Blog Archives

Still Walking (2008)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by James

Koreeda must be among the gentlest of modern filmmakers and Still Walking the almost perfect inverse to the so-called extremism driving populist interest in Asian cinema.

Why gentle? Koreeda takes a melodramatic premise here (concerned with the devastation that a tragic death wrecks upon surviving family members and one person connected with the incident), pads his story with bitter males and eccentric females, fiddles with a basic array of conflicts (young vs old, husband vs wife, city vs country, life … (read more)

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Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (2008)

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Posted on November 21, 2009 by Deni

I’m yet to work out whether this is a good thing – on one hand, there’s a long, respected convention in art reflecting life; but on the other, if life is made superficial in order to be represented through art, is it really a good thing? Watching the opening episodes of Gundam 00, it’s not like you can miss the commentary on the state of the world after all, so it’s not like the show is shying away from … (read more)

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Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

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Posted on October 12, 2009 by Samson

Tokyo Gore Police was created by Yoshihiro Nishimura, the make up and special effects supervisor of The Machine Girl, which I reviewed for you very recently. But unlike The Machine Girl (which was directed by Noboru Iguchi), Nishimura was totally in charge for Tokyo Gore Police. Besides being the director, he was also responsible for the film’s special effects, gore effects, screenplay, creature design and editing, and the movie was based on his own independently produced short film … (read more)

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The Machine Girl (2008)

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Posted on October 12, 2009 by Samson

The creative duo Noboru Iguchi (writer and director) and Yoshihiro Nishimura (make up and special effects supervisor) came to fame in a big way with The Machine Girl in 2008. Since then, they have teamed up again for Robogeisha, and effects expert Yoshihiro Nishimura has gone on to direct Tokyo Gore Police and Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl. All of these films have one thing in common: over-the-top low-budget gore. So obviously there is a market for this … (read more)

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Departures (Okuribito) (2008)

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Posted on October 3, 2009 by Deni

Every human culture has its own death ritual, and if most of us thought about it much, we probably never considered how something common to every human on the planet can be regarded so differently. Because death, as equalising as it is, is a very personal thing. It’s difficult to understand someone else’s grief, difficult to face it in others and difficult to deal with it within one’s self. So, for a film to treat the topic of death, grief … (read more)

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Love Collage aka Collage of Our Lives (2003)

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Posted on September 29, 2009 by Deni

Love Collage, otherwise known as Collage of Our Lives, is a surprising film in a lot of ways. Maybe it’s the title. One would expect something exceedingly sappy and romantic from a movie called Love Collage, where attractive, full-of-potential boy meets attractive, out-of reach girl, moons over her for a while until she finally realises how wonderful he really is, and they live happily ever after.

But actually, that’s what Love Collage isn’t; a love story. Rather … (read more)

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Ichi (2008)

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Posted on September 18, 2009 by Samson

Zatoichi is a legendary blind masseur and sword master, a fictional character who has appeared in numerous Japanese movies and television shows. The original films starred Shintaro Katsu, and many of them have now become classics. In 2003, Takeshi Kitano gave his own interpretation of the character in Zatoichi, a hugely entertaining movie. And now, the Zatoichi legend lives on with Ichi, a ‘re-imagining’ of the Zatoichi tale that features a young swordswoman.

In ancient times, troupes of … (read more)

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Baccano! (2007)

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Posted on September 9, 2009 by Deni

Sometimes you have to wonder if anime is getting just a little too clever for its own good. After all, its basic function is to entertain, and I’ll be the first to argue that being entertained should not necessarily preclude having to think. But Baccano!, based on an award-winning novella by Ryohgo Narita, is entertainment that not only demands thought, but seems to do almost everything in its power to make that as challenging an undertaking as possible.… (read more)

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