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Category: drama

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REVIEW: Ciao Ciao (2017)

January 16, 2023 Grant Watson

A young woman named Ciao Ciao returns from Guangzhou to her rural home in southern China. She has enjoyed a more sophisticated lifestyle, and now chafes against her parents and her former neighbors. With nothing to do, and craving the … Continue reading REVIEW: Ciao Ciao (2017)

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REVIEW: Blue Hour (2019)

January 15, 2023 Grant Watson

Sunada (Kaho) is a director of television commercials – just past thirty-years-old, drinking a little too much, and hiding an unenthused lover from a happy but sexless husband. Once the pressures of a sexist industry and celebrity egos grow too … Continue reading REVIEW: Blue Hour (2019)

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REVIEW: The Almond and the Seahorse (2022)

January 4, 2023March 6, 2023 Grant Watson

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. So too, sadly, is the road to bad movies. I honestly do not believe anybody sets out to make a bad movie. Even deliberately silly direct-to-streaming efforts made famous … Continue reading REVIEW: The Almond and the Seahorse (2022)

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REVIEW: Beijing Bicycle (2001)

January 4, 2023 Grant Watson

Guei (Cui Lin) travels to Beijing from the Chinese countryside to find work. He is hired as a bicycle courier, and for the first few weeks must sacrifice most of his pay to purchase outright the bike that has been … Continue reading REVIEW: Beijing Bicycle (2001)

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REVIEW: Testament (1983)

January 2, 2023 Grant Watson

It is sometimes difficult, for we children of the 1980s, to fully express the extent to which we all believed we would die in some global nuclear holocaust. We never planned for our futures like earlier generations did, because there … Continue reading REVIEW: Testament (1983)

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REVIEW: Nobuko (1940)

December 22, 2022 Grant Watson

Nobuko (Meiko Takamine) arrives at her new job, teaching at an exclusive girl’s academy in Tokyo. Once there she finds herself mocked for her rural accent, and criticised for staying with her aunt (Chōko Iida) who runs a geisha house. … Continue reading REVIEW: Nobuko (1940)

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REVIEW: Save the Tiger (1973)

December 19, 2022 Grant Watson

World War II veteran Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon) is co-owner of Los Angeles fashion label. Business is struggling, and he and his partner Phil Greene (Jack Gilford) keep the wolves at bay with a combination of creative accounting and outright … Continue reading REVIEW: Save the Tiger (1973)

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REVIEW: Dive (2022)

December 18, 2022 Grant Watson

Perhaps it is chance, and perhaps there really is a trend going on. In the past month or so I have seen three great 2022 feature films. Each of them has featured outstanding lead performances by a number of women. … Continue reading REVIEW: Dive (2022)

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REVIEW: Yearning (1964)

December 14, 2022 Grant Watson

Reiko (Hideko Takamine) married into the Morita family as a 19 year-old during the war, with her husband killed in action shortly afterwards. While American bombs destroyed the Morita store, and the family fled for safety, Reiko alone remained behind … Continue reading REVIEW: Yearning (1964)

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REVIEW: Once Hit the Bottom (2022)

December 10, 2022 Grant Watson

Hiroki Tachibana (Tetsuji Tamayama) was a popular nature photographer with a successful television series, but the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy caused the end of his career. Years later, a request from his mother to photograph her friend triggers in … Continue reading REVIEW: Once Hit the Bottom (2022)

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