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General screenings for director Masaaki Yuasa’s short anime Kick-Heart finally began at the commemorative event “Kick-Heart Masked Ball” held in Roppongi, Tokyo on May 26. The movie was also screened earlier this month at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2013 (SSFF & Asia) held in Tokyo and Yokohama, as well as the Laforet Museum Harajuku. For the film’s first screenings, director Yuasa was also in attendance to hold a short talk. In addition, the movie was also screened from June 7-12 at the Brillia Short Shorts Theater in Yokohama as a work from the CG animation category of SSFF & Asia 2013.
Kick-Heart is the story of an unknown, masochistic masked wrestler named Mask Man M and a well-known, sadistic masked wrestler named Lady S. When Lady S meets Mask Man M, her sadistic heart is set aflutter. The opposing Mask Man M then awakens the potential of his masochistic power. This 12-minute movie depicts an extreme love. This sharpened film is even picking up attention for being completely funded by contributors on the popular crowdfunding site, Kickstarter. Mamoru Oshii, the supervisor of the film, also has experience as a judge at SSFF & Asia. It seems that because of this connection, the film was screened first at the festival.
After the festival in Yokohama, the film is planned to begin screening in overseas countries one after the other. The film was already screened in France due to it being nominated in the short animation category at the 2013 Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It seems that this screening was its first outside of Japan. It has also been decided that the film will be screened next month at Anime Expo 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Director Yuasa was invited to the event as an official guest. It is here that the movie will make its North American premiere. Being a work that has gained enthusiastic support from those overseas, it will be interesting to see the reaction the film receives.
Yuasa is a director whose past works include Mind Game. His works have a shining sense of comedy and the characters depicted are both humorous and poisonous. We are excited to see how Kick-Heart expands from here on.
SSFF & Asia Screening Information:
http://www.shortshorts.org/2013/ja/news/detail/index.php?id=1369663795 (Japanese)
Source:
http://animeanime.jp/article/2013/06/02/14268.html (Japanese)
Source article written by Yushi Makari