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Shadowless Sword (2006)
Eyeliner. Some men can wear it, and some men really just shouldn’t. I mentioned this at the very top of the review because, if you watch Shadowless Sword, you’ll be able to see how this rule applies to about half the actors in Korea.
That’s not to say that you won’t enjoy it. There’s a lot of sword-waving, swash-buckling, high kicks, and all the other staples of historical adventure fantasy. But the eyeliner can be a mite distracting. It’s … (read more)
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Strange Circus (2005)
Since the advent of Ring in 1998, Japanese horror has been largely engulfed by the sub-genre popularly labelled as “J-horror” — with its eerie girls in white, faces hidden in black matted hair. These days the flag is still being vehemently waved by directors such as Takeshi Shimizu and Norio Tsuruta, but other sub-genres of horror are beginning to rise to the surface. It would be true to say that a blend of psycho-sexual horror has been gaining momentum in … (read more)
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Hard Luck Hero (2003)
The synopsis basically describes the whole movie, apart from the fact that this film was apparently intended as a short, music video-style, offering. Well, like Topsy, it grew.
Not much can be said about it. If you like V6, as did the screaming hordes of girly-fans at the premiere I attended, then you’ll find it rivetting. If you like lots of fast car action, you might like it as well. It’s not the best of Sabu’s work: there’s a near-repetition … (read more)
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Premonition (2004)
The back cover of this DVD proudly proclaims “From the director of Ring 0: Birthday“. Well, given that Mark gave Ring 0: Birthday a hearty zero out of ten, that’s not much of a recommendation.
Nonetheless, I persevered, albeit with lowered expectations. And for the first 10 or so minutes, my expectations were met: the ‘happy family on holidays’ setup was cloyingly sweet and stiffly unconvincing. I wanted to smack the cheerfully inane smile off the mother, and throw … (read more)
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Tokyo Story (1953)
“These are your grandparents”, Fumiko tells her sons, Isamu and Minoru. Minoru looks about ten years old, and we gather that if he’s ever met his grandparents before, it was so long ago that nobody expects him to remember. Isamu, the younger brother, just runs away from the unfamiliar old couple. This is part of an early scene in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. And where better to begin reviewing one of the greatest movies ever made than with a … (read more)
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Together (2003)
Let’s set some things straight. Yes I have some Chinese ancestry (quite a lot of it actually) which does mean, yes I did have Chinese immigrant parents. However, that does not automatically lead to me having studied any kind of instrument, in particular (rather aptly) the violin. If anything, my musical talent totals to a few shrill notes on the recorder and drunken bouts in karoake bars – both of which the less said the better.
That does not mean, … (read more)
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Throne of Blood (1957)
Fans of Japanese cinema and excellent cinema in general should be no strangers to the works of Akira Kurosawa. Regular readers will have seen me (and others here, too!) swoon and spout hyperbole over many of his films. With good reason, mind you — many of them have become fixtures in critics’ lists of top films: action masterpiece The Seven Samurai, lone samurai classics Yojimbo and Sanjuro, study in truth Rashomon and the colour-drenched epic Ran in particular.
Shamelessly, … (read more)
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Three… Extremes (2004)
Three… Extremes is both an obscure and a completely appropriate title for this cross-cultural horror film anthology. Obscure because, as titles go, usually you can kind of work out what you’ll be watching or at least the genre it’s going to be presented in, just from the title. This title, however, doesn’t give away a lot up front. I mean, what’s with the ellipsis? Three dot dot dot Extremes. Yeah okay. Clever way to label it a sequel to Three… (read more)
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