5 Facts about TOKYO TRIBE director SION SONO!

 Director SION SONO returns with this year's opening film Toyko Tribe! He's directed some very unique films  including Last's years Midnight Madness hit  Why Don't You Play in Hell --and Love Exposure, Cold Fish, Suicide Club, and Noriko's Dinner Table to name a few. Sono is a charismatic figure in Japan, with a very interesting personality!  Here are some things I would never have guessed about him:

1. When he was a teenager, he was a prolific poet, and was published in several magazines.

2. He has a band called Revolution Q (which originated from one of his movies Love and Peace (coming 2015), and will be participating in a  battle of the bands  with another band called ART-SCHOOL sept 30th in Tokyo.

3. After being a filmmaker for some time, and even some moderate success he was homeless for 6 months in America. He faced this hardship with a positive attitude, seeking to be enriched by this unique life experience. During this period he drew Japanese Manga Style Portraits at the beach for money.

4.  Sono has the actor's touch of gold: in Japan many actors who work with him experience evolved careers, and go on to have great success.

6.  His film Suicide Club is a result of him watching American Z-movie indie films, and noticing that as a filmmaker, you don't only have to be traditional--that he can do something crazy. "I was incorrect before, this is ALSO a movie, and I should just make it with this "low level" feeling."

Then he called his friends, and said: "I wanna make Bizarre movies."

And the first film of this new wave was Suicide Club, which went on to win 2001 Fantasia Festival's  Grand Jury Prize.

Special Thanks to my wife for translating!

Sources:
http://jisin.jp/news/2626/6996/
www.Sionsono.com
www.art-school.net/liv.html

TOKYO TRIBE screening times: 

Thu., Sept. 4th, 11:59 PM, RYERSON 

Fri., Sept. 5th, 10:00 PM, SCOTIABANK 8 Sun., 

Sept. 14th, 3:30 PM, LIGHTBOX 3

HORNS & WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL: Between Vanguard & Midnight Madness

 Director Alexandre Aja's Haute Tension pulverized the audience at its North American premiere at Midnight Madness 2003. Since then, Aja has directed several more horror films including The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha 3D (2010). This year, he returns to the Toronto International Film Festival with the world premiere of his new film Horns--not to Midnight Madness, but to its cousin programme, Vanguard. What does this mean? Well, it means that Horns is still a hard-edged, genre-tinged film, but it's not so much of a meat grinder that some of the general citizenry can't appreciate it alongside Midnight Madness fans. In short, it's a film that the Festival doesn't have to wait until the witching hour to unleash.

On the other hand, director Sion Sono is apparently getting crazier the more films he makes. His film Cold Fish was in Vanguard 2010. Likely the bloodiest film in the Festival that year, it blurred the line between Vanguard and Midnight. It had the viscera to satisfy the Midnight crowd, but its 144 minute runtime made for a pace better suited to viewings not, well, in the middle of the night. Sono is back this year with the North American premiere of Why Don't You Play in Hell? and this time he's full on Midnight Madness. We can take this to mean that the director's work has reached the point at which it's no longer safe to exhibit in a non-Midnight situation where it could harm a casual filmgoer.

HORNS screening times:
Fri., Sept. 6th, 6:00PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS
Sun., Sept. 8th, 1:00PM, SCOTIABANK 4

WHY DON'T YOU PLAY IN HELL? screening times:
Fri., Sept. 13th, 11:59PM, RYERSON
Sat., Sept. 14th, 3:45PM, SCOTIABANK 1