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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Arahan (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Alison

If you like movies with secret masters, ancient villains, fearsome fu-skills, and buckets of butt-kicking action, then look no further: Arahan is here.

The film opens with five of the Seven Masters, bemoaning the fact that they’ve got no new disciples to learn the hidden arts. You can tell the tone of the movie immediately: several of the Masters are wearing daggy tracky dacks, and one smokes continuously. This movie does not take itself too seriously.

When we meet the … (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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2046 (2004)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by James

Astonishingly lush images lend 2046 a surface beauty unparalleled in previous Wong Kar-wai films, giving it a distinctive grainy ‘look’ that is difficult to faithfully describe. Production designer (and film editor) William Chang and cinematographers Chris Doyle, Lai Yiu-fai (Love Will Tear Us Apart, Infernal Affairs) and Kwan Pun Leung (Lavender, director of The Making of Happy Together) create textured, absorbing visuals that envelop the screen and make it shimmer, suffocating 2D space. This … (read more)

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Asoka (2001)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Eugene

Like any genre, Sword and Sandals seems to go through its up and downs. It certainly seemed the thing to do in the days of Gladiator and it seems, with Troy to be seen soon as not to mention the Alexander the Great biopics, it still maintains a certain respectability. Of course quality films don’t rely upon the wistfulness of the general populace but it certainly helps with the marketing.

So Asoka, at its most basic, is a Sword … (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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15 (2003)

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Posted on March 3, 2007 by Eugene

The general impression of Singapore is of an over-bearing, authoritarian city-state, whose citizens sacrafice certain civil liberties in return for an efficient and spotless metropolis

Like Hero, minor sacrafices for the greater good.

Unlike Hero, there is no nobility or glory in being an unwilling sacrifice.

15 is a film about being amongst those sacrifices. The juveniles unable or unwilling to fit in and be productive members of society are the central protagonists, operating in pairs, occasionally with … (read more)

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Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

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Posted on February 25, 2007 by John Snadden

I was looking forward to Clint Eastwood’s new film Letters from Iwo Jima, the companion piece to his excellent Flags of Our Fathers. Unfortunately, Letters is a far lesser film than Flags. Produced in the Japanese language and screened with English subtitles, it is a serious attempt to give an honest view of the Iwo Jima campaign from the Japanese perspective. Apart from standout performances by Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya, the movie is crammed with stock … (read more)

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