Deconstructing the machinery of cinema.
In the opening moments of Pink and Gray, a new film by director Ikao Yukisada, we watch a young woman lead a contemporary dance troupe. At the same time an impeccably well dressed young man in an expensive apartment climbs onto a stool, wraps a rope around his neck and hangs himself. A friend arrives and ...
Villain, a Japanese drama directed by Lee Sang-il, is a curious experience. It's about the murder of a young woman along a country road, although its focus is very much on those still-living who are affected by her death. At no point is the identity of the killer ever in doubt, indeed we spent the ...
A young man is admitted into psychiatric care. He claims that he is having 'long dreams'. He goes to sleep, and in the space of a few hours experiences six months in his dream world. Soon he is dreaming for a year, then ten years. How far will his 'long dreams' go, and what will ...
A massive earthquake hits Japan's east coast, sending a nuclear reactor into meltdown and forcing the evacuation of the area. A 20 kilometre-wide exclusion zone is rapidly set up, with anybody within the zone urgently driven out of their homes. Dairy farmer Yasuhiko (Isao Natsuyagi) lives exactly 20 kilometres from the reactor. The line of ...
I usually start reviewing a film by providing a short synopsis. There is no short synopsis I can write for Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. It begins with Japan being visited by time travellers from the 23rd century. By the end history has been changed, then changed again, then changed for a third time, and in ...
There is a long, rich tradition of fine artists making a transition into filmmaking. It is, after all, just another medium for expression- and a primarily visual one at that. American painter Julian Schnabel made the jump with his excellent 1996 biographical drama Basquiat, before moving on to acclaimed films like Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the ...
A depressed businessman suffering from hypertension finds his car hijacked by three armed bank robbers. A fourth criminal has driven away in their own getaway car with their loot, and a chase begins. What ensues is a bizarre and purposefully absurd odyssey through the streets of Tokyo over a 24-hour period. The film is Drive, released ...
