Tag Archives: Japan

CSB Interview with Kanata Wolf, Director of Smokin’ On the Moon – NYAFF 2018

Kanata Wolf’s first film, Smokin’ On the Moon (Japan 2017) had its International Premiere as part of the 17th New York Asian Film Festival.  The film stars Arata Iura and Ryo Narita as two aimless thirty-somethings, living weed-filled blissful lives … Continue reading

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Review: Dynamite Graffiti (Japan 2018) – NYAFF 2018

The 17th New York Asian Film Festival kicks off tonight at Lincoln Center and I could not be more excited.  I’ve been coming to Subway Cinema’s annual extravaganza’s since before they even were the NYAFF, and they’ve never once failed … Continue reading

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Review: Before We Vanish (Japan 2017)

Before We Vanish is a return to a rarely-seen side of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – a puckish, tongue-in-cheek take on the atmospheric horror that is the master’s stock-in-trade. Though he’s much better known for his deadly serious supernatural horror like Kairo … Continue reading

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Review: Daguerreotype (Japan/France 2017)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest horror film represents a major change in at least one respect. Filming in French, with a non-Japanese cast, takes Kurosawa out of his comfort zone, but he demonstrates that his touch with mood and actors remains constant … Continue reading

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Blade of the Immortal (Japan 2017)

Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal is an adaptation of the long-running (30 volumes) and extremely popular supernatural samurai manga about an immortal ronin named Manji. I never made it past the first volume of the series, but it’s easy … Continue reading

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Review: Helter Skelter (Japan 2012)

Based on a manga by enfant terrible Kyoko Okazaki, this collaboration between photographer-turned-director Mika Ninagawa and controversial idol/actress Erica Sawajiri is a fascinating bit of Cronenbergian body horror set in the world of fashion and plastic surgery.

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NYAFF 2017 Review: The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (Japan 2016)

Sick of serious Miike? 13 Assassins and Hara-kiri Miike? Yearning for the older, wackier V-cinema Miike? Look no further than The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (a belated sequel to 2013’s The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji). This film is … Continue reading

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NYAFF 2017 Review: Suffering of Ninko (Japan 2016)

More an erotic fable than a proper narrative, Suffering of Ninko puts a Japanese spin on the popular mythological concepts of the succubus and the incubus.  Ninko is a Buddhist monk, fixated on his own asceticism.  Unfortunately, his very presence … Continue reading

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Review: Belladonna of Sadness (Japan 1973)

Wow, that was one hell of an acid trip of a movie. A remaster and re-release of an early animated film produced by Osamu Tezuka, this film is completely unique, the closest comparison being the more outré works of Ralph … Continue reading

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Review: Tatara Samurai (Japan 2017)

Tatara Samurai is a modern, big budgeted jidaigeki (period film) following a peasant blacksmith who attempts to reject his traditional role and small town life in order to become a samurai, set against the backdrop of Oda Nobunaga’s rise to … Continue reading

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