For many fans and collectors Mother, now known as Earthbound Zero, is an odd but much beloved video game. Part RPG, part urban legend – the story of the journey from its original Japanese release to its official Western release almost a quarter of a century later is something that […]
Month: May 2016
The Assassin (2016) The martial arts film as a beautiful arts saga (Review)
The Assassin (Hsiao-Hsien Hou) is loosely based on a seventh-century folk tale about a female assassin assigned with re-establishing equilibrium to the corrupt Tang Dynasty court. Shu Qi plays Nie Yinniang, the formidable female protagonist, who has been trained since the age of Ten to be a silent slayer for […]
Expresso Bongo (1959) Cliff Richard in pre-swinging London Rock N’ Roll Musical (Review)
Let us imagine the pitch: a hotshot young writer and a director whose career spans groundbreaking horror, gritty drama and sexploitation decide to make a musical. But not just any musical – this would be a musical powered by stage performances, rather than the familiar contrivance of people bursting into […]
Literary Loitering 41 – The Siege Weapons of Outrageous Fortune
Victoria (2015) The German Crime film that cracked the “one-take” nut (Review)
Even as far back as 1948, the one-take film was aspiration with Hitchcock’s Rope. An endeavour similar to Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman or Gustavo Hernández’s The Silent House, both he and Hitchcock used the practice of clean plates, filming areas or objects featuring no actors or moving objects to cut […]