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Café Lumiere (2003)
Hou Hsaio-hsien’s Café Lumiere, his plaintive tribute to the incomparable Yasujiro Ozu, is certainly sure to piss off large sections of its audience. I had the curious experience of seeing it with quite a big audience at the Melbourne International Film Festival, and much of this crowd was comprised of people who were only there to ensure themselves good seats for the next session in that cinema: Kung Fu Hustle, introduced live by Stephen Chow himself. Needless to … (read more)
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The Cat Returns (2002)
Let me just say up front that The Cat Returns is a delight. I don’t mean that in some hippy, old growth forest way. I mean I was so filled with such pure joy on leaving the cinema that I thought my chest would burst. How many films can you say that about?
The Cat Returns is everything Disney animation used to be. While the Disney corporate vulture picks at the bones of its former greatness producing corpses that imitate … (read more)
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Casshern (2004)
Well that was a frivolous synopsis for a film that is anything but. Casshern in that form, and, indeed, from the look of the trailer, appears to be nothing more than a pretty, CGI filled actioner.
But although those elements are part and parcel of the flick, Casshern is primarily a long, bleak and bittersweet analysis of the futility of war and the eternal capacity of human beings for intolerance. No, really.
It’s a theme played out in a number … (read more)
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The Big Swindle (2004)
The Big Swindle certainly owes a lot to The Usual Suspects. I am not the first reviewer to recognise that and it is pretty darn obvious — there is a team of dangerous men, hints that not all is as it seems and much of the plot is revealed by its participants in flashbacks. And there is a real Keyser Soze moment around half-way through. Nuff said.
But the film also owes a good deal to the great heist … (read more)
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Cowboy Bebop the Movie (2001)
Cowboy Bebop. If you haven’t heard it said by now, then you haven’t been listening. Pretty soon, everyone’s going to be saying it, so I’m gonna get it out of the way now.
COWBOY BEBOP ROCKS!!!
This film is not, under any circumstances, to be missed. Ever.
To bring you up to speed if you’ve never seen the series (and my brain is trying to grasp that concept without much success…) then what you have to look forward to … (read more)
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Aragami (2003)
Aragami is absolutely vintage Kitamura. A small cast (of three, unless you count one who dies about two minutes into the film). An unfolding mystery. And a couple of surprise twists which will jolt a surprised laugh out of you.
This and 2LDK were made as part of a friendly competition between directors, and of course being a Kitamura fan I like this one best. It’s odd, though, because not much really happens. There’s talking, eating, fighting, more talking, more … (read more)
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The Seven Samurai (1954)
Seven Samurai is quite possibly the most overrated film ever. That’s a shame, because it’s a fine film — one of the finest, in fact — but there is a tendency among certain groups of people (who should know better) to refer to it as THE GREATEST ACTION FILM EVER MADE. Now, this really is stupidity, not only because everybody knows that The Killer is the greatest action film ever made, but also because, frankly, Seven Samurai isn’t an action … (read more)
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Nine Souls (2003)
Japan has over a million shut-ins, mostly young men, who can’t face the world outside their bedrooms. At the beginning of 9 Souls, one of them kills his father. His stay in prison is mercifully brief. He and eight cellmates escape one night, and take off in search of the stash of cash hidden by an ex-prisoner, the Counterfeit King.
While you might think a prison break film would be full of gun battles and exciting car chases, in … (read more)
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