Rate the Last Film You Watched

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 22 I watched the 1989 Hong Kong film Miracles: The Canton Godfather (奇蹟) directed by Jackie Chan. The version of the film I watched is the original Hong Kong version, also known as Mr. Canton and Lady Rose. This movie was a lot more entertaining than I had anticipated. It's not violent like the others which honestly worried me, but in return it had a great story and the performances were really good. Pacing was spot on for a 2 hour film and while I have some issues with the whole antagonist aspect for select characters, overall it was a solid film.

4/5

Miracles: The Canton Godfather is available on Blu-ray from distributor 88 Films.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
Han Gong-Ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[HWR]

Tokyo Knights (1961) is the final film offering from the Seijun Suzuki The Early Years Vol. 2 Boxset from Arrow Video.

Here we get a story focused on the young heir of a crime syndicate with a talent for music and love for jazz as we follow their struggles in a storyline that loosely follows the story beats of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Said heir, played well by Kôji Wada, is a talented musician and lover of jazz but finds themselves torn between the carefree life as a teenager and the high-risk lifestyle of a Syndicate head.

I found it fairly entertaining and, overall, Would recommend both Early Years boxsets to any fans of Seijun Suzuki’s work.

3.5/5

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 23 I watched the 2012 Japanese film For Love's Sake (愛と誠) directed by Takashi Miike. Miike has made any films, from J-Horror, to anime/manga adaptations, to samurai films, to Yakuza films, and now we have a musical. The music in this film is quite good and I loved the cute scene with Ai when she sang her musical piece, it was the definition of kawaii (hhnngg). Now the actual story premise is interesting but the main issue that is an occuring problem is that it's inconsistent with its structure and pacing. This film is longer than it needs to be and there's actually not enough music in this film, heck it felt like it forgot that it was a musical. The final fight would have been better had it been a musical piece imo. The ending was bittersweet though and it has a very anime-esque harem to it which actually makes me want to watch a live-action J-series that has a harem now lol.

3.5/5

For Love's Sake was licensed by distributor Third Window Films for Blu-ray but as of 2019 has since gone out of print.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Han Gong-Ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 24 I watched the 2014 Japanese film Tokyo Tribe (トウキョウ トライブ) directed by Sion Sono. Based on Santa Inoue's manga series Tokyo Tribes (which did get an anime by Madhouse for those curious), this is a pretty cool film that is basically Durarara!! (without the supernatural stuff) meets hip-hop. The music throughout is really good and everyone did a great job with the acting. The main issue that I have is with the story structure which is a bit inconsistent at parts and can be hard to follow, primarily during the first half of the film. The second half was easier to follow once I figured out who the protagonist was because the film doesn't do a good job at showcasing who is the main one you want to pay attention to (I thought it was the hooded dude narrating but I was wrong). At least they got the antagonists right which was great to watch. Overall a solid film.

4/5

Tokyo Tribe was licensed by distributor Eureka Entertainment for Blu-ray but as of 2019 has since gone out of print.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Han Gong-Ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 25 I watched the 2013 South Korean film Han Gong-ju (한공주) directed by Lee Su-jin. This was a pretty hard film to watch due to the subject matter, but the performance done by Chun Woo-hee was excellent throughout. As the story unfolds it starts to get even more depressing especially with its ending but I really liked the film as a whole though some of the scenes were a bit confusing in parts (sometimes you think it's the past but it's actually the present).

4.5/5

Han Gong-ju was licensed by distributor Third Window Films for Blu-ray but as of 2019 has since gone out of print.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan
25	27	Han Gong-ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 26 I watched the 2015 Japanese film Lowlife Love (下衆の愛) directed by Eiji Uchida. This film is alright but it's quite hard to be invested due to the main character who is very unlikeable in the film, and although there is a redeeming arc of sorts, it's still not enough to enjoy the film in the end. The story is alright but I would say I'm more disappointed than anything else.

3/5

Lowlife Love is available to own on Blu-ray by distributor Third Window Films.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan
25	27	Han Gong-ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
26	28	Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Abnormal Family NEW ADDITION TO LIST	Masayuki Sao	Japan
Blue Film Woman NEW ADDITION TO LIST	Kan Mukai	Japan
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 27 I watched two films! The first is the 1984 Japanese film Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride (変態家族兄貴の嫁さん) directed by Masayuki Suo (Shall We Dance!). This is a weird film and after doing some quick research its basically a parody of Yasujirō Ozu's works which actually makes sense. The story is simple but these characters are just weird. It's only an hour long so I can't fault it but it's just a weird film.

3/5

The second is the 1969 Japanese film Blue Film Woman (ブルーフィルムの女) directed by Kan Mukai. This one actually has a pretty decent premise and is one of the better Pink films across the four that I have watched thus far. Like Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland, it tries to actually have a story to go alongside the Pink film genre. It's also got an interesting colour choice in the presentation.

3.25/5

Abnormal Family and Blue Film Woman are both available to own as part of the Pink Films Vol. 3 & 4 collection in Blu-ray & DVD combo pack from distributor Third Window Films.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan
25	27	Han Gong-ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
26	28	Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
27	29	Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride	Masayuki Suo	Japan
27	30	Blue Film Woman	Kan Mukai	Japan

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

For Day 28 I watched the 2006 Japanese film Memories of Matsuko (嫌われ松子の一生) directed by Tatsuya Nakashima. This film felt like a nostalgic experience, with a mix of homages to the 50s to 80s era, great musical numbers and soundtrack choices, and a heartbreaking story, this is probably the director's best work honestly. I would say that it's an almost perfect film, with the present time scenes could do with a bit more to them and the CG was pretty noticeable at times.

4.75/5

Memories of Matsuko was licensed by distributor Third Window Films for Blu-ray but as of 2019 has since gone out of print.

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2

Watched:

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan
25	27	Han Gong-ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
26	28	Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
27	29	Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride	Masayuki Suo	Japan
27	30	Blue Film Woman	Kan Mukai	Japan
28	31	Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan

Coming Soon:

Note: The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice, Funeral Parade of Roses, The Hidden Fortress, Sanjuro, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo won't be watched during the Asian Cinema Watch Phase 2 line-up.

Localised Name	Director	Country
Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[NormanicGrav]

Rounding up the final day of the Asian Cinema Backlog Phase 2 is the 2008 Japanese film Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ) directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This film is about a family that slowly delves into some realistic situations. I liked this movie a lot and it's really relatable with the main father because the world is cruel and not everything can go the way you want it. My favourite character is actually the little son who's arc wraps up the best of the lot. I think my main issue is that the older brother didn't have much to do and the pacing can stall at times, but overall it is a very solid film for Kurosawa and different to his usual horror backgrounds of Sweet Home (the film that inspired Resident Evil) and Pulse (my favourite horror film of all time).

4.25/5

Tokyo Sonata was licensed by distributor Eureka Entertainment as part of the Masters of Cinema series for Blu-ray but as of 2020 has since gone out of print.

And that concludes my film watch for the month. Didn't want to delve into the BFI titles because I would have gotten burnt out (plus they're mostly 2 hours or longer). Here's all 32 films watched!

Day	#	Localised Name	Director	Country
01	01	Crime Story	Kirk Wong	Hong Kong
02	02	Pluto	Shin Su-won	South Korea
03	03	Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wasteland	Atsushi Yamatoya	Japan
04	04	The Adventures of Denchu-kozo	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
04	05	Haze	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
05	06	Killing	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
06	07	Spiral	George Lida	Japan
07	08	Dragons Forever	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
08	09	Gushing Prayer: A 15-Year-Old Prostitute	Masao Adachi	Japan
09	10	Cold Fish	Sion Sono	Japan
10	11	Confessions	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
11	12	Pornostar	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
12	13	Unchain	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
13	14	9 Souls	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
14	15	Heart of Dragon	Sammo Hung	Hong Kong
15	16	Hana-bi	Takeshi Kitano	Japan
16	17	Top Knot Detective	Dominic Pearce, Aaron McCann	Australia + Japan
16	18	The Protector	James Glickenhaus	United States + Hong Kong
17	19	Antiporno	Sion Sono	Japan
18	20	Ring 0: Birthday	Norio Tsuruta	Japan
19	21	Kotoko	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
20	22	Vulgaria	Pang Ho-cheung	Hong Kong
21	23	Kamikaze Girls	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
22	24	Miracles: The Canton Godfather	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
23	25	For Love's Sake	Takashi Miike	Japan
24	26	Tokyo Tribe	Sion Sono	Japan
25	27	Han Gong-ju	Lee Su-jin	South Korea
26	28	Lowlife Love	Eiji Uchida	Japan
27	29	Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride	Masayuki Suo	Japan
27	30	Blue Film Woman	Kan Mukai	Japan
28	31	Memories of Matsuko	Tetsuya Nakashima	Japan
29	32	Tokyo Sonata	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan

Spoiler: The Completed List of Asian Cinema Titles

Localised Name	Director	Country
13 Assassins	Takashi Miike	Japan
After the Storm	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Audition	Takashi Miike	Japan
Battle Royale	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Before We Vanish	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
Black Butler	Kentarō Ōtani, Keiichi Satō	Japan
Blade of the Immortal	Takashi Miike	Japan
Blue Spring	Toshiaki Toyoda	Japan
Burning	Lee Chang-dong	South Korea
Dangan Runner	Sabu	Japan
Dark Water	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Dead or Alive	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive 2: Birds	Takashi Miike	Japan
Dead or Alive: Final	Takashi Miike	Japan
Departures	Yōjirō Takita	Japan
Dreams	Akira Kurosawa	Japan
The Forest of Love	Sion Sono	Japan
The Handmaiden	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Happiness of the Katakuris	Takashi Miike	Japan
Hero	Zhang Yimou	China
The Host	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
House	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part I: No Greater Love	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part II: Road to Eternity	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
The Human Condition Part III: A Soldier's Prayer	Masaki Kobayashi	Japan
I Saw The Devil	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Infernal Affairs	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Infernal Affairs II	Andrew Lau, Alan Mak	Hong Kong
Lady Snowblood	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance	Toshiya Fujita	Japan
Lady Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
The Legend of the Stardust Brothers	Macoto Tezka	Japan
Lesson of Evil	Takashi Miike	Japan
Ley Lines	Takashi Miike	Japan
Love Exposure	Sion Sono	Japan
The Mermaid	Stephen Chow	China
Mother	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Oldboy	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
One Cut of the Dead	Shinichiro Ueda	Japan
Orgies of Edo	Teruo Ishii	Japan
Parasite	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
Police Story	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Police Story 2	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Project A Part II	Jackie Chan	Hong Kong
Pulse	Kiyoshi Kurosawa	Japan
The Raid	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
The Raid 2: Berandal	Gareth Evans	Indonesia
Rainy Dog	Takashi Miike	Japan
Retaliation	Yasuharu Hasebe	Japan
Ring	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Ring 2	Hideo Nakata	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 2: Kyoto Inferno	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Rurouni Kenshin 3: The Legend Ends	Keishi Ōtomo	Japan
Shadow	Zhang Yimou	China
Shin Godzilla	Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi	Japan
Shinjuku Triad Society: China Mafia War	Takashi Miike	Japan
Shoplifters	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
The Story of Yonosuke	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Street Mobster	Kinji Fukasaku	Japan
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Tag	Sion Sono	Japan
Tale of Cinema	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
A Tale of Two Sisters	Kim Jee-woon	South Korea
Terra Formars	Takashi Miike	Japan
Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	Shinya Tsukamoto	Japan
The Third Murder	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
Thirst	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
Train to Busan	Yeon Sang-ho	South Korea
The Villainess	Jung Byung-gil	South Korea
The Woodsman and the Rain	Shūichi Okita	Japan
Unforgiven	Lee Sang-il	Japan
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope	Kazuhiko Yamaguchi	Japan
Woman is the Future of Man	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea
Yakuza Law	Teruo Ishii	Japan

 

[Mr L]

SONIC THE HEDGBOG

Saw the Sonic Movie today, first impressions aren't great.

i find Ben Schartzls take on Sonic to be a perfectly good 'younger' Sonic compared to the games though his motot mouth does start to annoy after a while and not in an endearing way.

Jim Carey does his best yo make the most out of a not hugely funny script but can't always save it. To an extant this also applies to manu of the other actors too though they lack Carey's energy which subsequently let down a few linez I thought could have been funby. And yeah, what everyone feared would happen happened, him only becoming fully Robotnik/Eggman in the last couple of minutes.

James Marsden's chatacter was...,fine but really didn't leave a huge impression on me. Nor did I find his characterisation and motivation all that clear.

The worst part for me was the obnoxious amount of pop culture name drops and product placement (often being included in ways that are supposed to be funny?). It just further reminded me of how disconnected the movie feels from the games and world it is supposedly adapting. So many of the references feel very shallow un that context.

I did like some of the action sequences and the robot designs look like they're heading in a good direction that was very clear and simple, more akin to 'Bumblebee' Transformers rather than Michael Bay’s.

I know its an obvious comparison but yeah, Detective Pikachu was much better. I know some feel the opposite but... I just ain't seeing it! DP really made strides in bringing a fictional video game world into live action. Sonic by comparison feels very by the numbers and cookie cutter as far live action IP adaptions go. I mean i enjoyed it more than most of those that came before it but that ain't hard.

SPOILERS:




5/10

 

[Professor Irony]

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Spike Lee's latest film for Netflix, following a group of aging US veterans on an emotional trip to the Vietnamese battlefield where they buried a cache of gold 50 years eariler, sounds in its synopsis like a loose remake of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but soon proves itself so much more, offering a unique and heartfelt exploration of African-American experiences in the Vietnam war.

Although not based on a true story in the way that Black kKklansman was, the film is careful to contextualise its story against the reality of what was happening during the war, to the point where I think the inclusion of very graphic images of real-life atrocities may cause a few raised eyebrows. If you're prepared for that, however, it's an engaging and powerful drama (Delroy Lindo shines as the tortured Paul in particular) that feels very relevant to the anger of today, but still manages to offer hope and optimism for the future.

 

[NormanicGrav]

Armour of God II: Operation Condor (飛鷹計劃) - 1991, Hong Kong, dir. Jackie Chan

The sequel to the 1986 film Armour of God, Jackie Chan takes this film to Europe and Africa in an Indiana Jones style adventure. It was great fun from beginning to end, and the story was relatively simple. Personally while I liked a lot of the comedy aspects, I felt that it didn't work well with the foreign actors at parts and I guess you could say the comedy was dated in a sense. There's a fair bit of stunt work and action that was pretty good, and I think my favourite part was the entire hotel sequence. Overall, a fun Jackie Chan adventure but I would re-watch his other works more so than this one. I did watch Operation Condor via the Extended Cut which to be fair was still entertaining despite being a lot longer.

3.5/5.

 

[HWR]

Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983, Nagisa Oshima)

A fascinating character study and a sublime soundtrack make this British-Japanese production a very worthwhile watch. The cast all provide great performances especially with the dynamics between David Bowie and Ryuichi Sakamoto as well as Tom Conti and Beat Takeshi Kitano.

The only part of the film that didn’t really work for me was near the end wherein Celliers has a lengthy flashback involving a strained relationship with his brother. It does give some character development but goes on a bit too long.

Overall though, this was very good and a film I can recommend for its character and drama but also for great score and directing. 4/5

 

[Winkuru]

One of my all time favorites. I agree about the flashback going on bit too long but otherwise it's really good movie. I especially like Kitano's character. Some of the movie might pass people because it does kinda expect you to understand the culture of the time.

 

[NormanicGrav]

Horrors of Malformed Men (江戸川乱歩全集 恐怖奇形人間) - 1969, Japan, dir. Teruo Ishii

I was intrigued by this film due to the cover art of the Arrow Video release and the overall premise so I picked it up during the Arrow sale in HMV. This is a horror film and honestly, the story is pretty interesting, which kept me invested from beginning to end, despite the rocky pacing in parts. I did think it was pretty decent as a whole though. The acting was pretty good and the overall costume design is just creepy which fits the horror theme. Worth a watch if you have 99 minutes of spare time.

3.75/5.

 

[Yami]

I love Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, but it's a darn shame that the same Oshima films keep getting released over and over. Luckily most of them are pretty easy to find.

Following a spat with Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg left Paramount studios after a period that was successful artistically if not at the box office. About his final film for Paramount, and what would be his final collaboration with Marlene Dietrich, Andrew Sarris wrote that "Sternberg did not know it at the time, but his sun was setting, and it has never really risen again..."

Sternberg went from Paramount to a two picture deal at Columbia Pictures under producer B.P. Schulberg. The first fruit of that contract was Crime and Punishment, an adaptation of the Dostoevsky novel that Sternberg would later dismiss as "no more related to the true text of the novel than the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower is related to the Russian environment." His next film for Columbia, The King Steps Out would be his only musical - about the early years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria - and, as far as I can see, it has never been released on DVD; Park Circus don't have a listing for it, though it should be with Sony, so goodness knows what the issue is, though it seems from contemporary reviews that we're not missing much.

Back to Crime and Punishment, Sternberg was on his money in his dismissal of its value as a Dostoevsky adaptation; screenwriters Joseph Anthony and S.K. Lauren distilled the great Russian novel down to a mere 88-minutes, or less than a fifth of the running time of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy which was adapted from a novel of similar leng- oh, nevermind Sternberg realised that he was never going to be able to capture the complexities of Dostoevsky's text with the script that he had been given and the resources at his disposal; he took a more pragmatic approach, leaving it up to the film's star - Peter Lorre, who had chosen the film as his first American project following his spell in England where he did The Man Who Knew Too Much for Alfred Hitchcock after leaving Nazi Germany.

Lorre's American debut would actually be in Karl Freund's Mad Love; lending Lorre to MGM for that film was a condition of Columbia head Harry Cohn for agreeing to make Crime and Punishment.

Crime and Punishment is Lorre's film, and quite possibly his finest performance. Lorre plays off Raskolnikov's idolisation of Napoleon, with his Napoleon complex matching well with Lorre's own physical features; Raskolnikov sees himself as a Nietzschean superman, an Übermensch that believes himself superior to most of those around him with a willingness to be judge, jury and executioner and a belief that, being a renowned criminologist, he will not, can not, be caught. Raskolnikov's views of his own superiority, even if not racial in origin, feel aligned with the governing party of the country that Lorre - of Jewish descent - had just left.

Pride comes before a fall, and it seems that Raskolnikov's conscience will prove to be stronger than his philosophy; Edward Arnold's Inspector Porfiry knows this. He seems to know that Raskolnikov is the murderer that he is looking for, at the same time as (or because of the fact?) he knows that Raskolnikov will have arranged the crime in such a way as to not be caught. He needles Raskolnikov, propagating the seed of conscience within his soul, nurturing it until it bears him the fruit of justice. Raskolnikov might be able to outwit the law, but he will never be able to outrun himself. Porfiry just has to be there at the right moment.

While the film works best as a vehicle for Lorre's performance, Sternberg's direction is nothing to overlook with sparse set decoration and striking expressionism that recalls Lorre's earlier role in Fritz Lang's masterpiece, M. As you can see in the above still, and in the original poster, Arnold is often positioned behind Lorre - looking down on him due to the height difference: Raskolnikov's crime literally hanging over him.

Lorre and Sternberg do their best but the film is never more than the sum of its parts and, like Sternberg would later say, does not capture more than the mere essence of Dostoevsky's novel with it's homeopathic approach to adaptation. It's well worth seeing on its own terms, but don't go in expecting anything close to Sternberg's best work.

The Arrow release does it justice, using an older but fine Sony HD master and providing some worthwhile extras.

 

[Yami]

Nobuhiko Obayashi left the building or, perhaps more appropriately, the house earlier this year. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2016, he outlived his prognosis by four years and managed to direct two of his longest feature films in that time. His final film, Labyrinth of Cinema, premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival late last year and his penultimate, Hanagatami, was released to acclaim in 2017 but has only now reached our shores thanks to Third Window.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that it took this long and more surprising that it has come to us at all, given the fact that only two of Obayashi’s features are available in the West – his debut, House, available through Masters of Cinema, and Making Of Dreams – a 2 ½ hour documentary on the making of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, available as an extra on the Criterion release of that film. This is despite his popularity in his native Japan; in a 2009 poll of Kinema Junpo readers to determine the greatest Japanese films of all time, three of Obayashi’s films made the top 25. Only Akira Kurosawa himself had more. Interestingly, House didn’t make the top 200; those Obayashi films that did were Exchange Students (#16), Lonely Heart (#19), The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (#25), The Rocking Horsemen (#64) and Chizuko’s Younger Sister (#65).

Most viewers will therefore come to Hanagatami with House being their only prior experience with Obayashi’s work, and this is perhaps no bad thing. Obayashi initially intended for Hanatagami, ostensibly an adaptation of Kazuo Dan’s 1937 novel, to be his debut but Toho would only go for House, which they saw as the more commercial option of the two. Hanatagami opens with a quote, and we meet the young Toshihiko on top of a cliff overlooking raging waters. It’s black and white, the frame rate is as choppy as the seas. Obayashi obviously intends to evoke the silent film, Jean Epstein perhaps. Like House, Obayashi then uses every technique in the filmmaker’s arsenal, perhaps coming up with a few new ones along the way, over the rest of Hanagatami’s running time. Whereas House was analog, Hanagatami’s effects are very obviously digital. This might put some people off, as there is an element of Brechtian alienation with the artifice of the digital techniques; that is to say, it all looks obviously fake. Obayashi doesn’t care, and obviously hopes the audience doesn’t care either. I settled in quite quickly; Hanagatami is not a film that requires realism, it’s a film about a time gone by, that may or may not be in the memory bank of the living – or the dead.

On the surface, Hanagatami is about a group of young friends in the coastal town of Karatsu in the lead up to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Toshihiko lives with his aunt, whose husband died in Manchuria, and Mina, her younger sister through marriage, who is stricken with tuberculosis. He attends school where we meet Ukai, who likes to swim by moonlight and is seemingly burdened by having to live up to the memory of his older brother, and Kira, paralysed throughout childhood who has somewhat recovered but continues to live in relative hermitude, possessing a dishevelled, slightly sinister appearance and attitude. Kira has an odd relationship with his cousin, Chitose, who is Ukai’s girlfriend. Chitose’s friend, Akine, has a flirtatious attitude towards Toshihiko. This friendship group is challenged and unbalanced by Mina’s illness, the cultural attitudes of the society around them, and the drums of war past, present, and future that make them all acutely aware of their own mortality at even their young age.

Obayashi hasn’t cared about casting actors of the same age as their characters and, while some may be able to pass for teenagers, there’s a poignancy in seeing the characters played by actors of an age that they might not have the chance to reach, cut short by war – a glimpse into a future that they could have had. It’s not like he cares about realism in any other aspect.

War has always loomed large in Obayashi’s filmography; war is the reason that the aunt’s spirit in House is unable to rest, an expansionist demi-god militarises schoolchildren in School in the Crosshairs, children come of age in the lead up to the war in Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast, and Hanagatami is the third entry in Obayashi’s late-career informal anti-war trilogy, preceded by Casting Blossoms to the Sky and Seven Weeks. While Obayashi had wanted to make Hanagatami some decades before, and in some ways Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast is a dry run for his passion project, it is probably no coincidence that Obayashi’s anti-war trilogy coincided with the national debate over Shinzo Abe’s reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. If House was about the death of innocence in the coming of age of seven young girls, Hanagatami is about the death of innocence of a nation. For those who came of age in the interwar years – for Japan, between the invasion of Manchuria and the attack on Pearl Harbor - was there ever a state of innocence? The spectre of death always loomed, corrupting and distorting the frame of Obayashi’s phantasmagorical vision of Japan. Barely was there time to mourn those who had given their lives before more young lives were taken in the name of the old lie: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

--

Third Window's release provides a Making Of and an incredible interview with Ōbayashi: he's full of wisdom about life and filmmaking. There's a question he's asked about Shinji Somai, where he mentions that Somai died before him like Obayashi is already talking to us from beyond the grave. A sombre moment, an essential watch. He talks about his father, who was a doctor, the war years, his early years as a filmmaker and influences from the nouvelle vague and Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses. Interestingly, he cites Shinji Somai's Moving as his favourite film made by a filmmaker younger than him.

Whether it be from Third Window or any other label, I hope that Hanagatami is the harbinger of more Obayashi releases.

 

[Aaron]

I watched Ring (the original) for the first time in years. I got the BD boxset for £20 from HMV recently (which was nice, because I didn't really want to pay £45 TBH).

It's really good. There's a feeling of dread right the way through (it feels especially unnerving when dates show at the bottom of the screen) and it's the perfect length. It never feels like it's dragging and it's got a great ending too.

There's only small cast, but it's a good one. Nanako Matsushima brings a gentle presence to the movie and made it very easy to feel sympathy for her situation. Hiroyuki Sanada comes across as very aloof and bit depressed overall. Their personalities and demeanours really contrast - it made me wonder if maybe he was a different person when they were married, because they don't seem like they would have been a very good couple.

There's only really one other significant speaking role - a grumpy old man, who did a good job of being grumpy and old. Well done.

I really like the content of the video tape itself. It still makes me feel weirdly uncomfortable and I was happy to see it was included as an extra on the BD, so I could sit there and watch it by itself. The phone didn't ring afterwards, but I never answer it anyway.

Overall, an excellent movie. It manages to be scary without ever being too silly or relying on shocks to make you jump (a couple of moments did startle me though). I've never seen the sequels (I liked the US remake, but hated the sequel to it), so I'm looking forward to watching them soon! 9/10

 

[zrdb]

I finally got around to watching my bluray copy of Blade Runner 2049 (I had seen it at a local theater when it was released). It really does justice to the original Blade Runner while being it's own unique movie.

 

[Winkuru]

Seen ton's of film this year but instead of doing any proper reviews i'm doing some quick mentions of films that i think are worth seeing.

The Silent Partner

Elliott Gould play's a bankteller that discovers that robbery is going to take place in his bank and the takes advantage of this and steals the money for itself. The robber obviously realizes that he's been had and and Gould's characters has to outsmart the robber played by Christopher Plummer. This counts as a thriller but the movie focuses on lot of the things and lot of it's lighthearted stuff so don't expect to be at the edge of your seat the whole time. Won't blow your mind but i think it's very solid and charming movie. Gould play's the exactly kind of character that hes good at playing.

Street Trash

This sleeze fest could be considered highly offensive but if youcan find amusement on that then definitely check this out. It has pretty good soundtrack (if recall correctly) and the gore effects are great.

Keoma

One of the better spaghetti westerns. The story won't blow your mind but does the job. The thing that makes this unique and the thing that some absolutely hate is that good chunk of the film is narrated through song. I thought that this was what really amplified emotional side of the film and i loved the OST but apparently some can't stand the music.

Citizen X

I think the HBO owns so this older TV movie probably can be found on any country's service. It's a movie about difficulties of catching a serial killer in soviet union. Part of the politics involved are historically inaccurate but make for good drama. Friendship gained between the main character and the character played by fantastic Donald Sutherland is the main drawn here.

Hired Hand

This has stuff that you see in your usual western but it's still something different. It's kinda hard to say why i think this bit of a hidden gem because it does feel like the movie should have been houlf hour longer. It feels like it should have felt unsatisfactory but it didn't. It's a movie about drifter coming back to his family that he left but the drama involved is cut bit short because there has to be a gunfight in the end.

But i guess i was drawn by the atmosphere of the film and the friend of the MC's that is played by Warren Oates is very sympathetic supports the movie well.

So there's some quick recommendations. I probably will drop down some more names sooner or later.