I discussed this film before in the Yubari thread. It's nice seeing how things are turning out for it. Kei Morikawa, a veteran of more than 1000 porn films, directed this hilarious peek behind the scenes of an AV shoot (mostly starring real AV stars) with no great expectations for success. However, not did the film only won Grand Prix at Yubari, but it also got immediately picked up by Third Window Film's Adam Torel who is now pushing it to international film fests.
I bet Morikawa and star Riri Kuribayashi didn't expect a few months ago that they'd soon be in Italy in front of a 1200+ crowd and Italian newspapers writing about them.
All photos via Third Window Films
Here's what I wrote about the film a few months ago:
Makeup Room (Japan, 2015) [Yubari Fanta] - 4/5
This year's Yubari Grand Prix went to AV veteran Kei Morikawa, whose resume contains more than a 1000 porn films. Makeup Room, one of his first mainstream releases, is an utterly hilarious look behind the scenes of a porn shoot. The movie, which takes place entirely in one room, follows a makeup artist who is trying to prepare the female stars on time for the shoot that is taking place in the next room. However, the day escalates into an apocalyptic farce when everything imaginable goes wrong. Lead star Aki Morita aside, the cast is made up of real AV stars. It's a very funny, well made film that gets funnier scene by scene. And yes, there's boobs. From the typically cynical Western perspective, however, it is surprising how the AV industry is presented in a very positive light: chaotic shoots aside, people are nice and working is rather fun. Director Morikawa said he never even dreamed of winning the main price, let alone international recognition. That's exactly what the film is now heading for with UK's Third Window Films prepping it for UK release and pushing it to international film festivals.
Here's Twitch review:
http://twitchfilm.com/2015/04/udine-201 ... ation.html
And here's some of my own photos from Yubari
From the screening. Morikawa brought the entire cast and I couldn't fit more than half of them in the frame...
Awards ceremony
The man in the middle is of course Yoshihiro Nishimura, who was a member of the jury
I ran into the director on the street one night in Yubari with a few friends, btw. Seemed like a nice guy. He was very happy to hear that we all loved his film.
* as for the film's title, it's currently doing rounds with the Japanese-English title メイクルーム (Make Room) though the correct English-English title should be Makeup Room.
