“This more cerebral comedy should, in fact, be on every Japanese cinema lover’s to-see list.”
Category: Directors
The Third Murder (2017) Review
An unsettling and powerful account of the problematic aspects marking Japan’s legal system – a system enabling the third murder.”
Neko Atsume House (2017) review
“His most pure celebration of the very positive function cats can have in a subject’s life.”
Cure (1997) Review
“The pulsating revelation that every subject hides a destructive drive and violent desire is the true scandal of the narrative.”
21th century girl (2018) Review
A powerful plea for more support for female directorial talent and for more Japanese narratives that explore female subjectivity, question the nature of the sexual relationship, and investigate the effects society has on women and their subjectivity.
Noise (2017) [Final version] review
“This questioning, framed with thoughtful cinematography and brought to life by deeply nuanced performances, will long linger in the spectator’s mind.”
His Lost Name (2018) review
“A successful debut for Nanako Hirose”
The Legend of The Stardust Brothers (1985) review.
The time for this narrative to become a cult-classic has finally arrived.
Shoplifters (2018) review
“A corroboration of the fact that Kore-eda is one of the best directors currently alive.”
Ten Years Japan (2018) review
“And while these alarming narratives might not be able to agitate Japanese politicians, [these narratives] is still a moving warning that everyone should see.”
Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1968) Review
“Nagisa Oshima created an extremely impressive and impactful associative narrative mix about that existence of the female subject and her mysterious enjoyment as such, a subjectivity and enjoyment that is, in light of a patriarchal societal system, highly problematic.”
River’s Edge (2018) review
“A rather ambitious project that succeeds in evoking the complexity of adolescence in a crude, unflattering and straightforward way.”
Talks with directors: Yoko Yamanaka.
“It is bad to do things on impulse.”
Meeting with directors: Takuya Fukushima
Introduction Thursday, I had the honour to attend a screening of Modern Love (English review/Japanese review) in Shinjuku’s K’s Cinema in the presence of the director Takuya and some of the crew-members – a guy responsible for the production design and a female make-up artist.
Moments of cine-beauty: Yasujiro Ozu and the vase.
“A stillness that evokes nothing other than the nature of Japanese traditional culture as such – and the lives it influences.”
