Sunday, January 30, 2011

Run Salary Man Run: Dangan Runna (Non-Stop)

DB here posting a brief piece on one of the screenings in the Sabu retrospective that is running at the Japan Society in New York. This report is being filed by Mondocurry who attended the third of the six films they are running. As you may know both he and I attended the first screening on Wednesday of the film Monday. (We braved one of the worst snow storms in recent New York history to do so). The second screening was Postman Blues, which we both passed up, I because I've already seen the film and my compatriot because I gave him a VCD copy of the film when I saw him two days earlier.

As with Monday, this is more a teaser. A full review of the event and of the film will be coming in a couple of weeks.

The reason we're not posting a full review of Dangan Runna is that in discussing the piece we decided that it was going to be best to do reviews of all of the films they are showing. In order to do this we'd have to wait until after next Saturday when the final film screens. We then figured that if we added a couple more films we could pay homage to Sabu the best way possible by an entire week of films that will hopefully do our part toward making him a household name. So in a few weeks you'll see full reviews of six of Sabu's films: Monday, Dagan Runna, Hard Luck Hero, Blessing Bell, Drive,and Troubleman. Keep watching this blog.

With that out of the way I turn you over to Mondocurry for a few words on the screening last night:

Day 2 for me at the Sabu retrospective and day 3 of the retrospective as a whole, or as Sabu himself put it, the Sabu Matsuri (literally translates to Sabu Festival). Dangan Runner, otherwise known as Nonstop, Sabu’s first feature length film was shown. This was also Sabu’s third and final day of q & a’s , and he continues to show himself as a good natured and modest sort who is genuinely grateful to be here. It’s regrettable he cannot be here to introduce and talk about the rest of the films being screened.

Dangan Runner is a noticeably less polished work than Monday. But the director’s knack for humorous visual scenarios, as well as numerous themes that he deals with in his later films, are already prominent in this debut.

Feeling excited to see more of this under appreciated Japanese director’s work.

The screenings continue over the next week with Drive on Wednesday, Blessing Bell on Friday and Troubleman on Saturday. Check out the Japan Society website for details.

And for those who want a taste of the films a trailer can be found here.

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