‘Very few cartoons are broadcast live,’ said the animation producer to Homer Simpson, ‘it’s a terrible strain on the animator’s wrists.’ This advice clearly went unheeded by the cast of Anime Supremacy!, a Japanese workplace drama in which rival teams of … Continue reading REVIEW: Anime Supremacy! (2022)
Gigi (Miriam Yeung) is a travel agent yearning to undertake more travel herself but is instead stuck in Hong Kong thanks to her workaholic architect husband Shing-Wah (Jan Lamb) – who may be cheating on her. A class reunion causes … Continue reading REVIEW: She Remembers, He Forgets (2015)
Here is the weirdest thing that happens in Eiji Uchida’s feature Love and Other Cults. Three teenage boys have called a telephone number that was scrawled onto a bathroom wall and are expecting a young woman to turn up to … Continue reading REVIEW: Love and Other Cults (2017)
Jinpa (played by actor/poet of the same name) drives a lorry along a Tibetan plateau. He comes across like a truck-driving rock star, dressed in dusty leather clothes with a constantly present pair of shades. One day he runs over … Continue reading REVIEW: Jinpa (2018)
In 1960 an independent Japanese production company sat on the verge of bankruptcy. Using a shoestring budget and shooting entirely on location, one of their regular directors shot what was expected to be the company’s final film. The Naked Island, … Continue reading Silence and Sorrow | The Naked Island (1960)
Li Taihang (Wang Bo) is a disaffected teenager living in an anonymous city in Hebei Province. He lives with his police detective father (Li Weidong) but rarely speaks to him, instead stealing cash from him when he sleeps. Taihang spends … Continue reading REVIEW: The Son of Mountain (2018)
Since his feature debut with 1989’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto has long held a reputation as one of Japanese cinema’s greatest enfants terrible. His independent productions, from Tetsuo and its sequels to Bullet Ballet, Tokyo Fist, and A Snake of June, have consistently forged their … Continue reading REVIEW: Killing (2018)
Gao Ye (Aaron Kwok) is a gambling addict deeply in debt with local loan sharks. When a sex worker named Mo Mo (Yang Zishan) turns up at his hotel door, he soon sees it as an opportunity to defraud her … Continue reading REVIEW: One Night Only (2016)
Japan has a complex relationship with depictions of sex and sexuality. As early as the Heian period sexual acts were being depicted on scrolls and other art works, while the invention of woodblock printing during the Edo period led to … Continue reading REVIEW: Still Life of Memories (2018)
I have been an enormous fan of director Baz Luhrmann ever since his 1992 debut Strictly Ballroom. I have always found him a fascinating artist, because he trained in theatre – Strictly was a play before it was a film – yet works in … Continue reading REVIEW: Elvis (2022)
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