Last week, Le Guess Who? shared the interesting news that they would organise a hybrid event named ON/OFF from 13 to 15 November as an alternative of the yearly Le Guess Who? festival. It is supposed to be a dual programme for both international and local visitors. With LGW ON, Le Guess Who? creates a three-day online television channel; LGW OFF is a two-day programme in Utrecht with more than 50 performances by Dutch acts at familiar and new locations throughout the city of Utrecht.
The organisation already shared the programme of ON and now the line-up of Le Guess Who? OFF is announced, but in the meantime, the Dutch government decided a few days ago on a partial lockdown for at least four weeks, making it unknown what is possible at the time that the programme of the offline event will take place. Even though with this uncertainty, making the programme subject to change, there are a few Japan-related events that need a highlight in this article.
Performance: Go Kurosawa & Kohhei Matsuda
On Saturday 14 November, the musicians Go Kurosawa and Kohhei Matsuda will perform at Moira, an independent exhibition space in the city of Utrecht. Go Kurosawa is the drummer of the psychedelic explorers Kikagaku Moyo, a band that has been touring Europe many times and Kohhei Matsuda is known as the guitarist of noise rock and alternative rock band Bo Ningen, a Japanese band that currently is based in London. Together they will perform as part of the sub-programme Sonique Cosmique that is hosted by musical project Bhajan Bhoy, who also will perform during that day. More information can be found here.
Go Kurosawa | Photography by Erik Luyten
Kohhei Matsuda | Photography by Jelmer de Haas
The Day of Destruction (破壊の日)
Film: The Day of Destruction
The Day Of Destruction by director Toshiaki Toyoda (Blue Spring) was premiered on the original starting day of the now postponed summer Olympics, 24th of July. The film holds the torch alit for Japanese cinema, and specifically its inclination to use monsters as allegories for its historical traumas. Interesting to know: the film was filmed during the early stages of the current pandemic. If you missed the film during the start of CAMERA JAPAN 2020 in Rotterdam, you might grab the chance to see the film in Utrecht on Sunday 15 November at Springhaver. The film is hosted by CinemAsia, a yearly film festival that offers new Asian cinema from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, India, Bhutan, Thailand and The Philippines. More information can be found here.
Tickets for Le Guess Who? OFF will go on sale at a later date. It might be a good idea to keep an eye on the social media of the organisation, since they are quite active on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
