'SK8 The Infinity': No Wheels, No Life

One of the smash hit shows of the year that's both fun to watch and touches on deeper things without getting lost in the weeds

No comments

'The Sea And Poison': The Cure That Kills

Kei Kumai's chilling film version of Shūsaku Endō's equally grim novel remains all but unseen outside of Japan, but deserves a wider audience despite its queasy subject of wartime culpability

No comments

'Memories': Three By Otomo & Co.

Katsuhiro Otomo's anthology project dazzlingly animates three of his stories, showing more sides to the man most only know through 'AKIRA'

No comments

All articles All reviewed titles

'Evil Dead Trap': Monster In The House

A classic 1980s Japanese horror effort, a ferocious Dario Argento homage that invents at least as much as it borrows or nods at

No comments

With a title like Evil Dead Trap, you wouldn't be blamed for assuming this film's a nod to Sam Raimi. Actually, the reigning influence and inspiration on this horror project is Dario Argento; if you're going to borrow, you might as well borrow from the classest of acts. And while Evil Dead Trap borrows and pays homage, it's ultimately an original, one of the best and most ferocious horror movies ever to come out of Japan. Not everyone will be able to stomach it, but those that can are in for an example of Japan's horror scene at its most wickedly gruesome.

Continue reading

Gakuryū Ishii's 'Punk Samurai Slash Down': Anarchy In The JP

Gakuryū Ishii's wild adaptation of the equally wild cult novel is one part 'Gojoe', one part 'Burst City' and two parts Coen Brothers

No comments

Kō Machida's cult novel Punk Samurai Slash Down was an experiment in hallucinatory black humor for which no middle-of-the-road response seemed possible. I could think of only two directors working now suited to make a live-action adaptation of such a project: Takashi Miike, who has never shied away from a difficult project in his life; and Gakuryū Ishii, not as prolific as Miike but equally fearless and visionary . Ishii's movie is meticulously faithful to the source -- impressive enough given how deranged the source is -- but it also manages to stay just this side of watchable all the way through instead of flying completely apart at the seams. Whether or not you'll like it is another story. If you enjoy cinematic cosmic shaggy-dog stories of the Coen Brothers variety, this is your film. If not, don't say you weren't warned.

Continue reading

Barbet Schroeder's 'Inju': Rampo Wept

An attempt to both modernize and partly Westernize Edogawa Rampo's thriller falls flat on both counts

No comments

Most Western remakes of Japanese properties shuck off all relation to the original locale, if only to avoid becoming a jumble. (See: Midnight Sun.) Inju is an odd case: it's a remake of a classic Edogawa Rampo mystery, but with only the protagonist relocalized and everything else left in place. The result's more reminiscent of the cringey '80/'90s-era cinematic view of Japan from films like Rising Sun than a smart remapping of an older property. It's twice as dismaying to see director Barbet Schroeder responsible for this, the fellow who gave us Barfly and Reversal of Fortune and Our Lady Of The Assassins. It could have been directed by anybody, and maybe anybody else would have relocated the movie completely and avoided the mistakes made here.

Continue reading