Other Fantasia highlights this week

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by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

For sheer, over-the-top, Grand Guignol disgustipation, drop by the Imperial on Friday, July 20, at midnight as The Ebola Syndrome stains the screen. When H.K.'s creepiest actor, Anthony Wong, tackles the world's most horrifying virus, Ebola, you can bet the results will be revolting, histrionic and morally indefensible. Bring your mom!

If you missed the reconstruction of Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece Akira last Wednesday, and still have any intention of calling yourself an anime fan, then catch it Saturday, July 21 at 2:30 p.m. This cyberpunk epic effectively legitimized Japanese animation in the West, despite the awful dialogue-dubbing job. Redubbed and digitally spit-polished, its status as science fiction classic is now untouchable.

Also from Japan is the wonderfully fun Sakuya--about as sweet and lighthearted as a movie about Mt. Fuji splitting open and spewing forth bloodthirsty demons can be. Directed by monster-makeup guy Tomoo Haraguchi, who helped Gamera 3 become one of the best rubber monster flicks ever, this kiddy fantasy film is a lush, spectacular feast for the eyes. Catch it on Sunday, July 22, at 5 p.m.

The anime fans mentioned above will want to check out Boogie Pop Phantom as well, on Tuesday, July 24, at 7:30 p.m. Despite the cute name, this is hardly in the Pokémon school. Actually, it's a very sinister, brooding teen cybergothic series that's bound to give some jolts. Preceding it is Avatar Rising, a ten-minute short from Montreal's own Ghetto-Tech gang. These are basically guys who started playing fort at age six and never really stopped, except now they're all top-shelf stuntmen, martial artists, designers and videographers. See what a handful of pocket change and a passionate love of kung-fu, laser beams and sci-fi SWAT team antics can amount to.