Blog Archives

Reunion (2012)

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No one with a television and an internet connection is unfamiliar with the events in March 2011 that resulted in the deaths of roughly nineteen thousand people in the Miyagi prefecture on the east coast of the main island of Honshu, Japan. On a scale of disasters, the 40 metre tsunami that levelled the area is an image that will not be soon forgotten, but for those of us lucky enough to be watching from afar, there is of course … (read more)

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Outrage Beyond (2012)

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My first film at this year’s Sydney Film Festival was Outrage Beyond, the great Japanese director Takeshi Kitano’s follow-up to 2010’s yakuza film Outrage. Set in the same universe of gangsters in pinstripes, black sedans and sudden violence, it picks up the story some years after the events of the first film.… (read more)

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Monkey (1978)

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MONKEY! was a Japanese television series made from 1978 to 1980, based on the Chinese classic Journey to the West by Wu Ch’eng-en. When it hit here in Oz it was a pretty big deal. It blew Doctor Who clean outta the water; hell, it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of my childhood (except without the endless pizza product placement or the oversized terrapins). You’d race home from school, dump the bag on the cat, leave off fighting with … (read more)

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