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Tag Archives: Japan
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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Tagged 2017, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Ryuhei Matsuda
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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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Tagged 2017, Horror, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mathieu Amalric, Tahar Rahim
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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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Tagged 2017, Chiaki Kuriyama, Japan, Samurai, Takashi Miike
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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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Tagged 2012, Erica Sawajiri, Japan, Japan Cuts, Mika Ninagawa, Nao Omori, Sho Aikawa, Susumu Terajima
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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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Tagged 2016, Japan, NYAFF, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Takashi Miike, Yakuza
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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
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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Tagged 1973, Japan, Japan Cuts, Osamu Tezuka
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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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Tagged 2017, Japan, Samurai, Yoshinari Nishikori
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Review: Creepy (Japan 2016)
Creepy marks something of a return to form for the one-time po-mo J-horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa. There was a point in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Kurosawa was one of the most exciting filmmakers working, and his every … Continue reading
Review: Shin Godzilla (Japan 2016)
As a Godzilla fan of the old school, I’ve always loathed the occasional American attempts at the Big G – whether the truly awful Matthew Broderick version or the decent-monster-movie-but-in-no-way-Godzilla attempt by Gareth Edwards from 2014 – but I think … Continue reading
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Tagged 2016, Godzilla, Hideaki Anno, Japan, Kaiju, Shinji Higuchi
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