Articles in Japanese Movie Reviews
Voices of a Distant Star (2003) Movie Review
“Voices of a Distant Star” is a movie unique in a number of ways, starting with its creation. You don’t think of animation as a one-man operation, but writer/director Makoto Shinkai created his short film almost exclusively on a Mac G4 computer using mostly off-the-shelf software. As a result, “Voices of a Distant Star” impresses [...]
June 11th, 2005 | Erick Kwon | 0 Comments | Read MoreAzumi 2: Death or Love (2005) Movie Review
If “Azumi 2: Death or Love” does anything, it’s convince fans of the series that Ryuhei Kitamura, the director of the 2003 original, was one heck of a director. Surely, we thought while watching “Azumi”, Kitamura’s style just isn’t right for such a straight samurai film. How wrong we were. Apparently Kitamura knew what he [...]
June 4th, 2005 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MoreSteamboy (2004) Movie Review
It’s Manchester, England, and the year is 1866, sometime during the Industrial Revolution. Our hero, mechanical whiz kid Ray Steam, toils as a mechanic at the local textile plant, when one day a package arrives from Ray’s grandfather, Lloyd. Inside is a mysterious ball-shaped metal device accompanied by blueprints and instructions. No sooner has the [...]
June 2nd, 2005 | Erick Kwon | 0 Comments | Read MoreBright Future (2003) Movie Review
“Bright Future” is a recent effort from acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, best known for horror films such as “Kairo” and “Cure”. Kurosawa’s films have always had an appeal beyond the genre, mainly due to his measured, philosophical approach, and the way in which he uses his subject matter as a platform for existential musings [...]
April 11th, 2005 | James Mudge | 0 Comments | Read MoreIzo (2004) Movie Review
It’s tough for me to approach a Takashi Miike film without certain preconceived notions that may color my view. I’m not really a fan of his work, and generally find them to be puerile and not particularly entertaining. He simply loads the screen with blood, guts and other inappropriate bodily fluids and insists that it’s [...]
March 21st, 2005 | Gopal | 0 Comments | Read MoreSwing Girls (2004) Movie Review
You would have to be incredibly incompetent as a director, writer, and actor to go wrong with a movie like “Swing Girls”. This is the type of film that has equal combinations of fluff, inspiration, and general affability, three elements that should win anyone over unless they were predisposed to hate anything and everything. True [...]
March 18th, 2005 | Nix | 1 Comment | Read MoreDolls (2004) Movie Review
“Dolls” is a film which represents a change of pace for legendary Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, a man best known in the West for his violent, often abstract gangster epics. “Dolls” represents the first time Kitano has chosen not to appear in a self-directed effort in 6 years, a decision which may well have been [...]
March 15th, 2005 | James Mudge | 0 Comments | Read MoreLonginus (2004) Movie Review
If you look at “Longinus” as nothing more than a slight, “no need to bother” detour for Japanese filmmaker Ryuhei Kitamura, there’s really nothing wrong with it. Of course that still doesn’t mean there’s anything remotely interesting or worthwhile about it, either. In-between what must have been mammoth work on “Godzilla: Final Wars” and the [...]
March 11th, 2005 | Nix | 0 Comments | Read MorePistol Opera (2001) Movie Review
Abstract - adj.
Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation.
Artwork that falls into the category of ‘you either get it or you don’t’ is often classified as abstract. To the untrained eye it may appear formless or lacking in focus, but these [...]
Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (2005) Movie Review
If you were to make a live-action anime, you couldn’t do any better than what director Shimoyama Ten (”Muscle Heat”) has done with “Shinobi: Heart Under Blade”, a film that is parts superhero comic book, parts tragic love story, and when it hits its stride, a seriously insane manga come alive. Essentially a familiar story [...]
March 2nd, 2005 | Nix | 4 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!!!! 
