Let’s raise a toast to the inventor of karaoke, the late great Japanese engineer Shigeichi Negishi. He devised the first karaoke machine in 1967, the “Sparko Box.” This invention changed the soundtrack of our lives forever. Negishi’s death was announced this week, at the age of 100, which means a century of making the world a louder, more tone-deaf place. His legacy is that all of us who are terrible singers can live out our tawdriest pop-star dreams for a few minutes of karaoke glory. We owe him so much.
- 3/16/2024
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
Shigeichi Negishi, the Japanese engineer who gifted the world one of its greatest inventions — the karaoke machine — has died, The Wall Street Journal reports. He was 100.
While Negishi’s death is just being reported now, he died of natural causes on Jan. 26 after a fall. His daughter, Atsumi Takano, confirmed his death.
Negishi’s pioneering karaoke machine, dubbed the “Sparko Box,” was first prototyped and released in 1967. The engineer loved to sing, and the idea for the machine came one morning at his electronics company in Tokyo after an employee...
While Negishi’s death is just being reported now, he died of natural causes on Jan. 26 after a fall. His daughter, Atsumi Takano, confirmed his death.
Negishi’s pioneering karaoke machine, dubbed the “Sparko Box,” was first prototyped and released in 1967. The engineer loved to sing, and the idea for the machine came one morning at his electronics company in Tokyo after an employee...
- 3/15/2024
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBRANCEIsland in the Sun.The singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has died, aged 96. Christina Newland wrote a piece on Belafonte for Notebook in 2020, praising his politics, his style, his music, and his work ss stage and screen. "His impact on American mid-century life has been so significant that it’s difficult to define him as any single thing, or to see him occupying only one role."NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi has left Iran for the first time in fourteen years, it is being reported. Posting from an airport, his wife Tahereh Saeedi tweeted that, “after 14 years, Jafar’s ban was cancelled" and, that finally, the pair are "going to travel together for a few days…”The Cannes Film Festival have...
- 5/2/2023
- MUBI
The Yokai Monsters Collection will be available on Bu-ray October 19th from Arrow Video
From the makers of Daimajin comes a trilogy of terror ripped from the pages of Japanese folklore, with ghosts and monsters from ancient myths and legends brought to life through stunning special effects, alongside an epic, big-budget reboot of the series from a modern-day master of the macabre, now available together on Blu-ray for the first time.</p
In the first film in the trilogy, 100 Monsters, a greedy slumlord’s attempts to forcefully evict his tenants invite the wrath of the titular spirits when a cleansing ritual is botched, with terrifying results. The second film, Spook Warfare, tells the tale of an evil Babylonian vampire inadvertently awoken by treasure hunters, and a brave samurai that teams with the yokai to defeat the bloodthirsty demon. In the final film, Along with Ghosts (released only 12 months after 100 Monsters...
From the makers of Daimajin comes a trilogy of terror ripped from the pages of Japanese folklore, with ghosts and monsters from ancient myths and legends brought to life through stunning special effects, alongside an epic, big-budget reboot of the series from a modern-day master of the macabre, now available together on Blu-ray for the first time.</p
In the first film in the trilogy, 100 Monsters, a greedy slumlord’s attempts to forcefully evict his tenants invite the wrath of the titular spirits when a cleansing ritual is botched, with terrifying results. The second film, Spook Warfare, tells the tale of an evil Babylonian vampire inadvertently awoken by treasure hunters, and a brave samurai that teams with the yokai to defeat the bloodthirsty demon. In the final film, Along with Ghosts (released only 12 months after 100 Monsters...
- 10/5/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Salor Suit and Machine Gun
A perky high-schooler takes on the mob in “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”, a one-of-a-kind genre-bender that riffs on the yakuza film, coming-of-age drama and ‘idol movie’, inventively adapted from Jiro Akagawa’s popular novel by director Shinji Somai, a massively influential figure in Japanese cinema whose work has been little seen outside his homeland.
Hoshi Izumi is a young innocent forced to grow up quickly when her father dies and she finds herself next in line as the boss of a moribund yakuza clan. Wrenched from the security of her classroom and thrust into the heart of the criminal underworld, she must come to terms with the fact that her actions hold the key to the life or death of the men under her command as they come under fire from rival gangs.
Presented in both its Original Theatrical and longer Complete versions, and...
A perky high-schooler takes on the mob in “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”, a one-of-a-kind genre-bender that riffs on the yakuza film, coming-of-age drama and ‘idol movie’, inventively adapted from Jiro Akagawa’s popular novel by director Shinji Somai, a massively influential figure in Japanese cinema whose work has been little seen outside his homeland.
Hoshi Izumi is a young innocent forced to grow up quickly when her father dies and she finds herself next in line as the boss of a moribund yakuza clan. Wrenched from the security of her classroom and thrust into the heart of the criminal underworld, she must come to terms with the fact that her actions hold the key to the life or death of the men under her command as they come under fire from rival gangs.
Presented in both its Original Theatrical and longer Complete versions, and...
- 8/29/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
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