This weekend at the SFIAAF Kris and I attended some of the Kiyoshi Kurosawa Retrospective, and had about the best time ever. We saw three rarely screened Kiyoshi Kurosawa films (Eyes of a Spider, Serpent’s Path, and License to Live, all to be reviewed shortly), and actually got to meet Kurosawa in person! We had a brief and informal interview of sorts, and he was kind enough to sign our import copy of Loft (to be reviewed shortly as well), but I’ll forgo listing the actual details for now. Suffice …

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival begins March 12th, and boy does this year’s line-up look nice. Case in point, the festival’s Spotlight on Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a collection of seven of Kurosawa’s films, many not released in the US in any form, beginning with his latest, Tokyo Sonata. You can safely bet we’ll be attending as many of these as humanly possible.
The full Kurowsawa lineup includes:

Tokyo Sonata – Friday 3/13 – 6:45pm, Kabuki | Saturday 3/14 – 6:00pm, Palace of Fine Arts
Eyes of the Spider (double feature) – …

Remember our “Gay for a Day” article from way back? Well the trailer for Gus van Sant’s Milk is finally out, and our hours of sunburned extra-ing have paid off. There’s not one, but a whole bunch of shots from our shoot in the trailer. In fact, I’d say a good third of it is shots from the City Hall Shoot. Now, I haven’t actually been able to spot Kris or myself anywhere in the crowd, but we should be somewhere around the blue circle. Heck, it can’t be that …

I have to preface this review by stating that the food at L’Osteria del Forno is incredible; the authenticity (as far as I know, I mean I’m no expert on Italy, but I know this ain’t Ragu), the fresher than fresh ingredients, the overall pristine presentation — basically what you look for in a restaurant of the most popular, palatable and recognizable cuisine on the planet. However, the other major part of dining out has to be the ambiance and service, which you’ll see I go back and forth …

Just received this Dead Channels press release in the mail, and figured a good number of you would be interested. Heck, I was already planning on writing up something about the Nikkatsu films myself. And, provided work and school calm down enough for me to take a daylong break, I might just be able to see a few of them. Now for the press release:

www.deadchannels.com
www.myspace.com/dead_channels

What’s coming up?
Classic Japanese action films; mobsters at the Peep Show; Flaming Sin meets Sweeney Todd; the (420-friendly) Starslyderz Experience; Jay Lee’s …

Betcha the Olympics committee wonders why oh why did they allow San Francisco, unabashed political arena, to be the only American point on the torch relay route dubbed the “Journey of Harmony”.
Extinguished in Paris (oft joshed at for their cowardice), many cringed at the thought of what Bay Area pro-Tibetan protesters might do to the torch and/or its bearer. On Monday, a few experienced climbers scaled the cables of the Golden Gate bridge to hang protest banners, which were promptly removed within a few hours.
Today, …

Woowoo! Today Chris and I spent the day getting kinda sunburnt and cheering ourselves hoarse in front of Sean Penn* for the new Gus Van Sant movie Milk, a biopic on Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official. I have no idea if we’re even visible, but we’re about three rows behind the “professional crowd” actors in their finest 70s regalia and hair-do’s. You might be able to see Chris, since he’s tall, but I was lost in the sea of happy screamers, happily screaming. …

Press Release below:
NOIR CITY 6
January 25 – February 3, 2008
Castro Theatre, San Francisco
The most fabulous Film Noir festival on earth returns to darken the Bay City
and delight the most dedicated moviegoers in the world. Presented by the Film
Noir Foundation, whose mission is to “rescue and restore America’s noir
heritage,” this year’s festival continues its tradition of unearthing astounding
rarities not available in any “home entertainment” format. “Czar of Noir” Eddie
Muller will be back to chaperone the Castro’s packed houses through the
sinister, sexy, and sin-drenched streets of Noir City.
The 10-day festival kicks off …

My goosh, has it been a year already?? My my how the time flies. A year ago the Bay Area was Beard Papa-less. Today we have three locations, two in San Francisco and one in Redwood City! And if you doubted their popularity or Bay Area-ites ability to overindulge, let me tell you that the Westfield Mall boutique has quickly become America’s number one highest volume cream puff retail store and number two in the whole world.
If you also fell in love with Beard …

When Santiago Rodriguez was informed that his restaurant lease was denied renewal, he didn’t panic at all. Rodriguez, the owner of Frjtz — the cute shop o’ the best paper cone o’ Belgian Fries (not quite French Fries) and authentic (soupy, buttery, floppy) crepes of Boho trendy SF Hayes Valley — simply moved right next door from 579 Hayes Street to 581. They’ll lose that little garden space in the “backyard” though, but the interior was always so kitschy bistro-y that I’m sure guests won’t mind too much. …

Just a heads up. The San Francisco International Film Festival starts April 26th. This year marks the festival’s 50th Anniversary (The SFIFF is the first American film festival to actually hit that mark), and one of their best film lineups yet. After just a cursory check of their screening list I’ve noted at least five films I am committed to seeing. There’s Satoshi Kon’s Paprika, Black Sheep, Everything’s Cool, Fay Grim (the sequel to Henry Fool), Ghost Train, Hana (by Kore Eda Hirokazu and featuring Tadanobu Asano), The …

SHE SAID:
@$)^(*)!+ That’s the Zodiac killer saying the movie is really good. Or else that’s him saying dammit, you almost caught me.
David Fincher’s stab (eh) at the Bay Area’s gruesome Zodiac serial killer is decidedly un-Fincher-esque. If you’re a salivating fan of the director’s previous slick CG swoops or gloomy moodiness (i.e.: Se7en, Fight Club), you may find this movie to be a bit blithe. Awash with a capable cast and droll dialogue, Zodiac refuses to be pigeon-holed into the indecently suspenseful prevalent psycho-thriller with an awful …

Okay, forget that it has cuter than cute Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead and the resurrection of the awesome awesome Robert Downey Jr, Zodiac is about one of my favorite psychological-plumb topics: serial killers. And it’s in one of my favorite cities: SF.
I’m not sure how well it will pan out, but with David Fincher at the helm, it is guaranteed to be a serious almost OCD kind of dark and mysterious chiaroscuro-scape. Maybe it would be better if it were a bit meatier and messier, …

Tired of all the posh snobbery and “clean” places to eat in the City? Want a place that’s just as gaudy on the inside as on the outside? Check it out: pastel “Easter” pink with marshmallow peanut orange trim opens up to cracked leather turquoise booths. Ooh, appetizing already. Chris and I had a hankering for pie and onion rings (our usual diner trial foods) so we couldn’t help it. I had the pecan pie w/ whipped cream and Chris had the cherry pie ala mode. …

Sometimes I ponder the oddities of life. Okay I ponder about them a lot. Like why would people in Hawai’i stand in line all day for a cream puff? Well, that’s what happened when Beard Papa first opened up shop. Well, at first they kinda piggybacked on Shirokiya, a local Japanese department store/supermarket/bakery located in Ala Moana, the largest open air mall in the world. Hawai’i loves cream puffs; everyone praises Liliha Bakery’s Coco Puffs and Komoda’s, so of course word traveled fast and soon …

The San Francisco International Film Fest is starting this weekend. Many cool films, including Seijun Suzuki’s Princess Raccoon. I’l admit, some of the films shown can be purchased down on Clement for cheaper than the price of two tickets, but it’s still nice to see these on the big screen.
Check out the lineup here.

Masons used to roll their rituals at the Regency Center in San Francisco, but this Saturday they must have been rolling in their graves when it was converted into a carnaval complete with crazy acrobatics, trapeze artists, experimental DJs, clowns grooving P-Funkster stylee, cabaret stripteases… aka: SF Spectra Ball 2006.
Chris and I were there betwix a wild mix of friendly freaks in ostrich feathers and socialites in satin ball gowns, all enjoying the party ‘till about 2am, ready to kick off the ArtSFest with this funky fundraising …

So I’ve been promising to take Kris to Brokeback Mountain since she first covered the story back when we were writing for Filmrot.com as Gopher and Kitten. Well, such promises proved void and null this weekend as ever single showing, morning, afternoon, and night, sold out at the Embarcadero theater in San Francisco. Though we did manage to see Syriana and Aeon Flux, both of which were quite good by the way (yep, even Aeon!), we missed the chance to see Brokeback with a truly receptive and rather festive …