YATTERMAN hit the big screen tonight in New York City, and hundreds of fans waited hours in below freezing weather for a world premiere seat. Ningin ningens Hoc Poeng, Mia Lerda, Jessica Dawson, Lara Visconti, Eddie Lebron, Samuel Javier, Amy Chang and myself braved the cold to see director Takashi Miike (三池 崇史) and actor-singer Sakurai Sho (櫻井 翔) live and in person - certainly a rare event! (Wow, we had a full Ningin team there!) But the coolest part of the night was the chance to meet our YATTERMAN contest winners in person!

It was CRAZY outside the Directors Guild Theater. Let me repeat that - CRAZY! Subway Cinema was running the guest list at the door but wasn’t prepared for the hundreds of extra fans that came out just to see if they could get an extra seat. Unfortunately, there weren’t any, it was a full house! And I have to give thanks to our YATTERMAN contest winners for being so patient to get their tickets and waiting in the cold before being allowed into the warm theater. Not that it was any less crazy inside the theater…

There was a full security team (15 guards!) in place to prevent anyone from bootlegging the film, which was a gorgeous digital print. When Subway Cinema’s Grady Hendrix (pictured in pink) announced that night-vision goggles would be watching for bootleggers, he was completely serious. There was nothing to worry about though because this crowd was 110% supportive of Miike and Sho - and they showed it!

I’m sure my ears were damaged from the Miike-fan shouts and Sho-fan shrieks when the two of them came on stage. They appeared twice. Once to introduce the film and afterwards for a brief Q&A. During the film, Miike and Sho watched the American crowd’s reactions from the upstairs balcony. Ningin’s own Mia Lerda was one of the lucky few that got to ask a question during Q&A! (Go Mia!)

We’ll have a full report when we recover from this crazy day - NY Comic Con & YATTERMAN in the same day! In the meantime, enjoy some pics of our lucky YATTERMAN contest winners from tonight!