“An artfully composed erotic narrative that plays with the well-known psychoanalytic fact that the relational past of subjects impacts the possibility and appearance of sexual attraction between a man and a woman.”
Category: Sexuality
True Mothers (2020) [TIFF 2020]
“A beautiful and emotionally rich meditation on the complex notion of motherhood, underlining, in a touching way, that the first essential step in becoming mother is the subjective assumption of the signifier mother.”
Lovers Are Wet (1973) review
“Not only a narrative about the destructiveness of male sexual opportunism, but also (a narrative) [that explores] the irreducible opaqueness of the female subject as such.”
The Gun (2018) review
A great narrative from a thematical perspective – exploring, with clarity, the impact of a phallic object on male subjective functioning, that is stylistically unable to turn Take’s thematical exploration into a truly powerful experience.
Sexual Drive (2021) [IFFR 2021]
An amazing and unconventional narrative that not only explores the eroticism of the oral drive in an enticing and visually pleasing way, but also succeeds to touch, in a lighthearted way, upon the complexity of sexual desire as such.
Farewell song (2019) review
A truly moving narrative that explores, in a very nuanced but detailed way, the difficulty for subjects to meet the Other, the beloved Other, as subject.
The Temple of Wild Geese (1962) review
Kawashima stages this Freudian exploration of unconscious desires with an extraordinary compositional artistry.
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.”
