Alright, I just got home from Otakon 2001 in Maryland.

It was very exciting, and I had an amazing time, but I am posting about it on THIS board because indirectly I was able to score a little info about everyone's favorite animator, Peter Chung.

I attended a panel led by Masao Maruyama - Producer/CEO of Madhouse Studios. I went into the panel and sat nowhere else but in the front row. When I arrived, of course it was on my mind that this is the studio that produced Alexander (which Chung worked on) and that Maruyama must know Peter Chung. However, although I am an obsessive crazy super-fan type, I planned on repressing my urges to ask about Chung personally, because I felt it would be kind of rude seeing how it was a Madhouse panel, and Alexander is long since over with.

Well, right as the panel began we were shown three pieces of animation. Two of which (including the Vampire Hunter D trailer and the Metropolis trailer) I had already seen. One was new to me though.

This new piece of animation was the opening animation for a live action Asian production named "Party 7". Let's just say it was AWESOME. Right away I noticed the similarity to other art of Yoshiaki Kawajiri (the artist behind the new Vamprire Hunter D movie as well as the Japanese animation classic and a personal favorite of mine, Ninja Scroll (both Madhouse studio films).

This is the style that Chung pointed out in my last topic was pointed out as being very similar to his, as Chung stated Kawajiri was an influence on him. (both animators are fans of very long and lanky character designs with very aggressive features). As they are very similar styles, it of course immediately hit me that there may be some involvement with Peter Chung here, as this is a studio he works with on occassion and it looked a lot like his work.

This trailer was a series of scenes cut together, each centering around one or two characters and eventually fading out and being replaced by that real life character. For instance, a man is walking down the street where he is confronted by two other men who start trouble. He proceeded to kick some butt and escape, and as his scene ends it zooms in on his character, then fades to a real-life actor in a sort of studio setting in the same position. It was a very cool technique. There were several scenes, and I assume each highlighted a character from the movie (even though I know nothing about the actual film besides what was told to us during the panel).

So, the TV turns off, the lights come up, and right away they welcome us to questions. I had no choice but to put my hand up and ask the first question "What animators worked on the piece for Party 7?" We were told it was hand drawn almost completely by one man, the artist who was responsible for Ninja Scroll and Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust... almost. THEN Maruyama added something along the lines of "but for one difficult scene with the dancers, he called in Peter for some help." Then another person asked if it was full animation, and how many frames were used, Maruyama told us it was done at a very low framerate, but the frames were so well crafted it could not be noticed and the animation was fluid and quite amazing. (as it truly was). Since he had just mentioned Peter from my question, he added that Peter's segment had by far the most frames. **I do not by any means say that those were his exact words, he spoke in Japanese and had an English translator, and it was a day and a half ago so the words may have been in a different order, I simply use the quotes to show in a general manner what Maruyama said - it is all paraphrased.**

He was talking about a scene in which a man and a women were dancing together through a very elaborate synchronized dance, and I may be mistaken but it looked like it was animated to seem as if it was being viewed through a slight fish-eyed lens (that makes anything on the sides of the lens seem to stretch a big - just used for a cool effect - think of Aeon looking into the surveilance camera and Trevor Goodchild seeing her on his monitor with a "fish-eyed" stretch to her).

At this point I made sure to clarify "Peter" was in fact Peter Chung. I remember the way he said Peter because he did it over and over - Maruyama was an EXTREMELY nice man and talked about everyone as if they were a close friend, but especially it seemed he had high regards for Chung.

So, I couldn't help it any more, I had to ask a question more specifically involving Chung's work. I asked if he was currently involved with anything else at Madhouse now that Alexander was done and it seemed he was around if he was working on this other small project. However, to my dissapointment, Maruyama told me that the Party 7 trailer was done some time ago and that Chung was currently involved working on a personal project in Korea for an overseas release, and he didn't know (or didn't want to tell me) any more about that. He said that him and Chung were friends, and that he goes to Korea often and visits him while he's there and likes to ask him for help because he is fond of him and his talent as an animator. BUT - he did also add that Chung was supervising an American project. I didn't feel like it was my place to pry any further - it was a Madhouse Studio panel, not an ask about other animators panel, so I did not ask if this was an animated or live-action project, or any such details about it at all.

I felt kind of guilty that I would be disrespectful if I had pryed my way into learning about Peter Chung's new project, and that if he wanted to tell us more he could tell us himself on this board, so I left it at that. However, it was cool hearing that he is involved with something stateside, so maybe we will be hearing more about that in the future.

I realize this was a pretty big post so I'll end it there, look it over, and maybe add more to it after I've re-read it ;)

-- Attrox (Attrox@vampirehunter.com), August 13, 2001

Answers

Oh yeah - I know people have been wondering...

Masao Maruyama was also asked (not by me this time!) what the deal with a US release of Alexander was, and his answer was something along the lines of "oh, it's not released over here yet? I guess a publisher did not pick it up".

Sorry gang. It looks like it is up to the fans to create a buzz themselves before it will get picked up.

As for anything else talked about at Masao Maruyama's panel or at the convention in general - if anybody wants to know something just ask. For instance I could go into Maruyama's thoughts on the use of 3D animation and its use in Metropolis, but that would have to be for another thread if somebody wanted to discuss it.

-- Attrox (attrox@vampirehunter.com), August 13, 2001.

Who ARE you?...just hanging on every typed word here, thanks for that discourse. Well, without starting another column, I for one would love to know when do they plan to release Metropolis, and was Peter any part of it.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 13, 2001.

I don't remember the exact date (maybe they didn't say) but we were told Metropolis would be in American theatres in October.

However, they also said September for Vampire Hunter D, which is really going to open in August... so maybe they were a bit mixed up on the dates.

-- Attrox (attrox@vampirehunter.com), August 13, 2001.

Well, it just so happens that when I saw Metropolis tonight, our host informed us of it's impending release - sometime in November :( I hope you all get to see it though, this was a knockout anime. Best cel/CG blend ever, with a music score you won't believe... Barb, you may think me cruel, but trust me. I'm just jonesing to see it again!

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 18, 2001.

Was the music score by Georgio Moroder? Did the robot bear an unexpected resemblence to Aeon, in areas such as the knees? You can go on the web under Metropolis to see the original Maria/robot if you want, you know. That transformation scene is classic. BTW; the original, by Fritz Lang was release with this really bad music accompanying it, (it was a silent movie) and his political message was marred. Metropolis/Bregna? What do you think?

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 18, 2001.

Inukko,

Glad to hear you enjoyed Metropolis. Another take on the A.I. concept, which I gather you appreciated more than Spielberg's... While I was in Seoul last week, I ran into the director, Rin Taro (with whom I worked on Alexander). Over lunch, he told me that spending the last 5 years working on Metropolis was the hardest thing he'd ever done, and that he was ready to give up animation. Having seen the film, you'd know what he means. (He is, however, currently at Madhouse working on a new Captain Harlock T.V. series.)

Further screenings of Metropolis will be held in L.A. and NYC. Here's a page with showtimes (scroll down towards the bottom):

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=9877

Attrox, the story behind the Party 7 title sequence is a bit more complicated than Mr. Maruyama probably had time to go into. The character designer and animation director is an artist named Koike Takashi, who has had a long history working on Mr. Kawajiri's projects. In the case of Party 7, I'd say that there was a definite influence of my design style on Mr. Koike's characters. Mr. Koike had animated on my 15-second Aeon Flux CD-Rom commercial. I returned the favor by helping him out on the Party 7 sequence, which was his directorial debut. Kawajiri also contributed animation to the piece, but it was Mr. Koike's project.

Mr. Kawajiri's drawing style is somewhat "straighter" than what you saw in Party 7. To confuse things further, Mr. Minowa, the character designer of the new Vampire Hunter D film, as well as Ninja Scroll, has exerted his own influence on Mr. Kawajiri, at the same time being influenced by him. Animation, being a collaborative medium, requires various artists working together to adopt one another's traits for the cohesion of the final product.

For those of you in the L.A. area, I'll be giving a presentation along with several other Asian-Americans in the animation industry at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena this Sunday, Aug. 19, at 7 P.M.. The address is 46 N. Los Robles. I'll be showing the Party 7 titles along with my commercial reel, followed by discussion. Unfortunately, I cannot talk about my upcoming project, as I've been sworn to secrecy by my producer. But soon, though, I promise...

And yes, it begins with an A and ends with an X. But it's not what you think. Sorry, Barb.

-- Peter Chung (neo830holy@orgio.net), August 18, 2001.

I'll just add that A-------x will also include new work by Madhouse. Kawajiri, Koike and Minowa are all working on it. (Now, with that extra info, you can find out what it is.)

-- Peter Chung (neo830holy@orgio.net), August 18, 2001.

OK, that's it! I am moving to the US.

Peter, does the commercial reel you spoke of include the Aeon CD-Rom commercial? I have a cel from it and have seen another, but I have never seen the commercial. Do you think it will ever be viewable online?

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), August 18, 2001.

William,

The CD-Rom commercial was for the abandoned AF game. The commercial was to have been 30 seconds: 15 seconds of cel animation, about 12 seconds of screen shots from the game, and, as is usual, about a 3 second logo at the end. The game was never released, so the spot was never finished. However, the 15 seconds of cel animation (done while I was at Madhouse) is on my commercial reel with a Drew Neumann score.

I have it in Quicktime format as well. Suggest to me a way of receiving it, and I'll see what I can do.

-- Peter Chung (neo830holy@orgio.net), August 18, 2001.

So you were directing the commercial as well? I did'nt know the exact content of the commercial and always assumed it was 30 seconds of cel animation, you learn something new everyday ^_^

There was a discussion about the game on this forum a while ago. I learned about a year and a half ago that it was released in Europe under the name 'Pax Corpus'. I don't have an interest in video games myself so I never did seek it out. But I have been wanting to see the commercial since I first heard about it several years ago. Would it be possible to send it to my email address?

I have always wanted to see the Cindy Flux commercial as well, is that on your reel?

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), August 18, 2001.

Peter; about A----X, guess I will have to go on dreaming. Sigh.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 18, 2001.

Ack! Not much lead time to buy a plane ticket.

Is there anyone out there willing to attend the Pacific Asia Museum Animation presentation in Pasadena this Sunday and take notes for the benefit of the whole group, please?

-- VictorV - http://www.aeonflux.org/ (see@website.url), August 18, 2001.

Heh heh... yeah, I'm aware of the irony in liking Metropolis, and hating AI (though I can credit Peter Chung and Matthew's testimonies with reducing an intense hatred to mere dislike). I'm also surprised I liked a film written by Otomo (Akira) so much. But Metropolis was so stylish I couldn't resist it. Peter, just out of curiousity, what other Rintaro works do you recommend?

Hmm, don't know anyone in Pasadena... William, I'll see what I can do ^_^

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 19, 2001.

Oh wait, it was Victor who asked that question. I need to keep up more... still planning to see Vampire Hunter, Barb?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 19, 2001.

Yeh, but I would love to hear all about it as well :-D

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), August 19, 2001.

Paul, yes I would still like to go, but I checked with the Egyptian's site and discovered they don't sell tickets over the phone and you have to be a member to buy online. That would mean I'd have to fly to L.A. and take my chances at the box office, do you think it will sell out? Plus I'd have to take a cab from the airport, (I was prepared to do all this if I was able to obtain ticky's but to get there and not it is a little fly by night). I think getting a plane to L.A. from Phoenix is no problem. BTW my great aunt and uncle were headliner's in vaudeville, a dance act called Cunningham and Clements, they danced with Fred Astaire, and I think they may have danced at the Egyptian, is there an old stage there? Is it all Deco? Will call them today and see if I can purchase online without being a member. William, grab your 45 and come on over!

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 19, 2001.

ha ha, I will keep my fug thanks ;-)

-- William (stateofflux@yahoo.com), August 19, 2001.

Sounds good... I think these will sell out, as Metropolis played to a pretty large audience. Advance tickets are the way to go. Barb, I'd get one for you, but I still have to find my ride (and, knowing my friends, that could be anytime next week ;), so I can't know how many to buy yet. The Egyptian? It's well... fairly Art Deco, I guess. Maybe 2/3 old-style, and 1/3 modern, newer style. But it looks great.

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 19, 2001.

Oh yeah... I didn't see the stage, but if it's in Hollywood, then it probably is the same Egyptian. Pasadena is on, looking forward to it! I'll take as many notes as is possible, without tattooing them on my body ;)

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 19, 2001.

/sighs why can't animation projects come to Chicago land area! why does it always have to be NY and CA? Why! As for the commercial, why not just stick it on a site so ppl can view it? i for one would love to see it. Mr. Chung isn't there a peterchung.com site? eh? :O)

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@msn.com), August 21, 2001.

Hey Barb,

are you still trying to buy a ticket? I have a better idea of who's gonna be there now, so if you need one, let me know... I'm getting the tickets on Thursday...

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 22, 2001.

Hi everyone,

For a while, there was a site where my commercial reel was available for downloading. However, it was a Korean file swapping site which required a Korean language browser and password registration in Korean. The site has since been shut down.

I've been thinking of other ways to upload the files, but I can't get cable or DSL at my current address, and I'm only interested in offering the files if they can be viewed in high quality sizes. In the meantime, you can see a montage of clips at :

http://www.acmefilmworks.com

-- Peter Chung (neo830holy@orgio.net), August 22, 2001.

funny i tried going to that site and it said something about a plug not installing correctly...anyone want to help me out? heh :O)

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@aol.com), August 22, 2001.

I checked out that montage a while ago - and it is good to see a lot of new stuff has been added into it (from the lesser-known animations as well!).

The plug-in you need to view that clip is "quicktime" - check out www.quicktime.com

It is free to download, so if you need it head here : http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

-- Attrox (attrox@vampirehunter.com), August 22, 2001.

Hmm... Barbara, are you there? Bueller? Bueller?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

Yes and damn it I want to go to the Egyptian so bad I'm willing to become a mummy...BTW Peter's reference site is cool :)

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 23, 2001.

Forget animation projects comming to chic, i figure the only way i'm going to see alexander and vamp hunter D (wonder if it's out) is to write my grandmother in JAPAN haha and ask her to send it to me! oOOo so jealous aren't we??? why i didn't think of this sooner? who knows? heh jealous hahahaha...btw how come i can't view the site Mr. Chung posted?? it's not fair!...but i do get the movies from japan! so jealous you ppl in ca and ny!!!!!!!

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@msn.com), August 23, 2001.

Yes, it sure is. So you want me to buy a ticket for you?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

now all i need to do to make my life complete is to meet Mr. Chung denise, john and..and...david bowie! and i can die happy heh.

-- Lady Morgan (AeonFluxFan1@msn.com), August 23, 2001.

Responding to Barb's post above.

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

I can't decide. I'd be willing to fly but its the taxi drive 17 miles from the airport to the Egyptian and back again the same night that is worrying me, (L.A. is a scary place Paul, NY made more sense then you guys and your freeways) hmm, will decide tomorrow and post you here. Thanks. Very considerate of you. Really want to go though.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 23, 2001.

So you'd head back to Phoenix the same night? Wow, what a jet-set lifestyle you live ;) Anyway, let me know your schedule tomorrow (preferably by noon) & if you can make it.

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 23, 2001.

Spent all morning trying to figure this trip out. Greyhound with a one way flight back was the best idea I came up with, but I'd still be overnight in L.A. alone, as no one can go with me. My friend who would go has a knee injury and she's seeing the doctor that day. Sigh. Paul its just not to be, but thanks for the offer of picking up my ticket. It's killing me to say I just can't make it. However, am REALLY going to try for that new Chung movie, which I'm sure will show in L.A. Please tell us all about it, I'm sure its going to be fabulous.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 23, 2001.

Haha... well, it was interesting alright. I had to hold off on buying tickets to see if another friend wanted to go; they didn't, so I ended up leaving for the Egyptian on Friday. When I got there, they were sold out! So I didn't meet Kawajiri, or John Lee... on top of that, my ride back didn't show up, so I ended up temporarily stranded in Hollywood. At night. Fun! Now I'm fighting a cold for the first time since January. Barb, you win some, you lose some...

The upside of all this is, I get to stay home and watch Japanimation! (without the sugar cubes) I just got through A Wind Named Amnesia; now I'm watching the Utena DVD. Apocalypse Adolescence it ain't, but it's pretty darn cool. The singing cracks me up. Gotta love that Canadian dubbing: "Ootena". What's this aboot?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), August 25, 2001.

Aww. That is awful. I'm really sorry about all that. No one can say you're not a loyal guy. Anyhow, the Ootena line was great, got a laugh out of that one. You have a good attitude anyhow. In reference to the sugar cubes, the old recipe was put a drop of lysergic acid on them. You could be watching 'Vampire D' on the wall, with no need for rides home.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 25, 2001.

It occurred to me that if the tickets were sold out then Vampire D must've done well. Maybe we'll all get to see it. It'll be nice to hear that voice again.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), August 29, 2001.

please keep mugu day here

-- koko (lawyer077@lawyer.com), November 13, 2003.