/2025/11/gold...
Golden Horse 2025 Interview: DEAR STRANGER Director Tetsuya Mariko Talks Transnational Filmmaking, New York, and Puppet Theater
The director of Toei's first English-language feature talks puppets, New York, and transnational dialogues.
screenanarchy.com
November 24, 2025 at 4:18 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
I reviewed athletic anime feature 100 METERS for @sightsoundmag.bsky.social. If there was a Bechdel Test for dialogue about topics other than track and field, this film would fail it

www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-so...
100 Meters review: Sports anime veers off track
Iwaisawa Kenji’s animation attempts to capture the thrill of competitive running, but its underdeveloped characters leave the action feeling stilted and predictable.
www.bfi.org.uk
November 21, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
kagavi.bsky.social
Going thru old tabs and forgot to post this last month. Definitely agree that some stop motion stuff is too smooth now. What's the point then? There has to be some tactile feel to it
The animation in this film is very fluid and smooth. I expect fewer people are aware that it’s stop-motion than they are with Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Were you trying to hide the film’s stop-motion nature, or was it more to chart new heights of what you could achieve in stop-motion? It was more to chart new heights. At that time, the Pixar films were the dominant art form as far as feature animation. It was less about creating a funky stop-mo aesthetic – it hadn’t really turned that way yet – it was more about proving that stop-motion could be as smooth and as fluid as computer animation and still be emotive, still have texture. You know, at that point, I considered chattery stop-motion, pops, and things like that as flaws. Of course, since Corpse Bride, it’s come around the other way – Wes Anderson and all these films that embrace the texture of stop-motion to set themselves apart. I can see the value of that now that, like you said, audiences might not know the difference between stop-motion and CG. I think the Laika films now do take it too far, where it really doesn’t matter – if they had made those films in CG instead of stop-motion, no one would know the difference, because it’s such a hybrid. Back then, it was a different world. It was about advancing the techniques but still embracing them. That was the idea behind the fluidity of the animation.
November 18, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
theendofcinema.bsky.social
Yang on the Channel
upnextcriterion.bsky.social [UNOFFICIAL] Now Playing on Criterion 24/7 @upnextcriterion.bsky.social · 14d
Now playing (03:30 PM PST):
"Mahjong" (1996)
By Edward Yang
Runtime: 121 min.
Poster for Mahjong
November 16, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
makeitsnow.bsky.social
oh my god
the kids from weapons, running, arms outstretched, seen from behind, on a poster at CVS. ‘only at CVS health,’ it says. ‘me on my way to get my flu shot,’ it says
November 16, 2025 at 10:41 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
I explored the diverse array of animation on offer at this year's Tokyo TIFF for @animag.bsky.social, speaking with programming lead and amime critic Ryota Fujitsu about a medium that he says "sets his heart aflutter"

www.animationmagazine.net/2025/11/anim...
November 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
WHITE FLOWERS & FRUITS recalls the slippery pleasures of Summer Vacation 1999 and Picnic at Hanging Rock. I sat with its debut director during TIFF, talking sensory filmmaking, Apichatpong, Hamaguchi, and why all sapphic dramas look like that

desperatelyseekingsubtitles.substack.com/p/yukari-sak...
Yukari Sakamoto conjures a sensorial and sapphic ghost story in “White Flowers and Fruits” (Tokyo ‘25)
“Cinema can capture feelings that can’t be put into words”: An assured and instinctive debut feature filmmaker speaks with me about her tenderly-observed character drama
desperatelyseekingsubtitles.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
mooseallain.bsky.social
A man has been found guilty of writing a stream of consciousness novel. He is about to start a 4 year sentence.
November 12, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
toomanywires.bsky.social
I regret to inform you that they found drugs in the Suica penguin’s apartment
November 11, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
kambole.bsky.social
NOOOOOO
announcement from JR Rail that they’re retiring the Suica Penguin mascot
November 11, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
titangoji.bsky.social
Just lost a great one.

Rest in peace, Tatsuya Nakadai. What a legend.
November 11, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
juniorhoncho.bsky.social
you think you've got a decent grasp of what the hokey pokey is until the song says "and then you do the hokey pokey" and you're right back to square one
December 31, 2024 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
ednewtonrex.bsky.social
There’s a good chance the British Prime Minister’s main adviser on AI is an OpenAI shareholder - but the government refuses to say whether she is.

🧵 1/5
November 11, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
hayleylscanlon.bsky.social
A few lesser-known (in the English-speaking world) Tatsuya Nakadai recommendations:

Willful Murder - Monochrome masterpiece from Kei Kumai starring Nakadai as a reporter exploring the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Japan National Railways CEO Sadanori Shimoyama.
Willful Murder (日本の熱い日々 謀殺・下山事件, Kei Kumai, 1981)
A dogged reporter comes to the conclusion an industrialist was murdered but cannot say by whom in Kei Kumai’s searing exploration of the occupation and the economic miracle.
wp.me
November 11, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
matteob.bsky.social
The Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival (ANIAFF) has revealed the lineup (11 titles) for the Feature Film Competition:
aniaff.com/en/programs/...
November 10, 2025 at 1:44 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
For @soundspheremag.bsky.social, I spoke with director Elizabeth Miyaji about Tokyo TIFF premiere TIMELIMIT, a rock doc reshaped by the shifting circumstances of life. This interview moved me quite profoundly.

www.soundspheremag.com/news/tokyo-i...
Tokyo IFF: Elizabeth Miyaji talks “TimeLimit”, a rock-doc that reckons with life in flux - Soundsphere magazine
TimeLimit, a rock-documentary celebrating Kazuya Yoshii, lead singer of hit Japanese rock band THE YELLOW MONKEY, was intended to celebrate his accomplishments and look back on his past – a straightfo...
www.soundspheremag.com
November 10, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
midnightmes.bsky.social
Thanks to Variety for a headline that is sure to sell extra tickets
variety.com/2025/film/fe...
‘Female Teacher: Forbidden Sex’ Among Selections as Rotterdam Spotlights Japan’s V-Cinema Movement
Rotterdam's 2026 Focus spotlights Japan's V-Cinema era with films by Miike Takashi, Nakata Hideo, Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Aoyama Shinji.
variety.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:14 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
With Chainsaw Man Movie hype high, it really is impressive that this is another classic moment of "Amazon Prime Video fail to promote that this is out now"
matteob.bsky.social matteoB @matteob.bsky.social · 23d
time to check Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 (2025)
poster for the anthology films (series?) adapted from Fujimoto Tatsuki's early works: Tatsuki Fujimoto is written on the top of the poster below in big characters 17.26
November 8, 2025 at 11:57 AM
blakethinks.bsky.social
Mamoru Hosoda wants revenge. Fusing hand-drawn 2D and 3D CG, the anime veteran has transformed a Shakespeare tragedy into a grimdark fable that embodies the afterlife of animation itself

I was the first in the world to speak with Hosoda about SCARLET

www.animationmagazine.net/2025/11/mamo...
Mamoru Hosoda Discusses His Epic Animated Revenge Tableau 'Scarlet' (Exclusive) | Animation Magazine
Japanese auteur Mamoru Hosoda discusses the possibilities of CG animation and his new feature 'Scarlet' in an exclusive interview.
www.animationmagazine.net
November 8, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
midnightmes.bsky.social
The cat's out of the bag: I'm curating a V-Cinema focus program for the upcoming International Film Festival Rotterdam
www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...
Rotterdam Film Fest Unveils Focus Program on Japanese V-Cinema Phenomenon
The direct-to-video trend that emerged in the late 1980s “left a lasting mark on contemporary film culture,” organizers said. The focus program will “feature early works by now-famous auteurs, through...
www.hollywoodreporter.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Blake Simons
skwigly.bsky.social
New Skwigly contributor @blakethinks.bsky.social had the pleasure of sitting down with director Wataru Takahashi during the Tokyo International Film Festival, where his new film The Obsessed (Toritsukare Otoko) enjoyed its World Premiere

www.skwigly.co.uk/obsessed-wat...
The Obsessed | Interview with director Wataru Takahashi - Skwigly Animation Magazine
On the cobbled streets of a European location that could be anywhere but is nowhere in particular, the fresh-faced and bright-eyed Giuseppe (Masaya Sano)
www.skwigly.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 1:16 PM
blakethinks.bsky.social
Obsessive boy meets friendly girl. What happens next will (not) shock you.

Like a moth to a flame, I enjoyed speaking with the director of delightful new anime feature THE OBSESSED during Tokyo TIFF, for @skwigly.bsky.social

www.skwigly.co.uk/obsessed-wat...
The Obsessed | Interview with director Wataru Takahashi - Skwigly Animation Magazine
On the cobbled streets of a European location that could be anywhere but is nowhere in particular, the fresh-faced and bright-eyed Giuseppe (Masaya Sano)
www.skwigly.co.uk
November 6, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Blake Simons
cottage-games.itch.io
November 5, 2025 at 3:46 PM