Blog Archives

Wicked City (1992)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Jonathan

I’m not sure I’m really qualified to ‘properly’ review Wicked City. I haven’t watched much anime. I can’t discuss styles of animation. I definitely can’t compare this film’s examples of wrinkled-brown-midget sex with any other’s. Also, I don’t really like it when I think I know what I’m looking at only I don’t because now its got teeth and… eugh.

Demonic gang rape doesn’t really give me a great deal of joy either. I’m generally fairly ambivalent about animated … (read more)

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Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (2003)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Alison

Two things stand out about this film. The first is the colour: there’s no tasteful restraint here, no refusal to use anything bolder than beige. It’s the result you’d get if you gave a five-year-old a lot of red cordial and then a full palette. It’s gorgeous.

The second is the dialogue. Well, when I say dialogue, what I really mean is absence of dialogue. Total absence. Not one word in the whole film. Does it hinder the plot? Not … (read more)

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The Returner (2002)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

There’s pretty much only one reason to watch this film. If you happen to be of the male persuasion, then it’s going to be Anne Suzuki, who plays young damsel-from-the-future-in-distress Milly. Personally I’d never heard of her before, but apparently she was in Snow Falling on Cedars (which dang it I always meant to watch but just never got around to) and she’s got one of those sweet, youthful faces that kind of looks like a lot of other sweet, … (read more)

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Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Ching Yee

This series is cool! Hmm… let me expand on that a little.

It’s insane! No, let’s try that again.

OK, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi contains the sort of insane, inexplicable, nonsensical humour that I find appealing and… erm… comforting [at least for me!]. Y’know, like a good dose of Stephen Chow on anime? Abenobashi is a coming of age story disguised under layers of zany gags and pop culture references with a subplot of family secrets and religious mysticism thrown … (read more)

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Gasaraki (2002)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

Dancing While Standing Still

Gasaraki is on the surface exactly what it appears to be – mysteries and experiments and secret organisations; a boy and a girl and dangerous destinies; advanced weaponry, military might and political scheming. It does not fail to deliver and is complex and intriguing enough to be enjoyed on this level with few shortcomings. But it is also more than this and that is where its greater strength lies. Look beneath its initial value. Think not … (read more)

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Godzilla – 50th Anniversary Edition (1954)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Justin

Ishiro Honda’s Gojira, known to those outside Japan as Godzilla, is a masterpiece. The scaly star of the film has so far appeared in 26 films, and is one of the enduring icons of Japanese cinema. Godzilla bootstrapped the kaiju (giant monster) genre in Japan, and there’s now a huge pantheon of enormous supernatural monsters littering the landscape, be they armoured, flying, metal, three-headed, alien, or some combination of several of these.

The film was made in 1954 … (read more)

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Haibane-Renmei (2002)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Deni

All stories are myths. All myths are stories. I think in this day and age we’ve forgotten the origin of stories, their true nature, or if we haven’t forgotten we at least take the understanding for granted. We go to movies and read books and buy DVDs and we want to know it all — why this happens, who did what. We don’t like loose ends, unfinished tales, ambiguities. We don’t give a moment’s thought to the fact that storytelling … (read more)

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Ichi the Killer (2001)

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Posted on January 25, 2006 by Alison

Remember the old architect sketch from Monty Python? A group of Masons offer a tender for an apartment building, and one of the architects presents designs for a slaughterhouse, justifying it thus: “This is not just a slaughterhouse. There’s no blood caked on the walls and flesh flying out of the windows incommoding passers-by with this one!”

That is so, so, not Ichi The Killer. There is blood caked on the walls. And the only reason there’s no … (read more)

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