Funky Forest: The First Contact first published by Little White Lies, as entry 149 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column Funky Forest: The First Contact (Naisu no Mori THE FIRST CONTACT) opens with the image of a cute-looking UFO. White, with two blue portholes that look like eyes, it is perched on the barren surface of…
Bright Future (Akarui mirai) first published by EyeforFilm Beautiful, fragile, free-floating and amorphous, jellyfish seem to exude a brilliant lustre all of their own, and are inscrutable to any but their own kind – try and get too close, however, and they are liable to deliver a killer sting. These creatures feature aplenty in Kiyoshi…
Gojoe (Gojoe Reisenki) first published by Film4 Summary: In Sogo Ishii’s Gojoe, Daisuke Ryu and Tadanobu Asano play two legendary Japanese heroes who must become more than men to change history and fulfil their cosmic destiny. Review: Yoshitsune and Benkei are amongst Japan’s best known folk heroes. Yoshitsune was a twelfth-century prince of the Genji Clan who,…
Harmonium first published by Little White Lies Koji Fukuda’s Harmonium (Fuchi ni tatsu) opens with sounds of the eponymous instrument being played out of tune. Recognising her own shortcomings, young Hotaru (Momone Shinakawa), who is practising for a concert, turns on a metronome to impose a semblance of order on all the false notes – in…
Review of film that formed part of the ‘0th’ Edition of the London East Asian Film Festival (LEAFF 2015) “Don’t rush it,” piano teacher Mizuki (Eri Fukatsu) tells her young pupil at the beginning of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Journey to the Shore (aka Kishibe no tabi). “Nice and slow.” “I think your tempo is a bit…
Ichi the Killer first published by Movie Gazette Based on a popular Japanese comicbook by Hideo Yamamoto, Takashi Miike’s controversial Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1, or Killer 1) translates perfectly all the manga’s energy, anarchy and illogic into the kinetic language of film. When yakuza boss Anjo goes missing with 300 million yen, his loyal lieutenant Kakihara (Tadanobu…