Inside the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Day 6: Eric Khoo’s Tatsumi

After previously presenting Be with Me (2005) and My Magic (2008), for his third film on the Croisette, Eric Khoo brings an homage piece about a manga artist who modified the artform inserting what was at the time some dramatically heavier, adult groundbreaking themes to paper. Tatsumi is Yoshihiro Tatsumi uncensored — his art, his life, his influence and his style — the ultimate tribute to someone the Singapore holds dear to his heart. Khoo is a hardcore fan of the Japanese comics artist, and while viewers get a genuine sense of how one artist’s work can ripen over time, the full course offering doesn’t have the stamina as say, some other recent Cannes items such as Waltz with Bashir and/or Persepolis. We had both artists on hand and a worn down, but lively Thierry Frémaux to introduce the late night, Un Certain Regard selected world premiere.