Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
First published by EyeforFilm “Another one?” This is the grimly resigned response of Kageyu (Yakusho Koji), Chief Official of the noble Ii clan, when he is informed that there is … Continue reading
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)
First published by Film4 Synopsis: In Takashi Miike’s post-modern foray into the western genre, a gun-toting stranger inserts himself into age-old hostilities in a dust-blown town. Review: Like the ‘half-breed’ boy Heihachi … Continue reading
Agitator (2001)
First published by Movie Gazette Review: Internal and external strife, honour, ambition, loyalty, treachery, revenge, love and death. Where films like Troy (2004) paid mere lipservice to these themes, Miike Takashi’s Agitator (aka Araburu tamashii-tachi, … Continue reading
Visitor Q (2001)
Review first published by Movie Gazette In 1968, Pier Paolo Pasolini made Teorema (or Theorem), in which, by depicting a middle-class family torn apart by the arrival of a mysterious … Continue reading
Ichi the Killer (2001)
First published by Movie Gazette Based on a popular Japanese comicbook by Yamamoto Hideo, Miike Takashi’s controversial Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1, or Killer 1) translates perfectly all the manga’s energy, anarchy and illogic … Continue reading
13 Assassins (2011)
First published by Little White Lies If 2007’s Sukiyaki Western Django refashioned Sergio Corbucci’s 1966 spaghetti western Django (itself heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 Yojimbo) into a hyper-stylised post-modern reverie on the endless traffic … Continue reading
Terror Cotta 2014
First published by Grolsch FilmWorks Buried in the wee hours of the Terracotta Far East Film Festival, the Terror Cotta Horror All-Nighter is the perfect intersection of Asian and genre … Continue reading
Gozu (2004)
Review first published by Movie Gazette. Review When yakuza Ozaki (Aikawa Sho) displays increasingly deranged behaviour, the gang’s boss Azamawari (Ishibashi Renji) assigns Ozaki’s subordinate Minami (Sone Hideki) to drive … Continue reading
