A great and visually pleasing narrative about the socially embedded nature of the process of coming-into-being-as-subject.
Category: Youth
Hotel Iris (2021) review [Osaka Asian Film Festival]
“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.”
Ito (2021) review [OAFF 2021]
“A charming exploration about the way in which the other allows a drifting subject to moor his desire and find a direction for his subjectivity within the Other.”
B/B (2020) review [OAFF 2021]
“Nakahama succeeds in delivering his message concerning the human tendency to misrecognize the traumatic pain of others in a fresh and touching manner.”
Over The Town (2021) review [OAFF 2021]
Imaizumi’s narrative littered with a multitude of beautifully nuanced moments of natural relation poetry.
A Rainbow-colored trip (2021) review [OAFF 2021]
A great narrative that does not only touches upon the beauty of one’s first love (…), but also on the selfishness that drives the wishes of human subjects.
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.
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.
Last Letter (2020) review
A satisfying and touching drama that highlights the importance of acknowledging about one’s loss and confronts us with the fact that, for the subject, his/her loss is, first and foremost, a loss of an ideal image.
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.”
Mother (2020) review
In a languid but highly transparent way, Ohmori confronts the spectator with the subjective and interpersonal ravage the insatiable desire for love and the need for a proof of the other’s love eventually causes.
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.”
Take Over Zone (2019) [Camera Japan 2020]
While Yamasaki’s message is clear, the delivery of his positive message of empowerment would have more gripping and emotionally powerful for the spectator if the sound-design were on point.
To The North (2020) review [JFFH 2020]
A feel-good movie full of genuine emotions and satisfying romantic moments that also succeeds in delivering an important message to young adults.
