|
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 |
|
Posted on 07.03.08 by David @ 2:11 pm
Tokyo Gore Police I’ll confess I had low expectations for this one. Another crazy Japanese splatter-punk film with sexy girls and over-the-top gore, ho hum. The first two minutes seemed to confirm those low expectations. Five minutes later, while Eihi Shiina (of Audition fame) performed a double chainsaw dance over the mutant she had just literally defaced, I sat up and took notice. By the time the opening title flashed on screen, I was applauding along with the audience. By the end, I was a convert, because this movie is freaking awesome.  Tokyo Gore Police plays as if it were a Troma film – the greatest Troma film that was never actually made by Troma. It combines the freaked-out practical special effects and body horror of Videodrome and John Carpenter’s The Thing, the winning stupidity and tacky cheapness of the much beloved Story of Ricky, the dynamism of Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo the Iron Man, and the clever parodic asides of Robocop, and wraps them up in a shame-free bow for your delectation. Just to give you some of the highlights, it features a bondage-clad quadruple amputee whose limbs have been replaced by blades, a yonic crocodile, more split heads and spurting blood than any three Lone Wolf and Cub movies, and even takes time out for a birthday party. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 and People: Yoshihiro Nishimura and People: Hitoshi Matsumoto Comments: None |
|
Posted on 07.03.08 by David @ 1:07 pm
Today marks the start of the Japan Society’s second annual Japan Cuts festival of new Japanese film. For the July 4th weekend, the festival will be teaming up with the Subway Cinema gang to co-present a number of excellent films. The remainder of the festival will include additional new films, shorts, and a number of special guests, including Naomi Kawase, Takako Matsumoto, and a special satellite appearance by Koji Wakamatsu, barred from entering the US for his political activities. Also look for a special tribute to the late, great Kon Ichikawa on July 11 and 12 with presentations of his films, The Inugami Family and Murder of the Inugami Family.  Our coverage of some of the films playing in Japan Cuts 2008, including Dainipponjin, Adrift in Tokyo, Sukiyaki Western Django and Fine, Totally Fine can be found here. Look for Jeff’s review of Koji Wakamatsu’s brutal masterpiece United Red Army tomorrow. ::: Cinema Strikes Back coverage of Japan Cuts 2008 Filed under: General and Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 Comments: None |
|
Posted on 07.02.08 by David @ 9:22 am
AKA: Tenten Review By: David Austin ADRIFT IN TOKYO PLAYS AT THE JAPAN SOCIETY THURSDAY, JULY 3RD AT 4:20 PM Adrift in Tokyo has the kind of low-key, effortless charm that most movies sweat for. It is a perfect example of what have been called “hanging out” movies – movies where the pleasure is less about plot or story and more about spending time watching an entertaining group of characters interact. Here, at the end of Adrift in Tokyo, I could not help but be disappointed that my time in Miki Satoshi’s fascinating little microcosm of a world was done.  The premise, and it is really more of a premise than a plot, is that yakuza/debt collector/jack-of-all-trades Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura) offers a deal to slacker college student Takemura (Jo Odagiri, truly a chameleon of an actor) – walk with Fukuhara for as long as Fukuhara chooses, and at the end of their peregrinations, Fukuhara will forgive Takemura’s debt and even pay him something extra. The walk is set to end at Kasumigaseki (the administrative and government center of Tokyo) where Fukuhara intends to turn himself in for a crime, but how long it will take to get there, and what detours they will take along the way, is up to Fukuhara. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Rating: Good ★★★ and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 Comments: 1 Comment |
|
Posted on 07.01.08 by David @ 10:54 am
Strawberry Shortcakes Strawberry Shortcakes tells the story of the intersecting lives of four different women in Tokyo: an office worker, a prostitute, an artist, and a receptionist for an escort service. Each of the women is miserable and unfulfilled to varying degrees. The office worker has a boyfriend who won’t commit to her, and is stuck with an unfulfilling job with coworkers who despise her. The prostitute engages in dangerous, unprotected sex with her clients and pines after a college buddy who spurns her affections. The artist suffers from bulimia, and the receptionist is not only deeply lonely, but also is trying to avoid the advances of her skeezy, married boss.  As the plot description suggests, Strawberry Shortcakes is a troubling film. All of the women in the film are rather weak-willed. Most, if not all, of them believe that they will never be happy or fulfilled until they are married. On the other hand, the men in the film are portrayed as uncaring, lecherous, two-timing sleazeballs. Is the film critiquing how members of both sexes destroy their lives by falling into stereotypical patterns of behavior? Or is the film merely reinforcing those stereotypes? The answer is not clear, given that the story is presented in a naturalistic style without an explicit point of view. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Contributors: Jeff and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 Comments: None |
|
Posted on 06.19.08 by Jeff @ 1:30 pm
Mad Detective Mad Detective is the most recent crime film from master director Johnnie To. However, unlike its immediate predecessors in To’s filmography, Mad Detective is not a quasi-Spaghetti Western like Exiled or a Godfather-esque saga like Election and Election 2. Instead, Mad Detective is To’s mystical take on the police procedural genre. In the film, the magnificently rumpled Lau Ching Wan plays a highly eccentric police detective who solves crimes with the help of his schizophrenic “visions” which allow him to see the world through the perspective of others. Despite the Mad Detective’s obvious gifts, he is forced to retire after slicing off one of his ears in front of his coworkers. However, when a police officer goes missing in the woods, a young detective (played by Andy On) asks the Mad Detective for help in solving the case. The Mad Detective’s return to police work is treated with scorn by his former coworkers and by his ex-wife (played by Kelly Lin), to whom Lau’s character delusionally believes he is still married.
Mad Detective is a film of remarkable visual poetry. In many striking scenes, To shows the world through the eyes of the title character, who views each personality trait of the people around him as a separate entity. (For example, one actor will portray a character when that character is motivated by fear, while another actor will play that same character when he motivated by greed, and yet another actor will play that same character when he is acting in a coldly logical fashion. This is not as confusing as it sounds; a similar technique was used to much lesser effect in the sitcom “Herman’s Head“.) The scenes between Lau and Lin are quite touching as well. Both actors do a great job with their roles; Lau in particular gives a relatively restrained performance and does a great job of playing a sad sack. However, On comes across as fairly bland and does not leave much of an impression. The film’s big finale, set in the (somewhat clichéd) locale of a hall of mirrors, is also visually dazzling. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and Movie Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and People: Takashi Miike and People: Johnnie To and Venues: IFC Center and Contributors: Jeff and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2008 and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 Comments: None |
|
Posted on 04.09.08 by David @ 4:38 pm
As with last year, the Japan Society will be running its “Japan Cuts” festival partially overlapping with and presented by the NYAFF. The dates have been confirmed - “Japan Cuts” will run from Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 13, 2008 and overlap with the NYAFF on July 3-6. Confirmed films so far include: Filed under: Movie News and Movie News: Japan and Venues: The Japan Society and Film Festivals: Japan Cuts 2008 Comments: None |
* 
