Blog Archives

Demon City Shinjuku (1993)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Eugene

What do you do when its been 10 years since an inexplicable horror has descended upon a sizable part of Tokyo city and made its own? What recourse do you have when that same monster has spent the last 10 years building up the power and resources to visit the same calamity upon the entire world? What options are left when the greatest diplomat in the world, on the verge of solving the world’s greatest conflicts, is attacked and is … (read more)

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Boiling Point (1990)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Jason

Boiling Point is every Kitano fan’s dream; the humour, the action, the violence, the style, and the narrative, all scream trademark Kitano.

Boiling Point is narratively well crafted. Kitano has done what he always does, which is to create a film with heavy investment in extreme contrast. Often it is the contrast between ultra-violence and humour, or between dynamism and stillness, but in Boiling Point, character contrast is most explicit. The passive characters that make up the film’s baseball … (read more)

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Blue Gender: The Warrior (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Andy

Blue Gender: The Warrior falls squarely into the "fish out of post-apocalyptic water" genre. Yugi, who has been asleep for twenty-two years, is awakened to discover himself in a war zone with giant bugs. As is the case with late arrivals, he spends much of his time proclaiming that, ‘things can’t be all bad’ before wandering into dangerous situations with said bugs. Naturally the Blue offer no concessions to Yugi, keen to employ their strategy of tearing humans in two, … (read more)

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Cutie Honey (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alan

Right. It is hard to review this film without going all Valley Girl speak. “Like, dude, this film is seriously sick!” There is something about its bright day-glo colours, insane plot and relentless cheerfulness that just screams substance abusing slacker teenagers let loose in a mall with a bunch of sticky crayons and glitter.

Or maybe that is just me.

Cutie Honey is not unlike the ’60s TV serial Batman in its lurid psychedelia and campness. And, much like that … (read more)

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Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alison

A bitter and bloody disappointment. The original, Battle Royale, was a truly impressive film which was showered in justified accolades. This one is a piece of total bollocks ripping off the reputation of its predecessor. Despite a pretty good cast, including Fujiwara and Maeda from the original and Oshinari from All About Lily Chou-Chou, this one is just a fire-fest of automatic weapons. And the cast is wasted: poor Oshinari is forced to scream his lines, while other … (read more)

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Battle Royale (2000)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Jonathan

When Battle Royale was released in Japan in December 2000 it received a R-15 classification, meaning that director Kinji Fukusaku’s primary audience could not legally see the film. Fukusaku therefore went public with a statement to the effect of “Children! I made this film for you! See it however you can — break the law! Sneak into the cinema! Just watch the film!”

Fukusaku wasn’t just worried about his box office — BR isn’t just for teenagers because it exploits … (read more)

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Barefoot Gen (1983)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Deni

Perhaps still a controversial subject to this day, because it elicits such a strong emotional response, the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima is something that reflects in Japan’s national culture and consciousness over and over, in numerous and sometimes subtle forms. From the heart-wrenching, almost terrifying spectacle of Bhuto, an avant garde dance form, to the infamous Toho Studios monster movies like Godzilla, such events that shape history leave the world changed not only on a social and … (read more)

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Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Ben Jennings

Action director and dedicated thigh-fetishist Kaneko Shusuke helms this second cinematic paean to the supremely photogenic and tragically vapid Aya Ueto. The sequel finds the director just as in love with his pulchritudinous starlet as was the original, but just as incapable of wringing a remotely convincing performance out of her. Whether she’s cutting chain mail clad ninjas in half, mooning over her inevitable love interest or grieving for her fallen comrades, she wears the same expression. She’s as lovely … (read more)

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