Blog Archives

The Quiet Duel (1949)

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Posted on August 17, 2007 by James

It’s not every day you get to see a film focusing on the medical response to syphilis and the emotional torment of one of the disease’s sufferers.

I can’t say this particular absence in my film viewing habits to date particularly irks me. There’s only so much a spectator can tolerate when submitted to endless studies of a pent-up and remorseful Toshiro Mifune (infected with syphilis) pining in sexual frustration over his (spotless, timid, frail, i.e. stereotyped) wife to never … (read more)

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Flash Point (2007)

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Posted on August 5, 2007 by John Snadden

The long-awaited sequel to the excellent 2005 crime-action drama Sha Po Lang (SPL) has finally been released – and what a truly disappointing film it turns out to be. Flash Point is one of the cinema’s low points for 2007.

Flash Point is a lazy and unoriginal movie with routine performances from major HK stars and a storyline culled from recent Chinese crime flicks. Plus the near unbelievable fact that this high budget thriller was filmed on digital video. The … (read more)

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Tomie 2: Replay (2000)

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Posted on August 5, 2007 by Alison

Alas, poor Tomie: I knew her, Heroic Cinemanauts. A girl of infinite flirting and fancy, with a side order of cutting a bloody swathe through the teen male population. I was pleasantly surprised by the original Tomie, and so settled in for a marathon of Tomie-watching.

Alas for my expectations, this sequel is a poor imitation. We’ve lost the bewitching Miho Kanno, who was capable of making a psychotic, unkillable, regenerative boy-killer seem like a poor misunderstood girl (at … (read more)

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Infection (2004)

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Posted on August 5, 2007 by Alison

Welcome to Twilight Zone Central Hospital. From the first few moments, it’s clear that this isn’t going to be your average horror film set in your average hospital. The staff haven’t been paid, nurses are quitting in droves, everyone’s working extended shifts and then some, the hospital’s buying new equipment but not technical staff to operate it, and the director’s apparently headed off to parts unknown. Put that together with corridors that look like the typical spooky basement set, complete … (read more)

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Robotech: Shadow Chronicles (2006)

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Posted on August 5, 2007 by Eugene

I have been a Robotech fan. I followed the Macross Island saga religiously and my affection for anime has no doubt been largely influenced by my one-time membership amongst the fanatics of Robotech.

However, once the Macross Saga ended, the enthusiasm that had driven this obsession waned, and interest in the adventures of Maya Sterling declined in parallel to Saturday morning Television programmers’ willingness to air just the episodes, without the long and uninteresting fluff of ‘kid’s TV’ in amongst … (read more)

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Le Chevalier d’Eon (2006)

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Posted on July 22, 2007 by Deni

Set against the backdrop of pre-Revolution France, Le Chevalier D’Eon, by Production I.G, really is a series that earns the right to superlatives like ‘sweeping’ and ‘gripping’. The period in which it is set – the ambiance of pre-Revolution Eighteenth Century Paris – immediately identifies it as something different, something with aspirations. Of course, period settings in anime are hardly uncommon, and certainly there are plenty of series where style elements have been borrowed from foreign sources (the Grecian … (read more)

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Origin – Spirits Of The Past (2006)

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Posted on July 15, 2007 by Andy

Japan’s Gonzo Studio is best known for its anime featuring slick production values and embracing the fusion of traditional 2D animation with 3D CG elements. Gonzo’s prolific output has centered around sci-fi actioners like Kiddy Grade or Yukikaze but has showed a willingness to branch out into genre mashing with the Weimar Republic meets airships of Last Exile or Speed Grapher’s neon decadent near-future monster bash. In its fifteen year production history, somewhat surprisingly, Origin is Gonzo’s first foray in … (read more)

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Sanshiro Sugata 2 (1945)

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Posted on July 14, 2007 by Justin

After his successful direction of his first film Sanshiro Sugata, and subsequent rise through the ranks of Toho assistant directors in the 1940s, Akira Kurosawa was pressured to make a sequel. The result was 1945’s Sanshiro Sugata II, set five years after the original film and picking up Sugata’s tale as he faces challenges from practitioners of other styles of martial arts.

The film begins with a sequence that mirrors the opening of the first film: Sugata saves … (read more)

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