Touch (2005)

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Posted on April 23, 2006 by Ben Jennings

Who knew Japan still made such nice films? Okay, so perhaps that’s a little unfair: probably the nice films just don’t travel as well. Having seen this one, I’m afraid I can kind of understand why. I have to admit baseball arouses an apathy in me surpassed only by soccer, so you’ll have to take my bias on that count into consideration.

Minami, Kazuya and Tatsuya are childhood friends, and remain so into their teenage years in spite of the … (read more)

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Millennium Actress (2001)

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Posted on April 23, 2006 by Deni

Satoshi Kon once described himself as, rather than an animator, a filmmaker who just happened to work in an animation, and if anything at all could be considered hard evidence towards this statement, it’s the director’s 2001 feature film, Millennium Actress. An ode to the history of cinema as much as it is to memory, it’s a finely and deeply crafted work, toying effortlessly with metafictional devices like the division between reality and fiction and the linear concept of … (read more)

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The Way Home (2002)

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Posted on April 21, 2006 by Eugene

I cannot believe how hard it was for me to write this review for The Way Home. And it has nothing to do with the quality of the film, as it is very understandable how this captured the hearts of its native Korean audience. What made this review hard to write was the fact that this film, while enjoyable, just makes me feel somewhat wretched about my relationship with my grandparents. And yet, paradoxically, it is one of the … (read more)

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Blossom Again (2005)

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Posted on April 9, 2006 by James

From the director of Happy End comes this intricate small drama about dealing with the pleasures and traumas of first love, not to mention coping with dissatisfying long-term relationships, death, and people who seem to possess deeply ingrained hidden agendas.

From the outset, the audience’s expectations are toyed with. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing Kim Jeong-eun play goofy comedy roles in titles such as Marrying the Mafia and Spring Breeze. Here, her voice opens the film with a barrage … (read more)

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Marrying the Mafia (2002)

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Posted on April 9, 2006 by James

Never fully realising or exploring the possibilities of its fantastic premise, Marrying the Mafia is at times vibrant and hilarious but ultimately confusing and dissatisfying.

Park Dae-suh (Jung – Hi, Dharma; My Boss, My Hero) is a graduate of Seoul National University successful at negotiating contracts for an Internet security enterprise. As such, he is a hot commodity in the marriage market, the type of guy who can bring some elite respect to a mobster family. So when … (read more)

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Typhoon (2005)

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Posted on April 9, 2006 by James

Similar in too many ways to the overblown Taegukgi, Kwak Kyeong-taek’s foray into the mega-budget action blockbuster starts as an effective chase picture but stalls midway before collapsing under the weight of Kwak’s excessively tragic story and his heavy-handed method. With a production budget of at least $15 million, Typhoon is now the most expensive picture ever made in Korea. Earning about $25 million on domestic release, it can’t be considered an absolute economic failure and may well accumulate … (read more)

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Game of Death 2 (1981)

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Posted on April 9, 2006 by Angus

When I was a wee boy (as opposed to the wee man I am now) my mum rented some videos. One of these films was my first foray into kung fu and Bruce Lee — Game of Death 2. Strange starting point, I know, but it was enough to keep me on the bandwagon for many years to come. To tell the truth, it’s not a great film, so I will have to keep my bias and nostalgia to … (read more)

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Miracles (The Canton Godfather) (1989)

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Posted on April 7, 2006 by Justin

Miracles was Jackie Chan’s answer in 1989 to the criticism that Hong Kong cinema wasn’t capable of doing more than low-budget action films, limited to genre pictures and nothing more. This film had an enormous budget for its time, took nine months to shoot and was made with a great deal of care and attention to detail. The sets are enormous and detailed. The costumes are great. There are tracking shots and other complicated camerawork everywhere. And, as always in … (read more)

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