Asian

  • Koji Wakamatsu – Yuganda Kankei AKA Perverse Relations (1965)

    1961-1970AsianExploitationJapanKoji Wakamatsu


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    A doctor, gynaecologist, discover the corpse of his wife. His nurse advises to him to declare her death a simple heart attack, to clear himself without the slightest doubt. He refuses and calls the police force there. The interrogation of the doctor, then other witnesses, slowly reveals the truth of her demise…Read More »

  • Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Akarui Mirai AKA Bright Future [Extra] (2003)

    2001-2010AsianDocumentaryJapanKiyoshi Kurosawa


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    A documentary was made during the production process of Bright Future, called Aimai Na Mirai (Ambivalent Future). It was released in theaters in Japan and it’s available on the Japanese DVD release of Bright Future. The documentary was not so much a making-of as an interpretation of your work, with Bright Future functioning as a case study. What did you think when you saw it?

    I didn’t watch it so attentively, because I felt a bit embarrassed about watching myself. I kept thinking “What a liar this director is!” (laughs). And I understood the difference between documentary filmmakers and fiction filmmakers. Documentarists shoot elements of reality, and after that in post-production they try to turn it into a lie as much as possible. Directors like me who make fiction – and I’ve never made a documentary – we deal with fictional elements such as the script, but after that we try to make them as close to reality as possible, and try not to lie as much possible. It’s the complete opposite.

    Read More »

  • Ki-duk Kim – Seom AKA The Isle (2000)

    1991-2000AsianDramaKi-duk KimSouth Korea

    The Isle is a case in point. Based around a primitive fishing community on a lake, it’s beautifully shot though morally bankrupt, far too eager to visually astound one moment then deeply shock the next. It focuses on a pseudo sado-masochistic relationship between a mute woman and a murderous ex-cop and, seemingly, is out to break almost every taboo available. There’s animal cruelty on a grand scale. There’s at least one rape scene, and one scene in which sexual violence towards women is almost justified by the filmmaker. There’s self-mutilation; a myriad of bodily functions; and, perhaps only a hundred lines of dialogue in the entire movie. It’s almost as if Kim is setting himself up to be Korea’s Takashi Miike, only with better cinematography.Read More »

  • Various – Gojira Fantajî: SF Kôkyô Fantajî aka Godzilla Fantasia (1984)

    1981-1990AsianItalyOvidio G. AssonitisSci-Fi

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    Quote:
    In 1954, Akira Ifukube was asked by Toho to score Gojira (Godzilla), a giant monster film to be directed by Ishiro Honda. Many of Ifukube’s colleagues tried to convince him not to take the job, thinking the film would not be a success. Ifukube did not listen to his detractors and accepted the project. As a result, his score for Gojira has become one of the most famous film scores in history and propelled Ifukube to heights of fame that no other Japanese film composer has ever reached. Additionally, Ifukube regarded his Gojira music as the best score he had ever written for a motion picture.Read More »

  • Shôhei Imamura – Nippon konchûki AKA The Insect Woman (1963) (HD)

    1961-1970ArthouseAsianJapanShohei Imamura

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    …Shohei Imamura presents an unsentimental, provocative, and compassionate examination of resilience, pragmatism, and the essence of human behavior in The Insect Woman. Using informal, cinéma vérité-styled camerawork, freeze-framed scene changes (accompanied by melancholic folksong verses), and historical context (Japanese isolationism, World War II, postwar occupation, Korean War) Imamura achieves a clinically objective, yet sympathetic portrait of his archetypally sensual, primal, and strong-willed heroine as she perseveres through the turbulence and uncertainty of her economic and societal confines: Tomé’s job at the mill during wartime Japan, her attempts at an honest living by working as a cleaning woman during postwar occupation, her resort to prostitution during the economic depression, her rise to the role of madame during the 1950s social reforms (similarly explored in Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame). By correlating episodic fragments of Tomé’s life with the dynamic events and profound changes of everyday existence in early twentieth century Japan (and Asia in general), Imamura illustrates the instinctuality, mysticism, and idiosyncrasies embedded in the native culture that is often suppressed and aestheticized (especially evident in the films of Yasujiro Ozu) in the country’s postwar, westernized, “official view” of Japan, and in the process, celebrates the resilient soul of a marginalized national identity.
    Acquarello, Strictly Film SchoolRead More »

  • Kôji Shiraishi – Okaruto AKA Occult (2009)

    2001-2010AsianHorrorJapanKôji Shiraishi

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    Koji Shiraishi is interested in strange indiscriminate murder at a sightseeing resort. He goes behind the camera to investigate the circumstances surrounding strange occurrences and interview the survivors.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Enjo aka The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1958)

    1951-1960AsianJapanKon IchikawaPhilosophy
    Enjô (1958)
    Enjô (1958)

    Quote:
    Yukio Mishima’s acclaimed 1956 novel Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) was inspired by an actual incident in 1950 when a disturbed monk burned down one of Kyoto’s most beautiful temple buildings. The temple requested that the name be changed to Shukakuji for this adaptation, which opens out the book’s internal monologue, structuring the anguished protagonist’s progress towards final conflagration through flashbacks as the police piece together their investigation. Raizo Ichikawa’s central performance attracts sympathy for this stuttering temple acolyte from a broken family, who sees in the Golden Pavilion a purity of beauty in direct contrast to his own imperfect existence. It’s a purity in danger of being defiled, however, as post-war occupation and reconstruction open the site to tourism, so he resolves to destroy pavilion in order to preserve it. Ichikawa’s fragmented direction draws together this awful logic, leaving the audience dangling exquisitely between understanding and outright horror as flames obliterate a priceless cultural monument. The director’s favourite among his own films.Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Biruma no tategoto aka The Burmese Harp (1985)

    Arthouse1981-1990AsianJapanKon Ichikawa

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    I gaze on the moon
    As I tread the drear wild,
    And feel that my mother
    Now thinks of her child;
    As she looks on that moon
    From our own cottage door,
    Thro’ the woodbine whose fragrance
    Shall cheer me no more.
    Home, home, sweet sweet home,
    There’s no place like home,
    There’s no place like home.
    —”Home, Sweet Home”
    Read More »

  • Kon Ichikawa – Fusa (1993)

    Arthouse1991-2000AsianJapanKon Ichikawa
    Fusa (1993)
    Fusa (1993)

    Quote:
    Set in the 16th century, an ambitious young samurai is adopted into a noble household, thereby attaining the necessary status to marry the daughter of the castle warden. Plans for the marriage are jeopardized, however, when a beautiful young woman, claiming to have lost her memory, appears. The enamored samurai marries her instead, but lives in constant fear that she will recover her memory.Read More »

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