Blog Archives

Azumi (2003)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Deni

Ryuhei Kitamura. He’s no Kurosawa, but if his name isn’t household in another year or so, this reviewer will be forced to reconsider the definition of ‘hot’. He’s got all the bloody panache of a sword-wielding Sam Raimi, he’s a pop cult poster boy, and the best thing about him, all that talent and he’s not afraid to use it.

And he isn’t apologetic about it either.

Based on a 25-part manga series, Azumi, as Kitamura’s first truly mainstream … (read more)

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Appleseed: The Movie (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alison

Appleseed is simply the sexiest animation in the known universe. I don’t mean sexy in a “Phwoooaaar” sort of way: I mean sexy in an eyeball-kissing sort of way. The whole film looks so gorgeous you’ll want to lick it.

There are a couple of reasons for this. One is the depth and texture of the animated surfaces: there’s lavish use of 3D graphics with what in a live film would be called effective lighting. The detail of surfaces and … (read more)

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Angel Sanctuary (2001)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Deni

This OAV, based on a 20 volume manga by the gothy, inestimable Kouri Yuki (currently being published in English by Viz Communications), is as you might expect from anything based on a 20 volume story – totally epic and yet not nearly epic enough. Yuki’s original work is so rife with violence, angst, messy relationships existentialism and gender-bending on both sides (just for starters), that it kind of makes your average Aaron Spelling soapie look like an episode of … (read more)

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X (1997)

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Posted on February 24, 2007 by Deni

Let’s just get this out of the way first shall we. This is a film about titanic cosmic struggles, colossal psychic powers and the beginning of the end, and it’s violent.

Not as violent as some anime available granted, if you’ve ever had the extremely questionable pleasure of Urotsukidoji, but Digimon the Second Generation it isn’t. So if you’re upset by the sight blood, even of the animated variety, or multi-story buildings collapsing (and after what’s happened in the … (read more)

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Monkey! – Unseen Episodes (1979)

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Posted on February 23, 2007 by Mark Morrison

It’s the Year of the Pig! Chinese New Year is always a jolly time around Heroic Cinema parts, as it’s the one time of the year you can see lion dancing without having to load Once Upon a Time in China 3 into the DVD player. It’s also a time for Lunar New Year comedies, red packets, and tasty treats.

But let’s back up a second and focus on the porcine aspect: I mean, what better way to mark the … (read more)

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Alive (2002)

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Posted on January 28, 2007 by Deni

After the refreshingly b-grade brilliance of Versus, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who wondered just what director Ryuhei Kitamura would do next, and whether he wasn’t merely a flash in the pan filmmaker. Released two years after Versus, Alive, Kitamura’s second feature length film, is a sci-fi thriller based on a seinen (guy’s) manga series by Tsutomu Takahashi, and it proves one thing at least resoundingly, or perhaps two – Kitamura is no one-hit-wonder, and … (read more)

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Trinity Blood (2006)

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Posted on January 14, 2007 by Deni

The premise seems slightly familiar – a ravaged earth, a powerful invading force; vampires, in this case (although with a name like Trinity Blood, is that really any surprise?) but this series has a slightly unique way of looking at its fairly recognizable story line. For a start, things in the Earth’s indeterminate future look a lot like the archaic past, vaguely somewhere around the late Middle Ages to early Renaissance periods. It’s not exactly a time frame often … (read more)

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Rashomon (1950)

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Posted on January 8, 2007 by James

“I don’t care if it’s a lie, as long as it’s entertaining.” — the commoner in response to the woodcutter and the priest’s accounts of the murder.

So here we have it, a movie featuring a completely unreliable plot that never provides a factual answer to the crucial murder mystery at its core, that pieces together falsehoods, speculations and fabricated accounts one after another, that boldly misdirects viewers right through to its conclusion, and yet has somehow managed to absorb … (read more)

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