Reviews

One of those films which I had in my possession for quite sometime but never got around watching. It starts out with two friends who enjoy the night life and live together in a tiny apartment. At first it's not made clear as to why, but soon it becomes obvious. Partly due to the scarcity of cash, but mainly for a fact that Kyoko and Chinatsu are very close friends. The music and the overall atmosphere paint a quirky facade of an otherwise complicated relationship between the two girls.

Chinatsu is a tomboy, wishing she was born as a man and has trouble keeping her dates, while Kyoko is a happy go lucky free spirit of sorts, that enjoys painting, flirting up with guys and even sporadically leading Chinatsu on. Kyoko's mood swings keep Chinatsu entertained as much as they drive her mad and jealous. Especially when she tries to get her feelings across and answered in return. The ever changing wave of both characters' emotions, at first feel disjointed, but as the dialogue sets in, their misunderstandings feel sincere. The acting and confinement of the director create a genuine feeling of eroticism with a layer of sophistication, as supposed to silliness or raunchiness.

Thankfully Love/Juice avoids pulling something like the terminal illness card to set the intended mood of gloominess and instead depends on the raw collision of these imperfect, confused personas. A good offering from a young director, who obviously has a lot more to say. A film which might make you reflect on your life and relationships, or it might not, but it will surely make you want to see what will happen to these two characters.

I first saw this film some years ago, vaguely remembering its premises, and perhaps due to my age and other untimely factors, I wasn't moved or impressed with it back then. Recently I felt inclined to watch it again for some reason.

The story, based on a comic by Akimi Yoshida, surrounds a group of girls of a strict all-girl school, where each year to celebrate their anniversary the students, with the help from their teachers, stage plays. This year they decided on Anton Chekhov's the Cherry Orchard and after vigorous rehearsals the play fell in jeopardy of facing cancellation because of one student getting caught smoking after school. The film itself heavily mirrors a stage setting as a big classroom with 30 plus students serves as a theatrical podium for girls to prance in and out of the spotlight, gossiping and discoursing about the smoking incident affecting their months long dedication as well as other issues regarding boys and family. For a film dealing with a story of one particular day in their lives, it felt as if the director wasn't looking at his watch and knowing little bit about Shun Nakahara, the voyeuristic approach of shooting in this film wasn't all too surprising.

The young actors here didn't have to dive deep to intensify their dialogue, because the story was in content with flowing on the same stream of minimalistic events, never sidetracking, nor seeking for more stronger dramatic consequences. Sometimes I'd forget that the girls were acting as the camera would often sway in the big room, from one conversation to another, with little regard to completion of each sentence caught in the long shots. Obviously there was a forefront of certain characters, from the talk of the day about one classmate named Yuko getting curls and possibly facing a penalty from school officials, to Yuko's almost Sapphic infatuation with Chiyoko who had a history and preference of playing male parts in past productions. Their scene together in early 20th century gowns, taking shots together is probably one of the most beautiful and effortlessly sensual scenes shared by two women on screen without the unnecessary glorifications.

The transformation of these characters nearing the play at the end of the film, in full make-up, was truly applaudable as the actors felt more natural in them than without them. The final 15 minutes breathed the life into the otherwise mundane, low-tempo film. The ending was non-climatic as expected and many aspects were left untouched. After all, these characters were too real and unpretentious to have left us fully satisfied in a story trailing them for only one day, and perhaps just like the cherry orchards their full blossom was yet to occur. In the end I'm glad I watched this film again and even though it didn't caused a great impingement on me, I gained certain admiration for it which I didn't attain in the past.

A fighting movie from Korea, not the first one nor the last, but one which didn't wish to be entwined within a fluffy romance angle or a heavily calculated action caper. A tightly cast film about a young student name Byung Tae (Hyun-kyoon Lee) facing hard times in a school where he is mercilessly bullied by the fellow students.

Having faced problems in the past, Byung Tae's father, a policeman, has brought him down to a tech school, where the closest thing to the "project-based learning" is the excruciating, army-like push up discipline conducted by the class instructor. Not the best environment for the already angst ridden troublemakers, but a learning experience nonetheless. Mostly silent, soft spoken Byung Tae, loosely resembling the much subtler character Hyun-kyoon so greatly portrayed in 3-Iron, is tired of being on the losing end of every fight so he frantically looks for a martial arts teacher. Bring forth Pan Su, played by the always engaging Yun-shik Baek (the President's Last Bang and Save the Green Planet), who isn't the biggest of guys, but a man of few words and a walk-through the walls type of attitude. Byung wastes no time and asks Pan Su to become his master to which Su replied that Byung better have a wealthy family to pay off the victims' hospital bills, along with the usual jazz on how martial arts aren't meant to serve purely as a fighting weapon but as a mind temple. Still this didn't stop Pan Su from teaching Byung Tae the deadly skill of coin throwing and a head-butting technique which he probably should have figured out himself after all the collar nagging he received in school.

All of this is presented in a comical manner mixed with a few dramatic sequences, which I guess a film dealing with this subject matter couldn't have fully avoided, although I hoped it would. Nothing too sentimental though, but the transition from one to another still felt rather unorthodox, if not a bit irregular and disarming. Regardless, don't expect gravity defying action and wacky humor, as the poster might have suggested. Also nothing groundbreaking in regards to the teacher/student relationship which has been done numerous times and various ways. But some good laughs along with some more realistically choreographed fight scenes and no unnecessary subplots, made watching this film an effortless and an enjoyable experience. The ending reassured me that this film's intent wasn't to promote the art of tear-jerking and sadness, but instead it settled on delivering a rather benevolent message that all you need is a rule-breaking martial artist with a criminal past to teach you how to disregard pain and unleash a proverbial beating that would paint happy faces on bullied boys all over the world.

I don't know of too many actors who take part in so many films a year as Asano has been doing so intrepidly since 2003, yet end up featured in as many remarkable films with equally engaging performances as him.

In the Portrait of the Wind, Asano, sporting a ponytail plays Tamio, a low-key photographer working out of his late father's photo studio. In a small town where everyone knows each other, Tamio meets Ayako through his childhood, but much younger friend Mari. Apart from her wholesome good looks, there was a certain notion of vacancy and loneliness about her. Tamio didn't come off too different himself, since after working as a photographer in Palestine where he saw the many deaths, the effects attributed to him losing some part of himself and even the fear of dying. Perhaps to fill a certain mutual void they started spending more time together. Having grown up in a broken home Ayako lacked confidence in the family life, but after falling for Tamio, starting a family of her own became inevitable.

A premonition of something unpleasant happening was all too obvious as things between Tamio and Ayako couldn't have been any better. A three month pregnant Ayako abruptly fell victim to a troubled youth, who followed her home one day. At first Tamio's reaction felt minimal as the film omitted tearful moments that some viewers might have considered essential, but with growing months of longing her and the news of the boy gaining his freedom gradually evoked frustration inside him. The strenuous attempts to confront the killer and attempts to move on with his life filled the second half of this film with few flashbacks of Ayako that Tamio had attained in their short time together.

A film which may have lacked the explosive performance that we are used to seeing from Asano's more famed films, in part due to his constrained character, was nonetheless touching and tragic. Topped with a good score from Akiko Yano's playful and heartfelt melodies, this slightly slow paced drama avoided the benevolently romanticized characteristics of more commercially successful films, but moved at a captivating pace. Asano, featured in the cast with mostly young(er) actors, effortlessly delivered exactly what was asked of his character. The ending was abrupt and inconclusive of some signifying matters, but it avoided coming off pretentious and overly puzzling. A sad film about a simple misfortune with subtle yet prolific symbolisms entwined, that at the end left it up to its viewer to envision the final portrait or accept it the way it was, just like the headless statue of goddess Nike in the Louvre museum.

I guess it was somewhat convenient and clever for Park to have conceived this film as the third and final installment to his two pragmatically different films. Seeing as how Lady Vengeance shares two similar themes of unjust imprisonment and child kidnapping with her elder brothers Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Clearly if this picture wouldn't have been regarded in the trilogy, many would proclaim Park as stagnant and unable of moving away from these akin proses dealing with revenge.

Film opens with the release of Lady Vengeance, a.k.a. "The Witch", a.k.a. "kind-hearted Geum-ja", played by the elegant Yeong-ae Lee. I was quite surprised by how heavily narrated this film was from the get-go, as I was expecting the major breakdowns and motives revealed at a much later time, lets say right before the final pinnacle. But I preferred this to how Oldboy played, in a sense that Lady Vengeance didn't largely depended on the "big shocker" to end the film and instead moved along steadily, revealing everything piece by piece.

Making comparisons with Park's past two films was much tangible here as with each beautiful classical piece mirroring one from Oldboy there was also the unexaggerated violence similar to that of SFMV. The music was again well chosen and played in melancholic and elating waves without any use of mainstream ballads or electronic beats. Some of the compositions were used multiple times and while they might come off a bit repetitive, most of them were either recurring for the sake of certain notions and themes that the characters were going through or just because.

Aside from the tight main cast, many known and capable faces of Korean cinema made appearances in short and shorter interludes throughout the film. Not much else could be said, apart from them doing just as much as the script was asking of them. While the visual and musical aspects of the film are simply splendid, the story here might cause some viewers to contend whether everything premeditated and executed by our leading lady was truly worthful.

**The following comments contain spoilers**

A lot was shown of what Geum-ja was like during the prison time where she was boldly portrayed as a calculating, 'devil in God's clothes' of a woman who had a conveniently good eye for helping those who could later help her. Geum-ja was able to put on a quite a good by finding faith and making public speeches. But she had the best part reserved for Mr. Baek, played by the powerhouse actor Min-sik Choi. Mr. Baek had betrayed Geum-ja and made her take the blame for a murder of a child that he himself committed. And if then 19 year old Geum-ja was to refuse, he would've simply killed her (illegitimate) newborn child.

More was revealed about Mr. Baek who continued working as a kindergarten teacher for when Geum-ja captured him with the help of her former cell mate, who returned her a favor by marrying Mr. Baek and coping with his demeaning ways. Apparently Mr. Baek's past crime with that child wasn't a singular case as he had a fetish for capturing little kids and taping their deaths on camera for his viewing pleasure.

After toying with Mr. Baek, but holding back from completely destroying him, Geum-ja revealed her grand plan. Standing in the middle of an abandoned school, in a classroom of irregularly filled seats, Geum-ja gathered the family members of those kids that Mr. Baek had killed. After screening the tapes, Geum-ja gave those people options to either have their way with Baek or call upon the law to deal with him instead.

Watching these characters nauseate over the tapes of their little children being tortured in a way deflated Geum-ja's arc as a character and somewhat weakened the film's final punch in my eyes. So many years spent in jail and questions surrounding the well-being of her daughter must have been undoubtedly excruciating for her, but standing next to these people, who unlike her seemed so much more humane and relatable, I felt a lot more sorrow for them than I did for Geum-ja, most likely due to how mechanical and manipulative her character was made to look, which to say the least was brave of the director, if not a bit overzealous. Her struggles with gaining forgiveness from the dead boy and the symbolism of the white cake representing her state of repentance, overshadowed the climax of the revenge, however the scenes with the family members going in one by one after Mr. Baek were the essence of the film.

**End of spoilers**

In the end I found Lady Vengeance more infatuated with itself than Oldboy, but not as fundamentally visceral and unrelenting as SFMV, which remains to be my favorite film from Park to date. Lady Vengeance felt like an amusement park, filled with hard facts mixed with dreamy imagination sequences, en route of sardonic pokes at religion and sexual deeds. A film with a little bit of everything for everyone, that's if you don't strip away its flashy overtones and comic-book-like personifications, which gracefully coat the film's otherwise improbable scheme, fantasized by a random cell-woman, unjustly imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit.

I think Park needs to make a film that will not only disassociate him from his well talked about and highly debated trilogy flicks, but will devoid him from being thrown into the pool of devaluing comparisons to Hollywood films like Kill Bill as also witnessed with the response to A Bittersweet Life from the press and movie fans. Park has all the right tools and he has shown us the many faces of revenge, now it's time for him to show us something else.

I don't know how this film managed to slip under my radar for so long, it being the Office Kitano production without Beat on board as a director or an actor. Surely it had a lot to demonstrate upon its debut.

Immediately we get introduced to a mystifying character Aragaki (Dankan), who in his state of anti-manic depression manages to present a scheme involving a bus accident on a road where such an occurrence would be ruled as legit, due to the history of past fatalities, which in return would leave the families of the victims (or volunteers) with loads of insurance money to pay-off their debts. Aragaki manages to find a handful of such people, most of them in their 50's and 60's but also a few younger men. And what bus tour would be complete without a duet of a sturdy driver and a female tour guide that can karaoke on the go.

With the story being centered on the suicide journey of a group of people, the results can seem quite wrongful and comically unappealing at a first glance, but I've learned to leave the prejudice at the door when it comes to Oriental cinema and I strongly believe that truly good films don't get overshadowed by the sensitive subject matters nor do they get lost in translation.

The otherwise well scheduled trip faces a slight change of plans when a young girl shows up with the ticket for the tour, which she got from her uncle who couldn't make it but didn't want the ticket to expire. Surprisingly she gets allowed to come along and her character just seems very likable, while not being overly campy or a typically low spirited youth.

Next 55 or so minutes of the film indulge us with simple yet beautiful Okinawan scenery and get us acquainted with the rest of the gang. The cast is filled with amusing and distinctive characters, from an arrogant, big-shot businessman, to an old prankster who doesn't know when to stop with the jokes. A little mystery that's Mr. Kimura who tries to end his life whenever he sees a chance, only to get smacked on the head by Aragaki. All of this is glossed with pleasant folkie tunes which help to deflate the otherwise heavy undertone of the film.

Towards the end of the film the humor lessens, obviously it couldn't have been all fun and games but the film still managed to hold my interest. These characters had to face certain consequences and ponder whether going through with it was the right choice, which really no one could measure better than they could themselves.

An extraordinary film which wouldn't have managed to be so strangely uplifting and poignant if it wasn't for the humaneness of these relatable characters and what they had to say throughout this prolific journey. A distinctive product of Japan despite its touchy topic, a worthy offering from Office Kitano.

No matter how much other Asian countries have grown in cinematic popularity in the last 5 years, I'll never grow tired of finding hidden gems inside the vast pool of Japanese cinema. This happens to be one of those films that achieved minimal reviews overseas (so far), knowing the history of the director it isn't that surprising, but does this film has what it takes to make greater strides?

The script was written by Aki Kajiwara and Miho Miyazawa who both starred in Nakahara's well regarded Cherry Orchard. Story here deals with a female manga artist Ichigo Nekoda (Miyazawa), whose career is heading into a downward spiral as she can't reinvent the success of her 12 year old hit the Cherry Road. Now in her early 30's she's become quite fond of alcohol and egoism to some annoyance of her loyal manager Tomoko (Kajiwara), who isn't willing to leave her side even though the financial strains of her client are also becoming her personal burdens.

Ichigo still gets greeted by her female fans and willingly signs autographs, but getting praised for work that she's done over a decade ago doesn't digest as smoothly as one would assume. Her on and off man, who happens to also be her editor steers toward the off days more than usual as he also grows tired of Ichigo's uninspired ways. But when the going gets tough, Ichigo heads down to a transvestite bar where she's more than welcomed with words of wisdom and a few hard drinks.

All this is presented in a naturalistic, semi-comical manner, without over reaching for Ichigo's melancholic loose ends or creating cartoon-ish settings. She seems disconnected from today's world, but somehow still lost in the world she created in her book. The story there ended with a scene of a man leaving two women behind, cut to a spinning wheel of a fallen motorcycle without the man in sight.

The movie plays and feels like a classic novel within a novel piece about a playwright with a touch of suspense and even hints of possible fantasy thrown in for a good measure, especially after Ichigo experiences a little accident of her own. The pacing of the film could be a nuisance to some, while not as patience demanding and poetically unfolding as Hsiao-hsien Hou's movies, story should still provide captivation for those wondering what exactly Ichigo has haunting her from the past, how much has she burrowed and scripted from her life into this story and why can't she move on and start writing with passion once again.

I don't know if this film has what it takes to finally place Nakahara on the honors list of the fellow, internationally renowned directors he broke out with in the 90's, but as far as humanistic directors and minimalist storytelling methods go, Nakahara has much resilience. Although the story could have gone any which way from the time of Ichigo's vehicular clash to her struggle with self-realization, the film chose to provide a harmless, unwinding closure. I did wish that the script had offered more insight on Ichigo's past with her one true love and why it made her hold on to the memories so fanatically aside from feeling guilty somehow. The overall enjoyment of this film is vastly depended on your personal stance on low tempo films that don't have a crafty ending nor the heavy sentimentality textures of some winning dramas. The film will either reassure your dislike of these types of films or somehow manage to leave you with a pleasant afterthought.

Even though various reviews for this movie went into great length to underline its eccentricity as a family film, I had a pretty good idea just what type of film this would be. I'll explain that in a little bit.

So we meet this family residing and at the same time working out of their house which is also a hotel that inhabit one guest at a time. Right off the bat we meet all the members of the family as their new guest ventures into their lives after passing out on the street. I got a great sense of their hospitality as they sat to eat with their visitor and treated him just like they would one of their own.

It becomes apparent early on that much importance is placed on the youngest member of the family, an energetic tomboy named Mieko. Then we have the father who is content with sleeping away all day, the mother who is the main money maker in the household, working an undisclosed but rather obvious night shift job. Mieko also has two siblings, a brother who strives to be a boxer and a sister who's main desire is to meet her biological father. This brings us to the fact that all three children have different fathers of different races.

No matter how weird this may sound, all the members fit perfectly with each other and create a strong sense of unity and affection. Now one would think that with such premises set up, the story would dive into heavy sentimentality, but on the contrary, it presents these nuances in a comedic fashion for the most part. For example when the father of the boy resurfaces in the town, no tense moments occur as most members of the family greet him with excitement.

The way director approached this story was done very smoothly as everything feels light in its obscurity, but even though following Mieko amusingly took up much of the film, I wished that there was more back story created for other members of the family and even the guest. As the film was nearing the finish I was in a pleasant mood, however I was surprised how abruptly the end came and how innocent everything was left to be. Again this argument can go both ways since someone might be more demanding of an emotional impact, while others might be left satisfied by the sheer simplicity of Mieko's tale through its humor and exotic scenery of Okinawa. Personally I couldn't stop thinking about a more extraordinary film which I saw just months before called the Taste of Tea. It also deals with family matters but one reason why it achieves more lasting dynamics and entertainment is simply because of its length and character development. It spends plenty of time on each member and lets you observe them as they carefully look after and deal with each other.

So I definitely wouldn't have minded if Hotel Hibiscus was 30 or so minutes longer, but ultimately I had a fun time with this film even if it didn't achieve a much needed climax. Considering the sensitive past of Okinawa, the depiction of natives here was rather harmless without too many references, so if you're looking for a more dramatic film dealing with a family in Okinawa during or after the war era, I suggest you watch Song of the Canefields.

Tadanobu Asano is a very busy man. Not only is he apart of 3-4 movies a year (roughly speaking), which seem to get better and better each time, he also had time to direct his first short.

I knew very little of this release prior to the viewing, but I knew enough about Asano to give this a try. It's basically a sketch of five stories, not in equal length nor in any correlation to one another. The first sketch starts out with some evolving animation and begins the second one in the woods, showing us a young man with a sword. Now I can go through each of these sketches in detail, but 10 minutes into the film I knew this wasn't going to be an easily comprehensible piece of cinema, it actually resembled a dream that a person would have, and to little surprise, after some searching on the net I found out that it's exactly that.

So how does one review someone else's dream? Let alone Tadanobu Asano's dreams? I have no idea. All I know is that the visuals were very pleasant and the sketches felt rather unforced and genuinely dreamlike. He must have learned from the best (Iwai), because he easily succeeded in creating the dreamy atmosphere with music that only enriched the experience and got his intentions across. There was dialogue only in one of those sketches and if you were wondering, Asano appears in only one of the sequences himself.

Obviously if you're an avid fan of the actor, watching this will become inevitable at one point or another. Going out of your way to see this immediately might not be the best choice, especially if his more acclaimed work is generally scarce for your viewing pleasure, as there are countless features much more worthy of your discovery.

Nonetheless, 2004, just like 2003, was a great year for Asano, as he was apart of two very interesting films and personal favorites of mine. One being The Taste of Tea and the other Survive Style 5+. Both coincidently have equally rich display of surrealism, as does Tori, but they are more complete, in a sense that they aren't as oblivious and disruptive as our dreams tend to be.

My main reason to seek this move out was to see Min-sik Choi, but I also shared an equal interest in what the director and his brother had to offer as well. I think we all had our share of boxing movies dealing with a man overcoming the obstacles and reaching his triumph in front of a massive crowd, with his face swelled up and bloody, looking for someone to share his happiness with. Then you had the bad guy conveniently set up in the opposite corner with redundant reactions and a task to come off as inhuman as possible throughout the film. This movie is no such travesty of epic proportions. It is so much more.

I don't want to dive too deeply into the plot, but in short the story deals with two men of different ages. Choi plays an Asian Games silver medalist whose health and family is in a downward spiral and Ryoo Seung-beom plays a careless young man with crime chasing tendencies and a small family that stands behind him no matter what.

With such premises set up both characters not only offer great acting, (notable Ryoo Seung-beom, who is barely recognizable) but they relentlessly take turns in shredding any hopes of achieving a better life or even surviving the one they already have. In certain cases their judgment is at fault and at other instances their luck just simply runs out. Ultimately the audience is left to cheer for these two characters, but since the film stands at over 2 hours it makes it pretty hard for you to somber over one guy more than the other.

Now the boxing itself is done pretty neatly, although for a silver medalist Choi's character had a rather amateurish fighting style, which could have been excused for number of reasons. Still it isn't even a complaint, as the boxing was booked sufficiently and to a minimum since the film's number one priority was to plunge you into the lives of these characters before the big showdown.

I guess it's safe to call this a "feel bad" movie, but one with an unorthodox resolution at last, which wasn't as much about guessing, but more about conjugating and accepting. In the end it was another great getaway cinematic experience from Korea, which I find very rewarding when knowing just where to look. Definite recommendation, Ryoo Seung-beom breathed a new life not only into his future career but made his past work seem more subtly meaningful than it actually was.

Finding hidden gems in generally rich Japanese cinema is becoming more and more rewarding each time, it seems. Not that there aren't enough crafty, internationally successful releases to indulge myself in, it just never gets tiring to find certain films that for some reason didn't quite cross over to a broader audience.

From the reviews and pictures I had a pretty good idea of what type of film this would be. It starts out with pleasant scenery and reoccurring soothing music, reminiscent of All About Lily Chou-Chou, and surprisingly mixes that with more edgy tunes to suit the moments. The way it circulates bunch of characters who are connected to each other reminded me of Survive Stye 5+. Ultimately when you are presented with such a character cycle, you will either enjoy the entire experience or crave more from a specific situation. Unfortunately for the most part I fell under the spell of the latter.

First half of the film provides a typical strain of scenes that seem to be floating on thin air with good music and visuals, but still promising a gradual aim toward a climatic resolution. normally with such films, expectancy of overly cohesive actions and consequences should be kept at a reasonable level, since it's rather difficult for some story tellers to create highly emotional situations while at the same time maintaining hyperactive surrealism. But just when you think the film will fully embody melancholy, it comes out with wacky comedy and action sequences. With stylish camera work they are performed smoothly, proving good entertainment and enjoyable diversity. Perhaps I was mesmerized by Akiko Monou's beauty and equally strong subtlety, little disappointed by the harmlessness of Masatoshi Nagase's con friends, that in the end I wished for the story to have dealt more with romance and how the two leading characters handled the separation and ultimately the revival of their unique relationship.

Even though the outcome of the film didn't get to me the way it intended to, I found the little subplots and situations quite entertaining and worthwhile. However, there are other films that have tackled same style of artistry and storytelling by delivering more thrilling characters and stronger premises with lasting effects. Still, don't let this serve as a discouragement, because in the end, Stereo Future has more going for it than most of the mainstream throwaway films with predictable and unimaginative content.

You know, family films just aren't what they used to be, and what a wonderful notion that is. The only Ishii film that I've seen prior to The Taste of Tea is Shark Skin Man and Hip Peach Girl, and the maturity level of the director was almost unrecognizable.

At first everything in this film feels strangely secluded from the everyday world; the school, the house and the family members who seem extremely timid. The rarely displayed state of normality in family films, as supposed to the somewhat redundant tales of kindred conflicts that Ishii was able to capture, transcended in a refreshing and mesmerizing manner. The behavior of each family member was played out so naturally by the actors that I felt like I was watching a documentary. When the so called "unusual traits" of the family members resurfaces, the transformation is executed smoothly, without wandering off into another genre or changing the intended mood of the film.

I rarely get behind ensemble casts but I hope Ishii will maintain the relationship with these actors for his future projects. Asano as always breathes the ethereally inner distance, yet still feels humanely connected to the world and people in it. No matter how often the word 'subtle' is used to describe films, in reality I think it is a rare achievement. Ishii did a great job of taking his time to let us observe each family member as they go through their daily routines and as they attentively take time to watch over each other.

After seeing her in Kamikaze Girls, I was hoping to see and especially hear more from Anna Tsuchiya, who I think has a great future ahead of her.

I think every bit of detail obtained from the comments and even the poster should give you an idea about what type of film this is. It's comforting to know that in this day and age certain directors don't feel the financial and mainstream strain, and willingly dedicate their time and passion to making such wonderful films.

And I thought the avant-garde style of animation and story telling was going to take its routinely long hiatus with the marvelous Triplets of Belleville, but I was fortunately wrong.

After reading countless reviews, certain people proclaimed their dislike for this film with little to no elaboration given, which somewhat intrigued me and pushed me further toward wanting to experience Mind Game. As an avid follower of experimental cinema and anime I rarely get rewarded with solidly evolving features, but once in a while I strike gold and get to travel through the medium of rich expressionism dealing with both real life and fictional events in the utmost fascinating fashion. Mind Game is the recent treasure and a great example of such artistry, fusing stories of love, self worth and other qualities of life, without forcing conclusions or values, but merely giving you a chance to reflect on your life or simply enjoy that of the characters.

The main conflict of this film deals with a young man named Nishi, who lacks courage to do what he really wants in life. After a rather fatal turn of events he gets a second chance at life and love. So he embarks on a journey to face things he otherwise wouldn't, but his personal rediscovery takes place in the weirdest of places.

Aside from feeling a genuinely exalting rush with its almost mosaic imagery and perfectly fitting music, I felt something else while viewing Mind Game and I attained a certain notion afterwards, which I don't see worth sharing, since I believe everyone who'll give this a watch will acquire on their own terms, levels and depth.

What an erratic and interesting ride it has been for violence infested movies throughout the long decades of cinematic experiments so far. Whether it was combinations of drama, horror, even comedy or the fusion of all three simultaneously, their results rarely attained much impact aside from delivering pure shock value and strong cult followings. Nevertheless, such unfortunate stereotypes didn't prevent me from seeking out films that most people proclaimed to be "hard to stomach". Better luck next time; Funny Games, Fingered and countless cannibal themed films from Italy, respectively of course.

I often come upon films that try very hard to make me look away from the screen and try even harder to make me empathize with the characters who are delivering and or receiving the poorly climaxed torment. Such cinematic pretentiousness finds no place in my mind and gets discarded as soon as processed.

And then came Mr. Vengeance. Possibly to aid the ever growing genre of dramatically pragmatic films, bravely dealing with real life stories in a bold and sometimes unseen fashion.

What made Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance all that much visceral was the fact that there was no pleasant music to tranquilize the painful story and beautify the scenery, nor was there any stylish before-and-after fight facial expressions and catchy lines to make the whole experience seem out of this world and cool. Not that there is anything wrong with using those elements in film. And it needs to be noted how interesting Kang-ho Song is always to watch, whether he's playing an aspiring wrestler, a small town inspector or a father on an avenging rampage. Credible acting is essential in films that have to deal with heavy biases for being mentally hard to digest and visually difficult to appreciate, gladly SFMV had those holes covered with an ease.

The entire flow of the story seemed very effortless and drag free. Both the action and reaction of each character seemed to be traveling at such fast speed that rarely gave you time to over-analyze their motives and directions, which ultimately helped the story to signify the depth and restlessness of each person on a mission to get their revenge.

Audiences are always mercilessly expressing their distraught over revenge flicks for one reason or another, so if you still have any room and temptation left to see a serious and sophisticated side of revenge then I can't recommend a better film, by a better director, to take you on the hybrid journey of pain, retribution and more pain.

As an avid Stephen Chow follower I couldn't keep away from the material that helped his rise to the stardom. So a while ago I started digging into his older films in search of more comedic gold.

I hit a few bumps along the way with films like Faithfully Yours, My Hero and Love Is Love, mainly because they failed to demonstrate the true talent of Stephen Chow and other cast members as a whole. Just when I was about to find an excuse and proclaim Chow as an untapped talent, I came upon Curry & Pepper.

Although it shies away from his later established, fantasy-comedy sequences, it provides handful of fast spoken gags. I wouldn't go as far as to say that Chow and Cheung had the greatest chemistry in the history of buddy-cop movies (not like many others have anyway), but they had enough focus to effortlessly deliver their goods over and over again. Chow tries to come off as a hard-boiled, bullet loving cop with a short temper, while Cheung does a fine job playing a soft-spoken ladies man with similar to Chow's tendencies. Their conflict of interest is over Ann Bridgewater who really doesn't do much except look good and proper.

The end result is satisfying and this movie manages to become one of Chow's best offerings from the late 80's to early 90's era. What ultimately helps this film is that not too many characters are crammed into the story and the routine that Curry & Pepper perform as a two-man-show simply works.

Great and often below average action based manga adaptations getting their breaks in films I have seen plenty of times, but a story claiming to equally deal with romance and the art of manga making I had to witness with my own eyes.

After recently watching Cutie Honey, which provided little consideration to the realism of our everyday world, I was wondering how much fantasy this film was going to surround itself with. Fortunately this movie burrowed more from life than I could ever expect from the initial look and subject matter.

As we meet the two leading characters, at first they seem to have few things in common, but the problems which arise between them share similarities with many newly formed real life relationships. Although these issues are layered behind the oddball characters and extreme desires of cosplay, for the most part they feel authentic. I'm sure many of us have encountered a situation where the person we were attracted to didn't share the same interest in things we had a strong sentiment for, whether it was religion, politics, music or art (as it is in this case).

With such premises set up, these two characters go through various shake ups that test their feelings for one another, as well as their identities as manga artists. Keep in mind that the first half of the film is heavier on comedy than the second half. While that sometimes signals for a downfall in Asian comedies, Otakus In Love manages to avoid the lethal dosage of post comedy melodrama by preserving the humor and at the same time offering romantic symbolisms and benevolent dramatic sequences.

All in all this film was a nice surprise, as it is becoming hard to find quality films in the ever growing pool of Asian comedies, which for the most part just settle with providing formulaic experiences.

Although my initial cause to sought this movie out was because of Asano and the variety of comments proclaiming how this film excels over other successful features, I ended up enjoying this film simple for the reason that it was nothing like I've ever seen before.

As the grimy first five minutes of the film rolled by, served with Tadanobu Asano's ever ethereal facial expressions, my mind automatically started processing and investigating the odd display of family oriented affection between a man and a woman. But before wandering off, next fifteen minutes got right to the business of introducing me to more sane and insane characters and their functions in life.

This basically starts the merry-go-round of scenes involving these very different individuals doing what they oh so normally do. By the second time I got through this carousel of events, my mind, now pleasantly anesthetized, stopped trying to find out what's going on and just started enjoying and craving more from each situation. This whole experience of course was topped with stylish camera work and great array of colors and locations. Music for the most part hit all the right notes and further enriched the bizarreness of certain characters.

Although the aftermath of this film might not leave everyone with a great dramatic impingement, the story dealing with the family had a lot of heart within its realm of silliness. Ultimately the entire procedure of the film and its acting was a (sur)real treat that kept me entertained all the way through with a smile on my face. What does seem like an even better outcome is the possibility of Gen Sekiguchi tapping more deeply into this genre and pulling out more tricks than anyone could ever ask for.

Side note: If you enjoyed this film, then I suggest that you also watch Mind Game. It's an award winning experimental animation feature, that's somewhat similar to SS5+ in a way that it expertly fuses stories of life in a most imaginative and fascinating way.