Articles in Japanese Movie Reviews
Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992) Movie Review
The title of this Godzilla offering is a bit misleading. It makes it seem like Godzilla and Mothra are teaming up to save the planet, when in reality the two are still beating the crap out of each other in Japan and ignoring the rest of the world. Still, the film is fun to watch, [...]
August 10th, 2004 | Joseph Savitski | 1 Comment | Read MoreShinjuku Triad Society (1995) Movie Review
I have to admit I was a Miike virgin prior to watching the DVD debut of “Shinjuku Triad Society.” From all I’d heard and read about the director’s visceral style, I expected to have the dry heaves before the half-hour mark. I should point out that my prior experience with Asian cinema was limited to [...]
August 5th, 2004 | Bill Paterson | 0 Comments | Read MoreGodzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991) Movie Review
This entry in the popular monster series is a disappointing and flawed effort unworthy of the “Godzilla” name. Rampantly anti-Western and entirely unoriginal, “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” also makes the huge mistake of relegating its main star to the film’s third act. Instead of an exciting monster epic, we’re given a dull and mostly pointless [...]
August 4th, 2004 | Joseph Savitski | 0 Comments | Read MoreCowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) Movie Review
Although I’ve watched plenty of Japanese animation in my time, I’ve never had the occasion to take up Shinichiro Watanabe’s “Cowboy Bebop”, one of the more popular imports to reach the States. “Cowboy Bebop: The Movie” is derived from the series of the same name, and I suppose fans of the series could tell you [...]
August 4th, 2004 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreGodzilla vs Biollante (1989) Movie Review
It makes sense that Godzilla’s foe in “Godzilla vs. Biollante” would be the product of genetic engineering, since that science was beginning to dawn when the film was made. It doesn’t, at first, make sense why the filmmakers would decide to have Godzilla fight a mutated rosebush; but they probably were running out of species [...]
August 2nd, 2004 | Joseph Savitski | 1 Comment | Read MoreRed Shadow (2001) Movie Review
Hiroyuki Nakano’s “Red Shadow” is a rather oddball picture. It’s not exactly a samurai film, not really a ninja film, and sure as heck doesn’t try to be an authentic martial arts picture. So what it is? I guess you could call it parts slapstick and parts…something else.
The point is, it’s very hard to [...]
Zatoichi (2003) Movie Review
At last, the review of Kitano Takeshi’s “Zatoichi” remake is now online. I’ve had the DVD in my possession for the last, oh, three months or so, but for one reason or another — but mostly simple disinterest — I have ignored it. With the current public relations push for the film well underway in [...]
July 30th, 2004 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreGodzilla vs Megaguirus (2000) Movie Review
When “Godzilla 2000 Millennium” failed to set the box office on fire, Toho Ltd. fired the creative team and slashed the budget for the following film. The result should have been a disaster, a cut-rate film by a rookie director. Fortunately “Godzilla vs. Megaguirus” managed to transcend its handicap to become one of the strongest [...]
July 11th, 2004 | Joseph Savitski | 0 Comments | Read MoreSuicide Club (2002) Movie Review
One of the most recent entries in the renaissance of Japanese horror cinema is an impressive but gory meditation on the power of pop culture on the public psyche. A pitch-black satire as well as a shocking horror film, it raises several excellent points concerning the media’s manipulation of the general population’s value system. If [...]
July 3rd, 2004 | Joseph Savitski | 0 Comments | Read More2LDK (2003) Movie Review
Like “Aragami”, the other half of the 2-movie “Duel” series (read the review of “Aragami” for an explanation), Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s “2LDK” feels stunted, which isn’t much of a surprise since the two movies (if you can even call them that) owed a night of drinking for their existence. Like Ryuhei Kitamura’s film, “2LDK” tells the [...]
June 27th, 2004 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read More
It looks like a dud. I saw the trailer. Tom is the only person speaking with an American news network ...
nothing they payed fox.... 
OMG!!!! 
