Goemon (2009)

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Posted on December 19, 2009 by Samson

Over the past few years, the Japanese Film Festival has emerged as one of the best film festivals for Asian film lovers across Australia. Goemon was the fifth and last film that I saw at the 2009 Festival, and I continued to be impressed by the variety and quality of films showcased. Many of you would have read my short reviews of some of those films, and here I want to share with you my thoughts on Goemon.

Goemon … (read more)

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Storm Warriors (2009)

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Posted on December 15, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

It’s been a decade since Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng starred as Cloud and Wind respectively for Andrew Lau’s adaptation of Ma Wing-shing’s popular The Storm Riders (1998). Released on the cusp of the Hong Kong industry’s virtual collapse, it was a hit that set the digital standard for filmmaking in the SAR for years to come. It was also one of the last big, all-star epics from that period to find a cult following overseas.

So what’s changed, what’s … (read more)

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Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

Where to start when discussing Tetsuo: The Bullet Man? Does one begin with the no-longer-ahead-of-the-curve self-parody the Tetsuo franchise has become with this instalment? Or does one start with the wealth of truly wretched, nigh unwatchable ‘acting’ that recalls high school drama class – only not quite that good? Maybe one should begin with the completely and utterly pointless nature of the whole endeavour? It doesn’t matter because anyone familiar with Tetsuo will be furious at the cynicism that … (read more)

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I Come with the Rain (2009)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

Vietnamese-French director Tran Ahn Hung’s Cyclo and The Scent of Green Papaya were exercises in style over substance. Atmospheric almost to a fault, both made you forget that great films possess a strong story to support their images. Unsurprisingly his latest, I Come With the Rain, is more of the same. Tran loads up the garden-variety revenge/redemption tale with enough religious imagery to make the Pope proud, mixing it with an audience-baiting (some would say calculated) international cast and … (read more)

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The Warrior and the Wolf (Lang Zai Ji) (2009)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

Wolves have a storied place in mythology and folklore ranging from reverence to revulsion. Wolves tend to be venerated in Native American cultures – but it’s just a tendency. Romulus and Remus were wolves and they founded Rome. We’ve all been warned to ‘beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing’, and we know how poor Red Riding Hood fared. And, uh, hello … werewolves? Based on a story by Akutagawa-winner Inoue Yasushi, The Warrior and the Wolf is a three-part meditation … (read more)

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Kanikosen (2009)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by Elizabeth Kerr

Given the current socio-economic climate in Japan and the industry’s ability to push a film from conception to release much quicker than their Hollywood counterparts, it’s no shock to discover that proletarian writer Kobayashi Takiji’s pre-Second World War agitprop novel has gained some new traction. Kanikosen – literally The Crab Cannery Boat – is the best-known work by the writer who died in police custody, and the story’s fundamental anti-capitalist diatribe has an eerie relevancy that’s difficult not to empathise … (read more)

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This Charming Girl (2004)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by James

Quite an assured debut that deservedly attracted plenty of attention for the director and star.

Kim Ji-soo received universal plaudits for her portrayal of a quiet postal worker dealing with the a pair of traumatic events in her past, one revealed early on (the death of her mother) and the other withheld until much later. The revelation of this second trauma is ultimately a letdown – unfortunately predictable given the intensity of the character study and the audacity of the … (read more)

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Still Walking (2008)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by James

Koreeda must be among the gentlest of modern filmmakers and Still Walking the almost perfect inverse to the so-called extremism driving populist interest in Asian cinema.

Why gentle? Koreeda takes a melodramatic premise here (concerned with the devastation that a tragic death wrecks upon surviving family members and one person connected with the incident), pads his story with bitter males and eccentric females, fiddles with a basic array of conflicts (young vs old, husband vs wife, city vs country, life … (read more)

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