Ayako is young, mid-20s woman who works in a grey, flat and rather dull Tokyo office. She has enough authority to add some level of significance to her work, but not enough to give her real control over the direction of her life. Ayako lives at home with emotionally reserved father (Ken Mitsuishi), a TV/Film […] Read more »
After losing his job, a lowly office lad attempts to drown his sorrows, only to be thrown out of a girly bar. He manages to anger a gang of yakuza in the process and hides in a derelict building, where he discovers a beautiful mannequin doll that begins to show signs of life. While this […] Read more »
Takehinko Shinjo has, over the course of his directorial career, acquired the title “master of romance movies.” Here, in his beautifully composed fifth feature film, Beyond The Memories, the romance is constantly shadowed by tragedy and feelings of regret. Adapted from a manga comic that has sold over 2.95 million copies, Beyond The Memories starts […] Read more »
For this month’s Full Disclosure over at Twitch, my July entry on the list of shame was Kurosawa Akira’s 1965 drama, Red Beard – his last collaboration with actor Mifune Toshiro. You can check out what I thought of the film by following the link below: Click here to read my thoughts on Red Beard Read more »
Incredibly silly comedy from director Fukuda Yuichi about a high school boy (Suzuki Ryohei) who inherits the twisted perversions of his parents (a masochistic cop and sadistic dominatrix respectively). When he puts a pair of girls panties over his face he gains super-human powers, which come in handy when the school is invaded by gang […] Read more »
I’ve watched and struggled with Gaspar Noe’s surreal exploration of life after death before in the past, but there’s no denying the audacity of its ambition and the impact of its visual style. Not a film I tend to enjoy watching, but it remains a hypnotic curiosity that is occasionally worth revisiting. Find my full […] Read more »
Masters of Cinema just released Shindo Kaneto’s wonderfully poetic film on Blu-ray in the UK, a modern silent with almost no discernible dialogue, but an incredibly powerful narrative nonetheless about Man’s ongoing battle against nature, time and fate. I wrote about the film in my Masters of Cinema column here Read more »
I almost let this one pass me by, put off by the daunting 160 minute runtime, but my efforts were handsomely rewarded as Okita Shuichi’s adaptation of Yoshida Shuichi’s popular novel is fantastic. Told as a series of reminiscences from those who knew him during their college years together, we learn of the eccentric, and […] Read more »
A typically oddball tale of Japanese adolescence, but one that is hilarious, charming and delightfully off the wall. It centres on a typical 14-year-old boy, Maruyama, with an over-active imagination, and his tireless efforts to suck his own penis. Elsewhere, a senile old neighbour has aspirations to be a punk rocker, Maruyama’s mother is so […] Read more »
My favourite Kurosawa film, and quite possibly my favourite Asian film of all-time, this masterful morality play changed the language of cinema forever. Its revelation that narrators, performances, even the film itself can lie to its audience, undermines the medium itself, while simultaneously becoming a seminal example of how it can best be employed. Beyond […] Read more »
Strange yet intoxicating musical documentary that explores a variety of traditional and alternative forms of Japanese music. A turntable-spinning priest and eccentric lady who attempts to harness all the sounds of nature into the musical spectrum are standouts, but there is plenty to explore and to delight in this singular piece of work from Neil […] Read more »
Largely unknown outside of its native Japan, this comedy classic set in a Tokyo brothel was just released last month on Blu-ray by Masters of Cinema and is the subject of my latest column over at Twitch. Read more »
A welcome change of pace for Japanese writer-director Yamaguchi Yudai sees the Sushi Typhoon alumnus eschew the splatter effects and goofball humour in favour of a stripped down chamber piece, set completely within the confines of a shipping container. Read more »
If you are looking for a singular cinematic experience, then look no further than this bizarre, anthropological odyssey through the backwaters of Okinawa – a remote island off the South West Coast of Japan, whose confused identity blends Japanese, Taiwanese and even Polynesian cultures. Funded by Nikkatsu, much to their regret and directed by Imamura […] Read more »
I really struggled with this film. I am familiar with Mizoguchi Kenji’s work, and have enjoyed the films of his I have seen, but nothing could prepare me for the unrelenting bleakness of this film. The cinematography is immaculate and the score eerie and unsettling. The story, about an aristocratic family torn apart by the […] Read more »
The latest from Abbas Kiarostami (Taste of Cherry) sees the Iranian auteur continue his globe-trotting which began with 2010’s Certified Copy. In Like Someone in Love, he heads for Japan, following a “day in the life” – or rather a night and the following morning – of young prostitute, Akiko (Takanashi Rin). Through a series […] Read more »
Prolific Japanese director Miike Takashi returns to his exploitation roots with this darkly comic story of a murderous high school teacher, who takes dead aim at his own students. Read more »
Ambition conquers aesthetics in Sono Sion’s epic Tokyo Gagaga experiment from 1995, which is only now seeing the light of day. 160mins of gang fights & gay love shot of super-8 video guerrilla-style through the streets of Tokyo. It’s incredibly lo-fi, but the story, revolving around the scheming interpreters who manipulate a Japanese/Chinese gang war […] Read more »
Going into this Okinawa World Premiere completely blind I could not have been more surprised by the film I saw. I had somehow failed to notice that Kaneto Shusuke’s film was adapted from an award-winning piece of “R-18″ rated literature, meaning that this was essentially going to be porn. The film tells of the fledgling […] Read more »
An unusual inclusion in the Local Origination Project section was this Hong Kong-set short from Horie Kei. Filmed in a combination of Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese, it nevertheless proved an easy-to-follow chamber piece set entirely within the confines of a Hong Kong cafe. Ishida Akira and Ikehata Reina play a Japanese couple who run the […] Read more »