Articles in Japanese Movie Reviews
Ping Pong (2002) Movie Review
It must be hard for filmmakers to constantly have to find a new sport from which to form a Sports Movie around. Even the niche sport of curling has been explored in the Canadian movie “Men With Brooms”. In the absence of new sports, filmmakers have resorted to making movies around established sports, but with [...]
March 29th, 2003 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreHeaven and Earth (Ten to Chi to, 1990) Movie Review
You really have to respect director Haruki Kadokawa for the monumental task of directing a movie like “Heaven and Earth”, which is more enterprise in filmmaking than actual filmmaking. Not really a movie, but a series of pitched samurai battles between two determined rivals vying for control of 16th century Japan, “Heaven and Earth” could [...]
March 25th, 2003 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreReturner (2002) Movie Review
Sometimes there’s just no real reason for a movie to be in the first place. Take the South Korean movie “Resurrection of the Little Match Girl”, and now take the Japanese movie “Returner”. Both films are clearly inspired by “The Matrix”, and one can spot the “inspiration” in the action sequences and special effects. Although [...]
March 18th, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreFreeze Me (2000) Movie Review
With “Freeze Me”, I’m reasonably certain writer/director Takashi Ishii is trying to make a statement about the hardships of being a woman in contemporary Japan, but the problem is that the film just isn’t very good. Harumi Inoue stars as Chihiro, a bank office worker who, 5 years earlier, was raped in her small hometown. [...]
March 11th, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MorePlatonic Sex (2001) Movie Review
It’s really up to you on how much of “Platonic Sex” you want to believe as truth and which parts you want to pass off as either exaggerations for the sake of artistic license or just downright self-serving lies. Based on her own best-selling memories, “Platonic Sex” follows the turbulent young life of Ai Iijima [...]
March 5th, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreOwls’ Castle (1999) Movie Review
Having more in common with Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” than the Japanese ninja movie “Red Shadow”, Masahiro Shinoda’s “Owls’ Castle” has the look and feel of a movie “based on true events”. There is a lot of voiceover narration providing unnecessary background facts, and title cards pop up to shed light on the most mundane background [...]
March 4th, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreJunk (1999) Movie Review
Do you know who George Romero is? If the answer is Yes, then can you list all 3 titles of Romero’s Zombies Attack trilogy? If you answered Yes to that question as well, then Atsushi Muroga’s “Junk” was made especially for you. (If you happen to answer No to both questions, then steer clear of [...]
February 18th, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreAnother Heaven (2000) Movie Review
Joji Iida’s “Another Heaven” is a standard “X-Files”-inspired movie about cops chasing a more-than-human killer, but it makes the mistake of spending too much time trying to be deeper than it is capable. The Japanese film concerns a pair of cops, the young and stoic Manabu (Yosuke Eguchi) and his partner, the veteran Tobitaka (Yoshio [...]
January 21st, 2003 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreGojoe (2000) Movie Review
I am a sucker for Japanese Samurai movies, but lately I’ve been disappointed by what I’ve seen. “Red Shadow” was lacking in any serious credibility, and as a result I loathe calling it a Samurai movie. “Gojoe” is a Samurai movie through and through, and it’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long [...]
December 13th, 2002 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreTales of the Unusual (2001) Movie Review
“Tales of the Unusual” is essentially a “Twilight Zone”-inspired movie about 4 very different stories linked by a common sequence. But where other anthology movies usually have a constant theme (for example, horror or science fiction or mystery), “Unusual” goes for 4 distinctively different genres in its 4 story segments.
The film opens and closes [...]
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!!!! 
