Kawashima stages this Freudian exploration of unconscious desires with an extraordinary compositional artistry.
Category: Sexuality
Cruel story of Youth (1960) review
Oshima succeeds in dissecting in a very precise way how the Other, an Other marked by patriarchy and capitalism, is able to empty the youthful subject of his ideals and dreams as well as how the rebellious protest of certain youthful subjects is, in many cases, an affirmation of the very dynamic that underpins the functioning of the Other.
Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute (1971) review
“Not only does Adachi frame the societal Other as the cause of the lost state of youth and the youth’s suicidal response, but Adachi also formulates, in a truly confronting way, his hope for this lost youth to find desire in creating a different Other for tomorrow.”
Romance doll (2020) review [Camera Japan Festival 2020]
What makes Tanada’s film enjoyable is not its overindulgence in drama, but its refusal to exploit the dramatic turns of the narrative for easy tears.
Ohyaku: the Female Demon (1968) [review]
a very enjoyable revenge-narrative that, surprisingly, still holds up well today.
Terrifying Girls’ High School: Woman’s Violent Classroom (1972) review
Norifumi Suzuki’s narrative is not only a pleasing narrative full of betrayal, cat-fights between clans, rape, extortion, and acts of revenge, but also a powerful critique against the inherent perversity of hierarchical society.
Stay (2018) review
A great indie romance film that underlines the very importance for subjects to establish inter-subjective (romantic) relationships.
All The Things We Never Said (2020) review [San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020]
Ishii’s latest is not only a highly relevant narrative, especially for Japanese subjects, it might very well be the best Japanese film of this year.
Branded To Kill (1967) Review
“A Classic.”
Sakura (2020) review [Japannual 2020]
“A great narrative that does not only show that family happiness is but a semblance – behind the smiles hides pain and sadness – but also the very fact that the subject can only grasp his present subjective state by narrativizing (and, in many cases idealize) his past.”
Be My Baby (2013) review
While the narrative has subtle comical flair, “Be My Baby” does not fail to confront the spectator with the two most important obstacles to romantic happiness: the refusal to take one’s own and the other’s subjective position into account and the unquenchable power of sexual desire.
Understanding ‘Cuties’ from a psychoanalytical perspective
“Even though I stated above that Amy’s identification with the hypersexualized image of femininity needs to be understood as a refusal, I think that it is even more correct to understand her behaviour as an acting-out directed to the Islamic Other.”
Short Movie Time: See You on the Other Side (2019) [Japan Cuts 2020]
“A very precise and rather confronting exploration of how, within the sexual act, the male and the female subject never meet each other.”
Makuko (2019) review [Nippon connection online]
“A pleasing exploration of the fear of becoming an sexually desiring adult.”
Hot Gimmick: girl meets boy (2019) review
“A powerful evocation of the importance of assuming one’s own subjective position. ”