{"id":14965,"date":"2010-11-21T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2010-11-21T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=14965"},"modified":"2010-11-21T15:04:43","modified_gmt":"2010-11-21T19:04:43","slug":"justins-japan-%e2%80%98summer-wars%e2%80%99-anime-aims-for-oscar-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/21\/justins-japan-%e2%80%98summer-wars%e2%80%99-anime-aims-for-oscar-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin’s Japan: \u2018Summer Wars\u2019 Anime Aims for Oscar (Film Review)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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‘Summer Wars’ comes to New York’s IFC Center Dec. 29.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

By <\/strong><\/em>JQ magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>Justin Tedaldi<\/strong><\/a> (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his NY Japanese Culture\u00a0page <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a> to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The\u00a0opening scene of Mamoru Hosoda\u2019s animated film Summer Wars <\/em>transports us\u00a0to the virtual world of OZ, a place where hundreds of millions of users chat, shop and play via customized avatars in a breathtakingly trippy space that owes much to contemporary Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and Mamoru Oshii\u2019s Ghost in the Shell<\/em> movies. But it\u2019s in rural Nagano where most of Summer Wars<\/em> occurs, and this setting gives it a heart in a world that\u2019s becoming increasingly addicted to online social networks and mobile devices.<\/p>\n

The film enjoyed a sold-out reception of its English language premiere at Asia Society<\/a> yesterday as part of distributor GKIDS<\/a>\u2019 annual New York International Children\u2019s Film Festival. Fueled by Internet buzz and rapturous word of mouth upon its initial release in Japan last year, the film won a clutch of awards and is an official entry for Best Animated Feature at the 2011 Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

The plot: teenage OZ moderator Kenji (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) agrees to a \u201cjob\u201d escorting his popular schoolmate Natsuki (Brina Palencia) to her great-grandmother\u2019s upcoming 90th birthday celebration at the family\u2019s enormous estate in Ueda. The catch: he\u2019s asked by his secret crush to pose as her fianc\u00e9, which hits complications as her crazed extended family enters the picture. To make matters worse, Kenji unwittingly triggers a malicious AI program called Love Machine that threatens not just the existence of OZ, but the rest of the real world with its interdependence on technology. It\u2019s up to the boy\u2014a girl-phobic math prodigy\u2014to gain new confidence in himself in order to right OZ and win his dream girl\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/strong><\/em><\/a> for the rest of the review.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Summer Wars’ comes to New York’s IFC Center Dec. 29. By JQ magazine\u2019s\u00a0Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his NY Japanese Culture\u00a0page here to subscribe for free alerts\u00a0on newly published stories.\u00a0 The\u00a0opening scene of Mamoru Hosoda\u2019s animated film Summer Wars transports us\u00a0to the virtual world of OZ, a place where hundreds of millions of users […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,263,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-film","category-justins-japan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t