Kitaro Films
August 4th 2008 22:37
Kitaro Films, WWII Anime to Play at Locarno Film Fest
Swiss festival to host rare screening of 1945 propaganda anime Momotaro.
The Locarno Film Festival, which opens in the Swiss resort town of the same name on August 6, will play host to the international premiere of Kitaro and the Millennium Curse. This movie is Katsuhide Motoki's sequel to his 2007 live-action take on Shigeru Mizuki's supernatural GeGeGe no Kitarō manga. The earlier film (pictured at right) will also be screened, along with two episodes from this year's Hakaba Kitarō anime series.
In addition, the Japanese film distributor Shochiku is organizing a special program during the festival to highlight examples of early anime that are largely unknown to Western audiences. 1960s works like Astro Boy are often credited with launching the anime industry in Japan, but there were animated films and shorts produced in the country as early as 1917. Two of these, Kenzo Masaoka's 1943 short Kumo to Tulip (Spider and Tulip) and Mitsuyo Seo's 1945 wartime propaganda Momotaro - Umi no Shinpei (Momotaro - Divine Soldiers of the Sea, pictured at left), which will be screened at the festival.
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