Japan - The Chinese Cinema (Page 2)

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Japan

A collection of 36 posts

Hanagatami (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 2017)

Obayashi Nobuhiko

Hanagatami (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 2017)

Obayashi Nobuhiko’s Hanagatami is the kind of maximalist masterpiece that simply has to been seen. A story about the lives of young people in a remote village in Japan in the months leading up to Pearl Harbor, it’s awash in the poetic dreams of youth, aswoon with love

Takashi Capsule Reviews

Takashi Capsule Reviews

Dead or Alive (1999) — November 1, 2017 No filmmaker in the world has more fun that Takashi Miike. That’s evident from a late career masterpiece like 2012’s Ace Attorney, or from the last of the prolific director’s films to play here in Seattle, Yakuza Apocalypse. But even

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Capsule Reviews

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Capsule Reviews

Cure (1997) — May 10, 2016 “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience.” — Tom Cruise Pulse (2001) — May 10, 2016 Remember when the internet was so new and mysterious we thought it might plausibly contain demons? Now we know it’s just full of assholes. Double feature this with The Midnight After. Tokyo Sonata

Yamashita Nobuhiro Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Yamashita Nobuhiro Capsule Reviews

Linda Linda Linda (2005) — May 13, 2015 Last night, I dreamt that Bae Doona was a professional basketball player and was generating serious All-Star consideration as the point guard for the New York Knicks. It took me awhile, on waking, to realize that that was in fact a dream and

Sono Sion Capsule Reviews

Sono Sion Capsule Reviews

Tokyo Tribe (2014) — February 20, 2015 I’d love to see this play on a double bill somewhere with The Midnight After. I would totally show this movie to a class to explain the society and culture of early Anglo-Saxon Britain. Somewhat related: no one wants me teaching their history

Before We Vanish (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2017)

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Before We Vanish (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2017)

The latest film from one of the most interesting directors in the world right now is playing at the Grand Illusion for week starting this Friday. Kurosawa Kiyoshi, director of such key Japanese horror films as Pulse and Cure, as well as award-winning dramas like Tokyo Sonata, was last seen

Daguerrotype (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2016)

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Daguerrotype (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2016)

Halloween may have passed but it’s always a good time to watch a creepy movie by a great director, and that exactly what Daguerrotype by Kurosawa Kiyoshi is. The artiest of the filmmakers to emerge in the J-Horror boom of the late 90s, or at least the one most

Love Exposure (Sono Sion, 2008)

Love Exposure (Sono Sion, 2008)

‘Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride,’ The shade replied, — ‘If you seek for Eldorado!’ Love Exposure is an epic four-hour romantic comedy about terrible fathers, upskirt photography, Catholicism, and the meaning of love. Where Bicycle Sighs was a fairly typical minimalist

Suicide Club (Sono Sion, 2001)

Suicide Club (Sono Sion, 2001)

Don’t try suicide Nobody’s worth it Don’t try suicide Nobody cares Don’t try suicide You’re just gonna hate it Don’t try suicide Nobody gives a damn Suicide Club opens with a montage of the city at night, documentary realist footage of pedestrians moving through

Bicycle Sighs (Sono Sion, 1990)

Bicycle Sighs (Sono Sion, 1990)

Sono Sion’s 1990 debut feature is a coming-of-age story heavily influenced by the then newly fashionable minimalist style, but with a few distinctive quirks. Sono himself plays Shiro, one of three friends hanging around delivering newspapers while they study for their college entrance exams. Shiro’s best friend, Keita

Yakuza Apocalypse (Miike Takashi, 2015)

Yakuza Apocalypse (Miike Takashi, 2015)

Playing this Friday and Saturday at midnight only comes the latest from prolific Japanese lunatic Miike Takashi. The limited late night time slot gives a hint of what to expect, even if you’re unfamiliar with Miike’s work, much of which amounts to highly imaginative reworkings of familiar genres,