This Transient Life (Mujô) first published by Little White Lies, as the 64th entry in my Cinema Psychotronicum column “Did you see Masao?” 21-year-old Yuri asks the house boy Iwashita near the beginning of Akio Jissôji’s This Transient Life (Mujô). “He’s in a rush these days,” Iwashita replies. “Today too.” It is clear, already, that…
The Burden of Guilt and the Long View of God: Kim Ki-duk’s Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring first published by Little White Lies, as part of a series of short responses to the question ‘Can films change the world?’. In the centre of a remote lake surrounded by mountains, there is a floating world:…
Moebius first published by Film4 Synopsis: Korean bad boy (and Buddhist) Kim Ki-duk writes and directs a story of emasculation, self-torment and enlightenment. Review: Furious at the affair of her husband (Jo Jae-hyun) with another woman (Lee Eun-woo), a wife (also played by Lee) tries vengefully to remove his penis with the knife that they…
Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s Headshot is screening tonight, 8.30 at the ICA, as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival. Here’s what I had to say about it for a piece in LWLies. Thailand-set Headshot is perhaps LWLies’ favourite film of the festival. It presents itself as a noirishly pulpy crime thriller complete with shadowy shootouts, a pair of femmes…