Speed Grapher (2005)

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Posted on November 27, 2006 by Andy

The prolific Gonzo unleashes yet another new anime series on the world. The remit this time is a little different to the typical stylish, flash-bang grenades Gonzo usually delivers. Speedgrapher, with its themes of corruption, innocence and decadence is clearly aiming for something little more adult. Ironically, and is all too frequently the case when writers aim for ‘adult’, they tend hit the slightly lower target of ‘screamingly adolescent’.

Speedgrapher strikes this portion of the target a little too … (read more)

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Revolutionary Girl Utena (the Movie) (1999)

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Posted on November 12, 2006 by Deni

A while ago – at the first Japanimation festival to come to Brisbane in fact – I saw a little film called Revolutionary Girl Utena. And what I mostly remember thinking as I left the cinema afterward was ‘What?’.

And so I decided to give this title another go, and funnily enough I discover I don’t really seem to understand it any more now than I did then.

Revolutionary Girl Utena is the kind of feature one might be … (read more)

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Nana (2005)

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Posted on October 22, 2006 by Deni

Certain stereotypes keep popping up again and again in Japanese manga and anime – one in particular, the stereotype of the Terminally Cheerful character. This character, in its native environment, is so optimistic it has almost reached a form of enlightenment, where things are ‘meant to be’ and where nothing bad reaches it despite what’s going on around it. Of course, it’s no mystery, the allure of this creature. Think ‘The Fool’ from the tarot’s Major Arcana – a young … (read more)

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The Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

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Posted on October 22, 2006 by Justin

You would be hard pressed to find a Shaw Brothers film more well-known internationally than The Five Venoms. It’s garnered a huge fanbase as a cult film over the years, inspiring everyone from rap supergroup the Wu-Tang clan to cult filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Released in 1978, it fuses elements of the older swordplay and wuxia films that Shaws produced for many years with the harder, more realistic action sequences that came with the kung fu films of the late … (read more)

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Ashura-jo no Hitomi (2005)

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Posted on October 22, 2006 by Alison

Ashura-jo no Hitomi was based very closely on a hit kabuki stage play called Blood Gets In Your Eyes (which is my candidate for finest title ever). I found both film and play quite intriguing, and I’ll talk a little about the play below.

Back to Ashura. The film opens at a broken bridge, with a haunting tune sung by the girlish Emishi, She Who Sees. Emishi and Bizan, a demon dressed as a Buddhist nun, confront Kuninari, Master … (read more)

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The Mission (1999)

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Posted on October 22, 2006 by Alison

There’s really nothing one can say that will adequately describe this film. I keep trying, but my tongue tangles with superfluous superlatives: excellent, great, superb, marvellous, impossibly good. I feel like I’ve regressed to my teen years, abandoning the maturity which I’m supposed to have gained by now.

Okay, then, I’ll give it a try. First up, this is one of director To’s best films. It exemplifies all of To’s strong points: visually stunning scenes, minimal dialogue, strongly defined characters, … (read more)

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Tenjho Tenge (2004)

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Posted on October 14, 2006 by Deni

Tenjho Tenge is a fan-service wonderland. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to say, but the manga it’s based on actually makes the anime look like material suitable for kindergarten story time. Which kind of makes me – a fan-girl and not terribly impressed by the classic shounen fan-service cues so carelessly and frequently applied to fighting anime titles – want to respect it just a little bit. After all, it’s got to be hard to live up to … (read more)

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Full House (2004)

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Posted on September 23, 2006 by Christian

Figuratively riding the “Korea Wave” (or Hallyu) that saw a dramatic rise with the hit TV drama Winter Sonata in 2002, Full House is another Korean TV drama that became a major hit throughout Asia. Its success also launched the acting and singing career of Jung Ji-hoon, better known under his musical stage name of Rain (or “Bi” in Korean), whose immense popularity has seen him to be included in Time Magazine’s Top 100 list of Most Influential People … (read more)

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