Mamoru Oshii's Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (original title: Tachiguishi Retsuden) has been selected in competition for the 15th Raindance Film Festival, to be held in London, United Kingdom, from September 25 to October 7. The screening at the Raindance Film Festival is also going to be the movie’s UK premiere.

The Raindance Film Festival is the largest independent film festival in the United Kingdom. The festival was established in 1992 to celebrate and support independent filmmaking and has gone on to feature such prominent works as Pulp Fiction, The Blair Witch Project, Memento and Oldboy. Patrons of Raindance include Ewan McGregor, Terry Gilliam, Mike Figgis, Ken Loach, and Marky Ramone. Raindance is also the founder of the British Independent Film Awards.

The 15th Raindance Film Festival official website:
http://raindance.co.uk/

Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters retells Japan’s history from 1945 to our days through the feats of self-proclaimed dine and dash professionals –the Fast Food Grifters. They are phantoms that rise and fall with Japan’s shifting diet-styles, dissenting heroes who carved their names on the dark side of dietary culture with their glare. And now their legend revives, strong than ever!z

The movie, in a mockumentary style, has received particular attention for the revolutionary visual technique adopted, called “superlivemation,” in which still photos of real people are first digitalized and then computer-animated in a cardboard cutout puppet style. The extraordinary cast includes Toshio Suzuki (Studio Ghibli’s producer), Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex director), Shoji Kawamori (Macross and Aquarion director), and Shinji Higuchi (Lorelei and Sinking of Japan director). The music score is written by Oshii’s most trusted composer, Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell, Innocence), who is also playing a role in the movie.

Mamoru Oshii (Tokyo on August 8, 1951) is one of the most remarkable personalities in modern Japanese filmmaking. He introduced introspective philosophical speculation into the world of animation, while influencing Hollywood creators with his visionary style. His main works are the epoch-making Ghost in the Shell (1995, N. 1 in Billboard Top Video Sales Chart), Innocence (2004, first Japanese animated movie ever nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes) and the live-action Avalon (2001). Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (2006), based on his own novel, received its international premiere at the 63rd Venice Film Festival. Oshii is currently working on his new animated movie, The Sky Crawlers, slated in Japan for 2008

Established by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa in 1987, Production I.G is one of the world's leading animation studios. With its cutting-edge works, such as Ghost in the Shell (1995), Jin-Roh (2000), Blood: The Last Vampire (2000), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (animation segment, 2003) and Innocence (2004), I.G has gained high reputation around the globe, inspiring Hollywood creators such as James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers. Official Website: http://www.production-ig.com