Midnight Eye
{{Infobox website
| name = Midnight Eye
| logo = File:Midnight eye.png
| logo_size =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| alexa =
| url = {{URL|http://www.midnighteye.com/}}
| commercial =
| type = Film criticism
Literary criticism
Interviews
| language = English
| owner =
| author = {{hlist |Tom Mes |Jasper Sharp |Martin Mes }}
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2001}}
| current_status = Online
| revenue =
}}
Midnight Eye is a non-profit review website launched in 2001 by Tom Mes, Jasper Sharp, and Martin Mes. The website features reviews and analyses of Japanese films, as well as book reviews and interviews with filmmakers. In June 2015, it was announced that no further content would be added to the website.
History
Editor Tom Mes, alongside his brother, designer and programmer Martin Mes, and fellow editor Jasper Sharp, launched the website in spring 2001.{{cite web|last1=Sharp|first1=Jasper|last2=Mes|first2=Martin|last3=Mes|first3=Tom|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/features/reflections-in-a-midnight-eye/|title=Reflections in a Midnight Eye|date=29 June 2015|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 June 2019}} Tom Mes conceived the idea for the website after watching a retrospective of then-recent Japanese films at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2000.{{cite web|last=Cunningham|first=Andrew|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/features/the-midnight-eye-guide-to-new-japanese-film/|title=An interview with authors Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp|date=29 November 2004|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 July 2019}}
In 2004, Tom Mes and Sharp published The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film, a book about Japanese cinema which includes over 100 reviews of Japanese films, and which features a foreword by Hideo Nakata.{{cite web|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/features/the-midnight-eye-guide-to-new-japanese-film/|title=Midnight Eye feature: The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film|date=29 November 2004|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 July 2019}} Throughout its history, the website has published articles by numerous contributors, along with interviews with filmmakers such as Takashi Miike,{{cite web|last=Tafelski|first=Tanner|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/11/09/takashi-miikes-ichi-the-killer-is-an-excessive-plunge-into-the-world-of-the-yakuza/|title=Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer" Is An Excessive Plunge Into the World of the Yakuza|date=9 November 2017|work=The Village Voice|access-date=21 July 2019}} Hayao Miyazaki,{{cite web|last=Ewens|first=Hannah|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/spirited-away-ghibli-miyazaki-15th-15-year-anniversary-best-animation-hannah-ewens/|title=Why 'Spirited Away' Is the Best Animated Film of All Time|date=20 July 2016|work=Vice|access-date=21 July 2019}} Satoshi Kon,{{cite web|last=Mes|first=Tom|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/satoshi-kon/|title=Midnight Eye interview: Satoshi Kon|date=11 February 2002|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 July 2019}}{{cite web|last=Gray|first=Jason|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/satoshi-kon-2/|title=Midnight Eye interview: Satoshi Kon|date=20 November 2006|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 July 2019}} and Yuki Tanada,{{cite web|last=Burgos|first=Danielle|url=https://www.bustle.com/p/36-female-filmmakers-across-the-globe-who-are-breaking-ground-in-their-own-countries-8351600|title=36 Female Filmmakers Across The Globe Who Are Breaking Ground In Their Own Countries|date=2 March 2018|work=Bustle|access-date=21 July 2019}} among others.{{cite web|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/|title=Midnight Eye: Interviews|website=Midnight Eye|access-date=21 July 2019}}
On 29 June 2015, Sharp and the Mes brothers announced that the website was retiring, and that no further content would be added to it. In their announcement, they wrote "The site will remain as and where it is for the time being, but after fifteen years of creating the main source of info on Japanese cinema in the English language we are calling it a day."
Reception
Midnight Eye has been referenced by such publications and companies as Bustle, the Criterion Collection,{{cite web|url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1306-introducing-nobuhiko-obayashi|title=Introducing Nobuhiko Obayashi|date=13 November 2009|website=Criterion.com|publisher=Criterion Collection|access-date=21 July 2019}} DVD Talk,{{cite web|last=Remer|first=Justin|url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/67697/happiness-of-the-katakuris-the/|title=The Happiness Of The Katakuris (Blu-ray)|date=16 June 2015|website=DVD Talk|access-date=21 July 2019}} Forbes,{{cite web|last=Di Placido|first=Dani|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/06/25/toy-story-4-vs-spirited-away/|title='Toy Story 4' Vs. 'Spirited Away'|date=25 June 2019|work=Forbes|access-date=21 July 2019}} and Vice.
References
{{reflist}}
= Further reading =
- {{cite book|last1=Mes|first1=Tom|last2=Sharp|first2=Jasper|year=2004|title=The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film|publisher=Stone Bridge Press|isbn=978-1880656891}}
External links
- {{Official|http://www.midnighteye.com/}}
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