Japanese sci-fi short 'Mozzman Episode 3' to premiere in Hollywood

“Mozzman Episode 3: Ladymozz and the Death of Earth” will have its Hollywood premiere at this year’s Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The latest game-changing cultural import from Japan, the film will be screened as part of the festival’s “EPIC JUKEBOX” program on April 29.

The third short-film episode of the “Mozz” series, which chronicles an amnesiac alien philosopher’s walking journey as he passes through Yokohama and participates in the waltz of the moon and the sun, has been praised for its unique pairing of audacious cinematic storytelling and its highly positive message.

Directed by French filmmaker Cris Uberman, with an original screenplay by Japanese actor / writer Hiro Super, the movie is also notable for its international nature. Artists working in various genres and of many nationalities were assembled to make the movie, making it one of the most internationally collaborative art projects in recent years to debut on the independent film festival circuits in the United States.

“Mozzman movies are a tribute to the art of things and incorporate many elements of art from the past and the future,” says Super, who also produced and stars in the film as the title character.

Ubermann, who has spent a good part of the last decade in his favorite city, Tokyo, takes the movie’s sci-fi settings in an unusual direction of poeticism. “My initial goal with this project was to make a poem or haiku on film,” says Ubermann, who dedicates the movie to his great grandfather Prince Rigadin, a legendary silent movie actor in the early days of French cinema. Ubermann uses some silent movie techniques in the movie, such as mostly non-verbal performances and on-screen texts.

The movie is a part of the ongoing “Mozz” project, which Ubermann and Super started in 2009. They are now working on the series’ first feature film “Journey to Mt Fuji,” which is set on both the Earth and Planet Mozz.

Recently, filming in Japan has been postponed due the massive earthquake that hit the northeastern coast of the country on March 11. The production, however, has resumed with filming in Los Angeles scheduled to begin in late spring.

“What’s so distinctively futuristic about this project is not its subject or the genre,” says Super, who holds a journalism degree from USC and has been blogging in a personal and poetic way about the current earthquake disaster. “Our ‘Mozzman’ movies are futuristic in a sense that they represent a bright future and bright hope for the world. Strangers and countries helping each other: that’s what we are seeing today, and I believe that’ll continue to be seen in the future.”

To find out more about the Mozzman project, visit http://www.mozzup.com.

© Japan Today