One of the events/films I was most looking forward to at this year's Shinsedai Cinema Festival was the Devi Kobayashi Special. This was partly because Devi Kobayashi himself would be in attendance but mostly because his character Mariko Rose (ie. he would be coming in character in full costume and makeup) would be at the screening!

Devi Kobayashi is a writer, director, actor, singer, comedian and general entertainer who has made a few things during his career but had not yet had any real presence in Canada. He's also a very nice guy.

I've been holding off on posting about this as I was directly involved in choosing the winner but now that the 3rd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival has been over for awhile now and the news is technically already out there on the interwebs, I think it's about time I made mention of it.

Tickets to this years Shinsedai Cinema Festival are on sale!

With one week away from the 2011 Shinsedai Cinema Festival at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre that’s running from Thursday, July 21st and going right through till July 24th, tickets are sure to sell fast.

You can purchase tickets to each film separately or you have the option to purchase a 5 Film Pass or a Deluxe Pass (good for every film showing at the festival).

The time has finally come to announce the full line-up for the 3RD Annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival, taking place at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (6 Garamond Court) between July 21st and July 24th, 2011. Tickets for this year's festival go on sale Monday July 27th.

The Shinsedai Cinema Festival has changed their website address. What used to be http://shinsedai-fest.com/ is now

www.shinsedai-toronto.com

. Make sure to update your bookmarks and links and check back soon as they will be announcing their 2011 lineup of films very shortly.

As we did last year, we will have someone in attendance covering the festival either in part, or in full depending on the lineup of films.

The second annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival has come and gone with much success. This year I actually decided to help out by volunteering and I'm very glad I did. I managed to meet some fantastic people and still catch a few films from the diverse lineup available.

"Gunman Champion" star Shaq, not Shaquille O'Neil the basketball player, will be joining in on the festivities that are the Shinsedai Cinema Festival 2010.

Comedian, actor and singer Shaq, star of sugarmountain's "Gunman Champion" (screening with Katsuya Tomita's "Off Highway 20" on Saturday, July 24th at 3:45PM), will be a special guest at this years festival. How he will be involved is anybody's guess. Could he be singing? Perhaps doing some standup? Or a combination of both during a Q&A? Anything is possible at these kinds of events and the only way to find out is to be there.

The 2nd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival, the New Generation Japanese Film Festival, taking place at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre between July 22nd and July 25th, 2010 has announced their full lineup.

The 2nd annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival, the New Generation Japanese Film Festival, taking place at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre between July 22nd and July 25th, 2010 has announced the first round of films.

Film Historian, author and Midnight Eye co-founder Jasper Sharp and Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow creator Chris MaGee are still putting together the final list of films for this year's festival but they've been kind enough to let the cat out of the bag on the first batch they've selected.

I wasn't sure Toronto needed another Asian film festival when I first heard about the Shinsedai Cinema Festival. It wasn't until I read what Shinsedai was all about that I started to get a little curious. I was impressed by the variety of films the festival was going to be showing and knew that I had to try and get out to this new cinematic event. Unfortunately the opening night was also the closing night to the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.