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Posted on 07.13.10 by David @ 11:14 am
 This is the last in our series of articles on the Japan Cuts 2010 film festival. As usual, the festival included some truly excellent films, particularly Confessions, One Million Yen Girl, Nightmare Detective II. As part of the series, Japan Cuts is also showing a print of Memories of Matsuko, which after four years still has yet to see an official release in the U.S – the sole screening is this Thursday, July 15, at 6:!5, if you have never seen the film I highly recommend it.
Also, stay tuned over the next week or two for our wrap-up coverage of the New York Asian Film Festival, as we post reviews of additional films and our interviews with Simon Yam, Bruce Leung and Yu Irie. [For more information, visit the Japan Cuts website here - http://www.japansociety.org/japancuts. For all Japan Cuts 2010 articles, click here - http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/?cat=775.]
Nightmare Detective 2 (Japan 2008) - I enjoyed the first Nightmare Detective film as a thriller, but the mix of police procedural and Nightmare on Elm Street horror was about as commercial a film as I’ve ever seen from director Shinya Tsukamoto (even Hiruko the Goblin was too odd to have real mass appeal). Nightmare Detective II changes all of that. Vastly more personal, vastly more emotional, and, frankly, vastly better, Nightmare Detective II is the rare sequel that far surpasses the original. While the first film dropped us into the world of Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda), the titular sleuth, Nightmare Detective II provides Kagenuma with tragic weight and heft to match his powers. While Tsukamoto leans heavily on the imagery and atmosphere of J-horror, his actual concerns are more intimate, dealing with the inherent horror of being unable to shut out the minds of others. Tsukamoto remains a director who is fascinating even in failure - it is wonderful to see him craft a success on par with his Vital and A Snake of June out of such humble material. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Ryuhei Matsuda and People: Shinya Tsukamoto and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2010 and People: Yu Aoi and People: Nao Omori and People: Miki Nakatani Comments: None |
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Posted on 07.08.10 by David @ 8:05 pm
Today is the last day of the New York Asian Film Festival, but The Japan Cuts festival at the Japan Society continues, with a number of films including the Best of the Unreleased Naughties, a celebration of some of the great films of the last decade that have inexplicably never been released in the U.S. Japan Cuts may be a little more focused on human relationships than on martial arts and blood splattering wild boars , but there is still a nice mix of genre, arthouse, and anime to be found. We’ve already covered the co-presentations of Confessions, Boys on the Run, Golden Slumber, Dear Doctor, Blood of Rebirth, and Alien vs. Ninja, but serious and casual film enthusiasts alike will definitely want to check out Parade, Zero Focus, Nightmare Detective 2, and One Million Yen Girl at a minimum. [For more information, visit the Japan Cuts website here. For all Japan Cuts 2010 articles, click here.]
Zero Focus (Japan 2009) – Zero Focus, a period murder mystery, has drawn deserved comparison to Hitchcock. Those comparisons are fair, but with its sweeping string score and psychosexual anxiety, Zero Focus evokes the claustrophobic small town mysteries of David Lynch as much as the free-floating dread of Vertigo. Impeccably crafted, Zero Focus functions best as a gorgeous evocation of its time – the late ‘50s – and place – frigid Kanazawa on the northern coast of Japan – conjuring up dazzling images of rocky shores, snowy roads and dark trains. Disappointingly, the underlying plot, in which Teiko (Ryoko Hirosue) searches for her missing husband and bodies begin to pile up, while more than serviceable, never quite lives up to the aesthetic achievements of the cinematography and sets. Teiko never gels as a character and the denouement, in which she serves almost a bystander, enforces that absence of a central performance. Nevertheless, Zero Focus is one of the most visually impressive achievements in the festival and, bolstered by a ferocious turn from Miki Nakatani, more than worth your time. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Tatsuya Fujiwara and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2010 and People: Yu Aoi and People: Miki Nakatani Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.30.10 by David @ 11:50 am
 Starting on July 1st, half of the NYAFF screenings will be co-presented by the Japan Society as part of the Japan Cuts festival.
The Good
Confessions (Japan 2010) – I enjoyed Tetsuya Nakashima’s wacky, visually inventive Kamikaze Girls, but it in no way prepared me for the Technicolor kick-in-the-stomach that was 2006’s Memories of Matsuko, the heartbreaking story of a failed life told in the style of a joyful musical. With Confessions, the tale of a teacher’s attempt to wreak a terrible vengeance on the students she blames for the death of her daughter, Nakashima maintains his heavily operatic style (though moving away from the literal musical), using every cinematic trick in the book to portray big emotions. In that respect, Confessions frequently plays like the bastard love child of Park Chan-Wook and Shunji Iwai, transplanting Lady Vengeance’s cold, calculated protagonist and icy but flashy visual style into the fraught high school world of All About Lily Chou-Chou. However, Nakashima has far more heart than Park has ever shown and Confessions is messy in a way the clockwork vengeance world of Park could never be. A deeply flawed movie, Confessions is nevertheless fascinating for its flaws, and one of the best films in the festival. It doesn’t hurt that Nakashima has slipped in a ringer by packing the soundtrack with great cuts by Radiohead and Japanese noise-metal pioneers Boris. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2010 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2010 and People: Tetsuya Nakashima and Production Company: Sushi Typhoon and People: Nao Omori Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.28.10 by David @ 1:29 am
More nougaty goodness from the NYAFF in Report 2. Some great screenings and guests so far, including surprise appearances by Angela Mao at Sammo’s lifetime achievement award and by Joyce Godenzi at the Eastern Condors Q+A. [Note that Boys on the Run is co-presented by the Japan Cuts festival, which starts officially on July 1.]
The Good Ip Man (HK 2008) – Ip Man, the Donnie Yen-starrer about Bruce Lee’s Wing Chun sifu, is more than a little schizophrenic in tone. The lovely first half is a subtle comedy of kung fu manners, with an uncharacteristically likable Donnie as the titular character. Hen-pecked by his wife, harassed by the local constable, and pestered by would-be disciples, Ip Man just wants to live a peaceful life, but keeps being challenged by every new master who wants to make a name for himself. The script is strong and the fighting is excellent, especially once Fan Siu-Wong (Story of Ricky) turns up as a bumpkin whose skills surpass those of all the locals but Ip. On the other hand, the second half (and the shift is not organic in the slightest) is an extremely heavy-handed bit of WWII-era patriotic propaganda, in which Ip Man stands up to Japanese invaders. Full of lingering shots of downtrodden Chinese and unsubtly swelling music, only a bravura scene where Donnie takes on ten Japanese martial artists is particularly rousing. As the final battle scene between Donnie and the imposing General Miura fails to meet expectations, the movie never tops its mid-film peak. But, oh, that first half …  Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Donnie Yen and People: Sammo Hung and People: Simon Yam and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Venues: Film Society at Lincoln Center and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2010 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2010 and People: Huang Bo Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.25.10 by David @ 4:57 pm
The NYAFF is upon us again! I’ve been following Subway Cinema since back when they used to hold the occasional Old School Kung Fu fest at the Anthology and Village Cinema downtown through the fancier digs at IFC, but I never thought I’d see the day when the New York Asian Film Festival invaded the hallowed halls of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater. Truly high culture has been overthrown. Of course, I’ve had the opportunity to watch both Ichi the Killer and Raw Meat at Lincoln Center, so perhaps the dichotomy was never so clear. But on with the show. As usual, the Subway gang has picked some doozies, some whoppers, and some head-scratchers (in both the good and bad sense). I wanted to pattern my festival reports after the Korean blockbuster from last year, The Good, The Bad and the Weird, but frankly, with very few exceptions, there aren’t any flat-out bad films in the pack. So as an alternative, I’ll be breaking things down into The Good, the Not-Quite-So-Good, and The Weird. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Film Festivals: News and People: Takashi Miike and People: Sammo Hung and People: Simon Yam and People: Lo Meng (5 Venoms) and People: Tony Leung Ka-Fai and People: Chen Kuan-tai and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Movie Reviews: China and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2010 and People: Huang Bo and People: Hitoshi Matsumoto Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.24.10 by David @ 4:25 pm
To coincide with its release of Ponyo on DVD and Blu-Ray (surprisingly, the first Miyazaki film to be released on Blu-Ray), Disney has re-released a selection of older Miyazaki films on DVD, some of which were starting to become a little difficult to pick up in their U.S. incarnations. The older films – Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) – are all classics and capture Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on the cusp of becoming a national institution. Between the somewhat rough Laputa and the polished Kiki, Miyazaki perfected his style, laying the groundwork for the tremendous aesthetic triumphs of Spirited Away and Ponyo. Similarly, many of Miyazaki’s signature obsessions and themes – man’s relation to nature, the use of adolescents and children as protagonists, Jules Verne-inspired steampunk technology, and above all, flying – emerged in these films (as well as their predecessor, Nausicaa. Fittingly, while Laputa and My Neighbor Totoro were not initially financial success stories, Kiki was a hit and both Laputa and My Neighbor Totoro have since achieved recognition both critical and popular, with My Neighbor Totoro have becoming perhaps Miyazaki’s signature film. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and People: Hayao Miyazaki and Production Company: Studio Ghibli and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.22.09 by David @ 10:51 am
 Rough Cut ROUGH CUT PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 23 AT 9:30 PM AND ON JUNE 24 AT 6:30 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 I am tempted to dismiss Rough Cut as just another Korean gangster film, filled with “cooler-than-thou” characters who engage in brutal fisticuffs every ten minutes or so, like so many of its predecessors. In many ways it is just that. However, Rough Cut has a little more on its mind, mingling the worlds of filmmaking and organized crime, and playing with notions of artifice and reality in interesting ways. Rough Cut blurs the distinction between truth and fiction from the get-go, setting its story during the filming of (what else?) a gangster film. The lead actor, Su Tae (Kang Ji-Hwan), is obsessed with “keeping it real.” His tough-guy posturing and desire to fight for real eventually lead to injured co-stars and problems on the set of the film-within-a-film - a gangster opus in which he and a rival compete over the same girl (played in the film by “actress” Kang Mi-Na, in turn played by real actress Hong Su-Hyeon). Fiction becomes a form of truth when Su Tae persuades gangster and former wannabe actor Gang-Pae (So Ji-Seob) to join the film on the condition that they do everything “for real.” Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: South Korea and Contributors: David and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.19.09 by David @ 10:08 am
K-20: Legend of the Mask K-20: LEGEND OF THE MASK PLAYS AT THE IFC CENTER ON JUNE 20 AT 8:15 PM AND ON JUNE 30 AT 1:45 PM. SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE HERE
 K-20 is silly fun; an old-fashioned matinee crowd-pleaser in the vein of The Rocketeer or the Indiana Jones films. Set in an alternate universe where World War II never happened and Japan has retained its Victorian-era stratification of society, the film pits a dashing hero against a cartoon villain – master thief Kaijin 20: The Fiend with 20 Faces - before a steampunk backdrop. It’s definitely kids’ stuff, the sort of film that might star Brendan Fraser if made in the US, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t get a kick out of the showmanship, starting with K-20’s first appearance – ripping off a rubber face at a press conference to reveal a serial villain’s mask and fedora, along with a catchy maniacal cackle. Today’s more serious superhero opuses, with their angst and extreme violence, rarely find time for the lighthearted fun that powers most of K-20. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Takeshi Kaneshiro and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.26.09 by David @ 1:22 pm
Country and Year: France/Japan/Germany/South Korea (2008) Review By: David Austin  Like so many portmanteau films, Tokyo! is a mixed bag, varying wildly in quality both between films and within them. Michel Gondry’s segment in particular stands out, while Leos Carax’s is far less successful. Interior Design Tokyo! starts off on the right foot with Michel Gondry’s segment, Interior Design, my favorite of the bunch. Gondry tells the story of a young couple, Hiroko (Ayako Fujitani) and Akira (Ryo Kase) who move to Tokyo so that Akira can make it as a filmmaker. While their attempts to adjust are equally awkward at first (they can’t find a good apartment, they become an increasingly unwelcome imposition on Hiroko’s friend, their car is towed), Akira soon begins to make a life for himself and to achieve some measure of success, while the directionless Hiroko finds herself increasingly trapped in the background and feeling a nuisance. When her emotions reach a breaking point, for better or for worse she begins an odd metamorphosis. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Rating: Average ★★ and People: Michel Gondry and People: Bong Joon-ho Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.19.09 by Charlie @ 4:55 am
 The Clone Returns Home  The Clone Returns Home is not for everyone. Although it was billed by critics as one of the top “must see” works at Sundance this year, it is at heart a capital-A art film that will appeal to a very limited audience. Put more plainly, this film is extraordinarily SLOW. For example, the film includes what I think of as the ultimate “film festival scene” — a scene that is tolerated and even celebrated at film festivals, but would be booed off the screen in any kind of normal theater environment. The classic “film festival scene” is a staple of The Clone Returns Home and goes something like this: we see a giant field, or beach or other large open expanse. From the far side of the screen, we notice someone walk into frame, though we’re so far away we may not even realize at first that it is a person. Then, lucky us, we get to watch in real time as this person slowly walks across the field or beach or whatever over several eon-bearing minutes. During such scenes, there is often no dialogue, no plot developing, and nothing to pay attention to — think of it charitably as a chance to reflect on what happened in the previous scene (since there is nothing else to do), or less charitably as an informal bathroom break. That is the film festival scene, and it occurs several times in The Clone Returns Home. Not everyone hates this, I’m assured, and extremely patient audiences may enjoy it, but my guess is many people will find it tedious. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: USA and Contributors: Charlie and Film Festivals: Sundance 2009 Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.16.08 by Charlie @ 11:11 am
The Sky Crawlers  Mamoru Oshii, the animé heavyweight behind the classic film Ghost in the Shell has a new film, The Sky Crawlers, based on a novel by Hiroshi Mori. A startling mix of impressive 3D graphics and low-fi 2D animation, the film just premiered in New York City this past Friday courtesy of New York-Tokyo, the Film Society at Lincoln Center, Sony Pictures, Stage 6 Films and Production IG. Mamoru Oshii recorded a brief introduction for the film’s NY premiere, in which he talked about a phenomenon around the world and, he claimed, particularly in Japan, in which youngsters decide “not to grow up” and continue to act like children right into their adulthood. The idea of child-like adults plays a central role in The Sky Crawlers, which takes place in a futuristic sci-fi society in which genetic research gone awry has resulted in children who don’t age, but only if they so choose not to — they can also choose to grow up normally. But if they do choose to remain children, they become “kildren” (presumably derived from “killer children”) and simply live on forever physically as children (teenagers really), holding jobs and living like adults in other respects. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: USA and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.06.08 by David @ 2:53 pm
[We previously reviewed Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django as part of our NYAFF 2008 coverage here - that festival review is reprinted in this article prior to the DVD details. Click here for all posts relating to Takashi Miike] Sukiyaki Western Django
Like Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, in whose footsteps it all but explicitly follows (Tarantino even makes a cameo appearance), Sukiyaki Western Django is the bastard child of its predecessors, primarily Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Django. While, unlike Kill Bill, Sukiyaki Western Django isn’t quite able to transcend those influences and become something truly great, what it does accomplish is more than enough to make it a fascinatingly weird little film and an interesting aside from Miike. Certainly the noodle western has been done before, more literally in Eastern-Westerns like Plains Wanderer and more symbolically in Juzo Itami’s effervescent Tampopo, but Miike’s take is as wild and cracked as the man’s filmography would promise. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and People: Takashi Miike Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 10.20.08 by David @ 9:23 am
AKA: Porno Jidaigeki: Bohachi bushido Review By: David Austin  Bohachi Bushido is proof that, while Teruo Ishii might not always have brought the most disciplined and sophisticated visual sense to the table, when focused he was capable of some gorgeous work. Indeed, with Bohachi Bushido, Ishii shows he could be a match for the formal rigor of his colleague Norifumi Suzuki, usually by far the greater visual stylist as demonstrated in films like School of the Holy Beast and Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom. Those familiar only with The Executioner series, where Ishii killed time by having Sonny Chiba pick his nose and put it in people’s drinks, will be shocked to learn that Bohachi Bushido comes from the same director. Ishii’s works have always been stagy, but here his direction tips over the line into full-blown theatrical. Characters scheme and declaim their lines as if in a Kabuki drama. Even his images of the classic Yoshiwara red light district of Edo (pre-Meiji restoration Tokyo) are drawn as if from an old ukiyoe print, with crowded horizontal planes filled with bars, theaters, and pleasure-seekers. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Teruo Ishii and Studios: Toei and People: Tetsuro Tamba Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 09.09.08 by Jeff @ 6:15 am
 Dororo
As one can tell from the above plot description, Dororo is one loopy movie, albeit one told with a completely straight face. To wit: the organless infant protagonist resembles Dr. Bunsen Honeydew from The Muppet Show. Moreover, many of the demons are also fabulously, imaginatively rendered, in a style that is reminscent of the Yokai Monsters, but updated to reflect the capabilities in scale and fluidity of movement that are offered by CGI. The scenes in which our hero fights the demons are quite thrilling. Although I don’t generally enjoy CGI-heavy action scenes, the fights in Dororo are expertly choreographed by Tony Ching Siu Tung (of A Chinese Ghost Story fame). In a touch obviously inspired by Kill Bill, many of the action scenes are set to music that is alternately reminiscent of the Gipsy Kings and Ennio Morricone. The final confrontation between father and son is also quite rousing and satisfying. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: Japan and Rating: Good ★★★ and Rating: Great ★★★★ and People: Johnnie To and People: Simon Yam and Contributors: Jeff and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 Comments: 1 Comment |
Dororo features everything one could reasonably hope to find in an action blockbuster: action, suspense, an engaging plot, and mind-bending weirdness. Although I did not take notes during the screening of the film, my recollection of the plot (much of which is told in flashback) is as follows: A warrior seeks to become the dominant ruler of Japan by striking a deal with the dozens of demons who occupy a temple. In exchange for the warrior’s infant son, the demons will grant the warrior military victory. Each of the demons removes a different internal or external organ from the infant, whose mother then sends him in a basket down the river, much like Moses in ancient Egypt. A magical hermit rescues the infant, and grows replacement organs for him. The infant grows up to be a warrior himself (now played by Satoshi Tsumabuki), who is charged with the mission of slaying each of the demons who has stolen his organs, and accompanied by a scrappy female pickpocket who also lacks a name (played by Kou Shibasaki). Every time a demon is defeated, our protagonist recovers one of his original organs, and comes closer to reaching the inevitable confrontation with his evil father. (It gives nothing away to acknowlege this event, which is telegraphed from the beginning of the film.)|
Posted on 07.04.08 by Jeff @ 8:41 am
AKA: Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi Review By: Jeff UNITED RED ARMY PLAYS AT THE JAPAN SOCIETY SUNDAY, JULY 6TH AT 4:00 PM AND ON TUESDAY, JULY 8TH AT 7:30 PM United Red Army is a stunning achievement, a harrowing saga in three parts. Reputed to be based on actual events, this film is truly “living history,” as it depicts a movement of which I had no prior familiarity, Japanese left-wing radicalism, and invests it with life and context. This is a film worthy of study and discussion, and garners my highest recommendation for any viewer who can stomach the brutal events it depicts. (Note: this review contains mild spoilers of the plot of United Red Army. It is impossible to review this film in any detail without discussing the historical events with which the film is concerned.)  The first third of the film details the increasing radicalization of the Japanese student movement in the 1960s, as the movement shifts from its initial goal of ending the American occupation of Japan to an attempted Maoist revolution. In this segment, Wakamatsu uses a pseudo-documentary technique to convey an astonishing amount of information about the rise and fall of various radical splinter groups and introduces most of the film’s major characters. Wakamatsu’s technique here mixes documentary footage, narration, on-screen text, as well as dramatic scenes featuring the film’s characters. Wakamatsu shows how most of these characters, originally driven by idealism, and the hope for a better world, devolved into ideological thugs. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: Jeff and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 and People: Tak Sakaguchi Comments: 1 Comment |
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