Japanese Movie Reviews
The (One-Armed) Machine Girl (2008) Movie Review
Ami (Minase Yashiro) is your typical high school student. She hangs out with her friend, plays basketball, and watches over her younger brother, Yu (Ryosuke Kawamura), who, unbeknownst to her is being bullied by the son of a yakuza and his friends. The gang extorts money from Yu and his friend Takeshi, and when they [...]
June 30th, 2008 | Bodhi Grrl | 2 comments | Read MoreKite Liberator (2008) Movie Review
The original “Kite” was a controversial, yet fascinating exercise in style and mood. Thematically similar to Luc Besson’s near-classic “Le Femme Nikita,” which was, at its core, a remake of the classic tale ‘Pygmalion,’ “Kite” explored the dark and seedy subjects of child abuse, emotional deconstruction, sexual perversion and revenge. The ugly thematic [...]
May 5th, 2008 | Gopal | 1 comment | Read MoreBright Future (2003) DVD Review
“Bright Future” is a recent effort from acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, finally released on region 2 DVD via Tartan. Although Kurosawa is best known for horror films such as “Kairo”, “Séance” and “Cure”, his works have always had an appeal beyond the genre, mainly due to his measured, philosophical approach, and the way in [...]
November 10th, 2007 | James Mudge | 0 comments | Read MoreKaras: The Revelation (2007) Movie Review
When I previously reviewed “Karas: The Prophecy,” I noted that it was a visually spectacular film that suffered from a criminally underdeveloped plot and slap-dash execution. There were so many good parts to what made up the first film: the brilliant conceptualization of near-future Tokyo, the virtually seamless melding of traditional, hand-drawn cell animation [...]
October 27th, 2007 | Gopal | 0 comments | Read MoreThe Duel Project: Aragami and 2LDK (2003, 2005) DVD Review
“The Duel Project” is kind of like a less pretentious Japanese version of Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘Dogme 95′ so-called vow of chastity in that it enforces a number of rules in an attempt to strip down the film making process to its essentials. Of course here, rather than trying to [...]
September 22nd, 2007 | James Mudge | 0 comments | Read MoreBallad of Narayama (1958) Movie Review
Here comes a classic: “a beautiful and meditative tale of love and humanity that explores traditional Japanese cultural values,” as the DVD cover informs us. Sadly, it’s one of those ‘classics’ that are more digestible to film students and film historians than to the regular public. And here’s why.
The plot is heavily shaded by the [...]
Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005) Movie Review
“Noriko’s Dinner Table” is a Japanese parable, a meditation on issues like urbanization and the impact of family, technology and image on the concept of identity. The film wonders what it means, in a world bent on breaking all boundaries, to be one person in favor of another. Are we defined by our upbringing, our [...]
July 5th, 2007 | Yorgo Douramacos | 0 comments | Read MoreShikoku (1999) Movie Review
“Shikoku” could easily be discarded as ‘yet another long black haired ghost story from Japan’, but please bear with me, because it is much more than a derivative attempt to cash-in on the J-horror craze. While it was one of the first ghost stories to follow “Ring” (1998) and was actually playing a double-bill with [...]
May 26th, 2007 | Dejan Ognjanovic | 0 comments | Read MoreThe Sinking of Japan (2006) Movie Review
“The Sinking of Japan” (also known as “Japan Sinks”) is not exactly the stuff of dramatic legend, but oh my is it one heck of a visual treat. That is, if you like disaster movies, and don’t mind seeing, oh, 50 million or so people perish in a neverending sequence of earth-shattering quakes, mountain spewing [...]
February 12th, 2007 | Nix | 2 comments | Read MoreKaras: The Prophecy (2006) Movie Review
“Karas: The Prophecy” is, bar none, the most visually spectacular animated feature I have ever seen. It is also the most idiotic, poorly constructed, convoluted, and pointless film I have ever seen. It is a triumph of technical skill, meticulous attention to detail and computing horsepower; and the melding of CGI and hand drawn animation [...]
December 5th, 2006 | Gopal | 2 comments | Read MoreCheck It Out, Yo! aka Chekeraccho! (2006) Movie Review
“Check it Out, Yo!” is nothing you haven’t seen before, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying it. A mostly innocuous teen comedy about three directionless male high school chums who decide to form a hip-hop group in order to get chicks, and their tomboy female buddy who tags along, “Check It Out, Yo!” [...]
October 13th, 2006 | Nix | 2 comments | Read MoreDeath Trance (2006) Movie Review
If you happen to be one of the few people desperately trying to piece together the plot of Yuji Shimomura’s “Death Trance”, let me lend you a hand: Guy steals coffin because he’s a dick and he likes to fight; this guy is chased by another guy played by Steven Seagal’s son who wants the [...]
September 11th, 2006 | Nix | 0 comments | Read More
Honestly Jim Carey did an amazing job as the Riddler, but if I must say I think Johnny Depp would ...
Great review. However, I didn't feel the film ran long at all. There was so much going on, ...
BULLSHIT!!!Steven Seagal....y the best of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Van Damme,,,,is looser...dumb...FUCK YOU JEAN CLAUDE!!! 
But 99.9% of the world's population think that saiyan look asian 
Remember dark knight returns? Could be worked in rather seamlessly here with joker, two-face, and superman chasing the fugitive ...
