“Shiraishi is not only able to confront the spectator with the perverse side-effects of a patriarchal phallic societal Other – i.e. male opportunism, but also reveals, in an extremely moving finale, that even within such problematic Other love remains a possibility.”
Category: Romance
Short Movie Time: Long-Term Coffee Break (2022) [Female Gaze – Japan Society]
Fuelled by great performances and a visually pleasant composition, Fujita confronts the spectator with the subjective weight of a symbolic commitment and the phantasmatic nature of marital harmony.
Short Movie Time: Two Of Us (2019) [Female Gaze – Japan Society]
Negishi proves that she is ready to tackle the daunting task of making a feature film.
Terrifying Girls’ High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group (1973) review
“A film that does not give the male spectator the chance to satisfy his gaze but shockingly confronts him with violence that is born from the corrupted phallic game and supported by intoxicating phallic fantasies.”
The Nighthawk’s first Love (2022) review [Female Gaze – Japan Society]
An understated and moving exploration of the impact the demand for the other’s love has on the subject’s ‘relational’ signifiers and acts and of the importance of one’s first love for one’s coming-into-being as subject.
Wedding High (2022) [Female Gaze – Japan Society]
Akiku Ohku might not only have delivered her best narrative yet, but one of the best comedy narratives of this year.
Tamano Visual Poetry: Nagisa’s Bicycle (2022) review [Camera Japan Festival]
Despite delivering three engaging and visually beautiful narratives, the short nature of overall narrative undercuts the impact the movie could have had.
Noise (2022) review
A highly satisfying experience that delivers suspense as well as good dose of touching emotionality.
The Last Ten Years (2022) review
“A touching and satisfying tear-jerking experience.”
The Midnight Maiden War (2022) review
“A visually exciting experience that shows that the only revolutionary thing that can give life its worth is desire that remains desire.”
Love Nonetheless (2022) review
A modern classic about the beauty of being in a state of desiring and the impact a phallic injury can have on the ability of a subject to fall in love.
Grown-ups (2022) review
An intimate and touching account of the drama that romance and becoming a woman can be.
Lesson In Murder (2022) review
In Shiraishi’s talented hands the narrative transforms into a visual elegant and compelling examination of the desire that drives us all.
Lake of Dracula (1971) review
A splendid and highly atmospheric homage to the gothic icon called Dracula.
The Island Closest To Heaven (1984) review
“This might be the purest idol-film Obayashi made and the clearest example of how Kadokawa wanted to exploit the audio-visual medium.”
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