Articles in Japanese Movie Reviews
Princess Mononoke (1997) Movie Review
I should first say that I have nothing against nature, forests, and all that other good ecological stuff. Hey, plants keep us alive, right? It just so happens that whenever someone attempts to make a movie about how nature is good and how man is inherently evil since all they want to do is destroy [...]
November 30th, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreDark Water (2002) Movie Review
It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that you could throw a rock at the present Asian film industry and hit a dozen or so ghost stories either being conceived, are presently in production, or are getting ready to be released. What’s the difference between ghost stories and horror movies? Ghost stories [...]
September 1st, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreWaterboys (2001) Movie Review
The Japanese film “Waterboys” is a mixture of “The Bad News Bears” and “The Full Monty,” in which misfits attempt to accomplish something they’re just not cut out for, and in which no one gives them a chance to succeed in. With “Monty” it was stripping, and with “Waterboys” it’s the exclusively women’s sport of [...]
July 12th, 2002 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreKamikaze Taxi (1995) Movie Review
I’ve always found Japanese culture to be intriguing, not by what’s “out there” but rather by what’s hidden “under the surface.” And oh my, there are just so much under the surface when it comes to Japanese society, many of which I have never seen addressed, or even spoken of, in their mainstream movies. Which [...]
July 1st, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreElectric Dragon 80,000 V (2002) Movie Review
The most curious thing about writer/director Sogo Ishii’s Electric Dragon 80,000 V is just how well it starts, only to go drastically downhill. Ishii’s Electric Dragon is approximately 55 minutes long, including both opening and end credits, and is filmed in lush black and white reminiscent of the Coen brothers’ recent The Man Who Wasn’t [...]
June 29th, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreSakuya: The Demon Slayer (2002) Movie Review
I’m not sure how the movie Sakuya: The Demon Slayer came to be, but judging from what I saw, the film certainly looks like an adaptation of either a comic book or an anime, although I’ve never heard of either earlier incarnations (if they ever existed). The movie itself has the feel and look [...]
June 4th, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreCure (1997) Movie Review
The most surprisingly thing about Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure is just how average it is. The film is a crime drama, and like dozens of other Japanese crime dramas I’ve seen in the past, Cure follows the formula to a “˜T.’ The conventions are as follows: a slow, plodding narrative; characters that do the “Japanese thing” [...]
June 3rd, 2002 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreKairo (2001) Movie Review
Especially for a Japanese film, there’s a fine line between becoming another in a long line of Slow Bore Horror films and just being a Horror film. Luckily for my faith in Japanese cinema, I was treated to the entertaining Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl a few days ago, and now I have [...]
June 1st, 2002 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreShark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl (1998) Movie Review
Japanese Yakuza films are old hat, and I am dangerously close to becoming overdosed on them. Writer/director Katsuhito Ishii’s strangely titled Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (or SSMAPHG) is much closer to Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus than it is to any of Takeshi Kitano’s films. The comparison is similar to putting side-to-side Quentin Tarantino’s [...]
May 30th, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreAudition (1999) Movie Review
I’ve been hearing filmmaker Takashi Miike’s name for a while now. The man is apparently the biggest thing to come out of Japan since the samurai, and his other movie, Ichi the Killer, is making big waves. And so I went into Audition, an earlier 1999 effort by Miike, with great expectations — and had [...]
May 28th, 2002 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read More
Well, for anyone interested, the film stars Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar (who is kinda like the indian Jackie Chan since ...
THis movie will frkin sux dont make this in live action it will suck so much ass that ppl will ...
They're filming parts in my hometown! Which is kind of a bad thing when you think about it... 
Another good thing about having Justin playing Goku is that he will be able to play a more convincing older ...
I did now T... 
