Following the United States premiere of the new 2K restoration as part of New York City’s Japan Society over the weekend, Hideaki Anno’s first live-action feature-length film, “Love and Pop,” is headed to North American theaters for the first time via GKids.
The movie, based on the novel by Ryū Murakami, was originally released in 1998 but never had a North American release. The new 2K restoration will be “presented with technical adjustments made to its format,” since it was originally captured by consumer-grade handheld digital cameras (Anno is frequently playing with format, with sections of his recent “Shin Kamen Rider” captured via iPhone). The film will be released at the IFC Center in New York City starting Feb. 21 and at the American Cinematheque’s Los Feliz 3 starting Feb. 23. Additional markets will follow.
“Love and Pop” is described, in the official release as “radical in its stylistic approach to teenage ennui, taking to the seedy streets of Shibuya with handheld digicams, distorted lenses and a barrage of unconventional camera angles.” The movie, which went unseen for years, “remains a singular portrait of Japanese youth coming of age in the approach to the 21st century.”
Anno is best known as the creator of “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” one of the most beloved anime series of all time, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. (You have perhaps seen the incredible merchandising tie-in with McDonald’s in Japan.) The series led to several critically acclaimed animated features, the last of which (“Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time”) was released in 2021. Anno has also worked on several live-action films, including “Shin Godzilla,” which resurrected the beloved character in 2016 and led to several more films featuring new interpretations of beloved Japanese pop culture titans – 2022’s “Shin Ultraman” and 2023’s “Shin Kamen Rider.” Technically, that last “Neon Genesis Evangelion” movie is also part of the series, collectively known as the Shin Japan Heroes Universe.
It will be fascinating to see this early live-action work from Anno, cleaned up and ready for North American theatrical exhibition.
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