Blog Archives

Real (2013)

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Posted on October 20, 2013 by Deni

Reminiscent of a Shinya Tsukimoto film, where reality is not always quite as stable as one would like, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Real similarly deals with the delineations between reality and fantasy, and subsequently life and death. Mildly creepy, this somnambulistic thriller packs a few small punches but for the most part fails to get its heart rate above resting.

Koichi (Takeru Satô, Rurouni Kenshin) is a young man with a girlfriend in a coma. All Smiths song references aside, he’s … (read more)

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Gatchaman (2013)

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Posted on October 20, 2013 by Deni

I suppose the first thing most people will want to know about the 2013 live action version of Gatchaman, better known outside of Japan as Battle of the Planets or even G-Force, is “does it make me wish I’d never seen it?”. After all, childhood memories are precious things, and if you were anything like me as a kid growing up in Australia (and you know, if you’re close to my clearly elderly years) you would have been … (read more)

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Thermae Romae (2012)

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Posted on October 19, 2013 by Deni

Unless you’re Japanese, it’s difficult to really understand what makes the onsen, or public bath, so popular. To even begin, you need to have been to Japan and gone to one, and even then you’ll probably never really grasp the significance the bath holds for the Japanese. After you get past the fact that you’re naked (except for a tiny towel) with a bunch of people you don’t know, sure, it’s an unbelievably wonderful experience. Think a bath tub the … (read more)

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Library Wars (2013)

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Posted on October 19, 2013 by Deni

In a refreshing change of pace (at least lately, it seems) Shunsuke Sato’s (Princess Blade, Gantz 1 & 2) Library Wars looks to something other than terrorism for its narrative inspiration. Based on a relatively recent light novel series by Hiro Arakawa (there’s also a manga adaptation and an anime series produced by I.G.), Library Wars instead addresses the topic of reading censorship.

Censorship is neither an invented issue nor a new one, particularly in Japan. Only … (read more)

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009 Re: Cyborg (2012)

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Posted on October 4, 2013 by Deni

If a term for the way in which a single anime is capable of flipping seamlessly and without warning between heart-racing action and mind-bending existentialism hasn’t been invented yet, I propose that we call it 009 Re: Cyborg. Of course, the problem there is that once there’s a term, we’ll have to name the condition of being utterly unable to grasp it, because watching this animated feature, I’m pretty sure I was suffering just that.

All the elements of … (read more)

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Ghost in the Shell: Arise (2013)

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Posted on October 3, 2013 by Justin

Here at Heroic Cinema, we’ve got a lot of love for the evergreen Ghost in the Shell universe. It seems to sprout a new variation every few years, and they’re always worth watching.

Akira and the original Ghost in the Shell film were my personal introduction to anime, many years ago, and I remember how refreshing it was to find cinematic visions of cyberpunk science fiction that just dumped you headlong into the mirrorshades-and-AI future, posing the sort of questions … (read more)

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Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo (2013)

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Posted on October 2, 2013 by Samson

One of the highlights for me at the Reel Anime Festival in 2010 was Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance, the exhilarating second part in the new theatrical version of the landmark anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion. Since that time, I have been eagerly anticipating the release of the next part. And now, thanks to the good people at Madman who have decided to run the Reel Anime Festival again this year instead of 2014 (as it has … (read more)

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Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

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Posted on August 1, 2013 by Justin

It’s all coming up kaiju this year!

Inspired by Guillermo del Toro’s epic monsterpiece Pacific Rim and the upcoming 2014 Hollywood Godzilla reboot, I decided to set aside a few evenings and run through the Godzilla “Millennium Era” films and see what it’s all about really. Prior to these, I had only ever seen the classic 1954 film that started it all, and Madman have just released (and kindly sent us a review copy of) a box set, covering the … (read more)

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