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~~~~~<\/p>\n
Oh, no! What is<\/em> this coming up from the depths? Run!!!<\/em> No, wait<\/em>, slow down, dearest readers\u2026<\/p>\n Believe it or not, \u201cFlickers of the Week<\/strong>\u201d rises again to preview Champaign-Urbana<\/strong> cinema culture one last time prior to nesting in the weekly Calendar<\/strong>, for your humble editor couldn\u2019t pass an opportunity to shine the spotlight on a bit of surprise programming that is near and dear to his heart. (We also found it hard to resist sharing the impressively garish poster for these shows, to be honest.) Let us stomp forth, then\u2026<\/p>\n Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, February 23<\/strong>, and continuing on Thursday, February 25<\/strong>, the University of Illinois Library<\/strong> will host an \u201cInternational Science Fiction Film Festival<\/strong>\u201d in Room 66<\/strong> of the Main Library, 1408 W. Gregory Ave., Urbana<\/strong>, just west of the Undergraduate Library<\/strong>. The series is comprised of four offbeat titles we believe will spike your curiosity in terms of their respective storytelling techniques, cultural affects, historical backgrounds, and implicit membership in a beloved film genre. First up on Tuesday is PLANETA BUR<\/strong> (PLANET OF STORMS<\/strong>), a lavish space adventure directed by<\/a> <\/span>Pavel Klushantsev<\/strong> and first released in the former Soviet Union<\/strong> in 1962; stateside producers coopted the film\u2019s plot of an ill-fated mission to Venus<\/strong> and remarkable pre-2001<\/strong> effects, while augmenting it with an English-language soundtrack and new scenes featuring domestic actors, for multiple small-screen permutations like VOYAGE TO A PREHISTORIC PLANET<\/strong> (1965). The library will then screen BRAINSTORM<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (1983), a fascinating drama starring Christopher Walken<\/strong> and directed by Douglas Trumbull<\/strong>, the visual pioneer who helped create the \u201cspecial photographic effects\u201d for 2001<\/a><\/strong><\/span> and other classics, about scientists learning how to tap and record the human mind; sadly, many remember it more as being the last movie of costar Natalie Wood<\/strong>, who drowned away from the set during production.<\/p>\n Thursday\u2019s leg will kick off with YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP<\/strong> (1969), the \u201cAmericanization\u201d of the rare South Korea<\/strong> yarn in the Godzilla vein made by prolific director Kim Ki-duk<\/strong> with an assist from Japanese effects artists; while funneled directly to television in our country a la<\/em> PLANETA BUR<\/strong>, YONGARY<\/strong> only received minor updating such as the prerequisite English dubbing and \u201cpan-and-scan\u201d transfer to 16mm. (YONGARY<\/strong> attendees will most likely see a current restoration mating that vintage dub and fresh English titles with a pristine widescreen picture. Amazingly, the latter element resided safely in the United States<\/strong> for nearly 40 years before MGM<\/strong> unearthed it for their DVD release, according to this fascinating SciFi Japan<\/strong><\/span> article<\/a><\/span>, while its Korean counterpart \u2013 TAEKOESU YONGGARY<\/strong> (GREAT MONSTER YONGARY<\/strong>, 1967) \u2013 had all but vanished save for a truncated and battered print<\/a><\/span>.) The set will conclude with BIG MAN JAPAN<\/strong> (2007) directed by and starring Hitoshi Matsumoto<\/strong> as the title character, a sad sack who can grow 30 meters tall with the well-placed electric jolt; playing as a satire on the expectations of fame and legacy as well as homage<\/em> to the country\u2019s kaiju eiga<\/em> output, BIG MAN JAPAN<\/strong> frames the protagonist\u2019s struggles in \u201cdocumentary\u201d form as it depicts his battles against both improbable towering beasts and a mammoth case of ennui<\/em>.<\/p>\n C-U Blogfidential<\/strong><\/span> friends R.L. Cagle<\/strong> and Richard Leskosky<\/strong> of the Media and Cinema Studies<\/strong> (MACS) department in the College of Media<\/strong> at UIUC will introduce this tag-team duo while Richard Tempest<\/strong>, associate professor in the department of Slavic studies and literatures<\/strong>, and Julie Turnock<\/strong>, assistant professor in MACS, are scheduled to provide commentary on Tuesday. Start time both evenings will be 7 p.m.<\/strong> with refreshments served.<\/p>\n We mentioned in the first \u201cFlicker of the Week\u201d<\/a><\/span> the involvement of Ye Ed in an epic science-fiction show circa<\/em> 1996, the likes of which would have an extremely unlikely chance of reoccurring publicly in 2016. Even with its limited scope and presumed stress on cultural context and academic readings, this Library series by its very nature exudes a sense of fun and nostalgia akin to that run of unabashed genre and cult film festivals put on by The Octopus<\/strong><\/span>. In a similar respect, we found the below advertisement last month while researching other topics using the Library’s Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections<\/strong> hub<\/a><\/span> and set it aside for our amusement; who knew we\u2019d inadvertently devise a good excuse so quickly to bring it on like King Kong! A quarter-page promotion for an all-night \u201cMonster Mush\u201d (?) marathon organized by Illini Union Student Activities<\/strong>, it ran on p.18<\/strong> of The Daily Illini<\/strong><\/span> on Friday, June 1, 1973<\/strong>, and we reproduce it here in two halves for easier viewing. As opposed to \u201cInternational Science Fiction Film Festival,\u201d we\u2019re certain \u201cfun\u201d and \u201cnostalgia\u201d \u2013 not to mention \u201ccheap rental rates\u201d \u2013 were the top criteria for booking this quartet of creaky creature features at the time.<\/p>\n ~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n p.s.<\/em> Should we already start placing bets as to how long it will take for someone to ask on Thursday why they chose to screen YONGARY<\/strong> instead of PULGASARI<\/strong> (1985), the infamous North Korea<\/strong> epic<\/a><\/span> mashing together period warlord melodrama, DAIMAJIN<\/strong>-style living idol destruction, contributions from South Korean talent who were kidnapped and forced to participate north of the Demilitarized Zone<\/strong>, and the creative wiles of Kim Jong-il<\/strong>? That conversation would probably be more entertaining than either movie\u2026<\/p>\n p.s.2<\/em> If these titles sound faintly familiar, Kino Lorber Home Video<\/strong> released another YONGARY<\/strong> upgrade<\/a><\/span> in January on DVD and Blu-ray while a new documentary about director Shin Sang-ok<\/strong> and actress Choi Eun-hee<\/strong>, the aforementioned talent imprisoned by the North Korean government, premiered last month at the Sundance Film Festival<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n ~~~~~<\/p>\n From the \u201cFlicker of the Week\u201d Dept.: On February 23 and 25, 2016, the Main Library at the University of Illinois will present an imaginatively conceived “International Science Fiction Film Festival.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,869,53,1618,13,31],"tags":[1656,1655,1654,1661,1657,1659,505,1660,1069,1658],"class_list":["post-9735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-area-festivals","category-calendar-du-c-u","category-educationclasses","category-flick-picks-du-c-u","category-public-events","category-the-old-school","tag-big-man-japan","tag-brainstorm","tag-international-science-fiction-film-festival","tag-julie-turnock","tag-planet-of-storms","tag-r-l-cagle","tag-richard-leskosky","tag-richard-tempest","tag-uiuc-university-library","tag-yongary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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