Many modern Japanese directors don’t operate in the same way as their Western counterparts. When a Western director goes quiet for years, it’s often assumed they’re struggling to get funding or have fallen out of favour. In Japan, while funding can absolutely be an issue, the industry has pivoted in […]
Reviews
Dead Mail (2024) 80s Horror, Liminal Dread & A Post Office Under Siege
A bloodstained note finds its way into a 1980s post office. We’re all a little ambitious, aren’t we? Many films try to capture the aesthetics from fondly remembered decades, Dead Mail finds a beautiful balance between honouring a 1980s aesthetic and crafting a pace that doesn’t make anything seem too […]
AUM: The Cult at the End of the World (2025) The Danger of Laughing at Extremists
Debuting at Sundance earlier this year, Aum: The Cult at the End of the World brings renewed attention to Tokyo’s infamous 1995 sarin attack, balancing a wealth of archival footage from Aum’s rise with some occasionally more heavy-handed true crime notes. Based on an eponymous book by Western journalists, Andrew […]
The End (2025) Opening night at the end of the world in barmy musical morality tale
It’s opening night at the end of the world, and rehearsals for the final curtain are getting shaky, much as they were in Joshua Oppenheimer’s unforgettably bold documentary features. His startling Indonesian genocide diptych (The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence) depicted some alarming remembrances of one of […]
A Samurai in Time (2023) (Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025)
Is there such a thing as a timeless genre? The interest of an audience in a particular mode of storytelling always has a shelf life, fickly ebbing and flowing once a saturation point is reached. But what does that moment look like, where tastes change and affection for times gone […]
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) Kaiju Carnage with an Ecological message
Across its 70+ year run, the Godzilla franchise has been through numerous reinventions to keep the series alive. The Heisei era is considered the most adult oriented period, as it used the single continuous timeline to bring the titular creature back to its roots as a destructive force feared by […]
The Daredevils (1979) & Ode To Gallantry (1982) Venom Mob Mayhem: Late Era Shaw Brothers Action at Its Best
Having made his first feature in 1949, at the slender age of 25, it wasn’t until he was taken in by the production line studio, Shaw Brothers, that Chang Cheh’s star would really begin to shine. Making early movies such as Tiger Boy (1966), Magnificent Trio (1966) and The Trail […]
Scanners (1981) A Subversively Interior Body Horror Lacking Cronenbergian Dread
David Cronenberg’s films usually feature hyperviolence that manifests on the outside of the body. Think of the birthing sacs pulsating on Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) in The Brood or the vaginal cavern on Max Renn’s (James Woods) chest in Videodrome. Next to these grisly visions, Scanners stands out as a […]
Shaolin Boxers (1974) A Forgotten Knockout or Just Another Throwaway Brawler?
The influence of 1970’s The Chinese Boxer, a Shaw Brothers movie written, directed by, and starring the one-(armed)-man phenomenon that was Jimmy Wang Yu, can never be understated. It influenced a shift in Chinese/Taiwanese cinema, moving away from long-haired heroes in bad wigs, flowing gowns, and swishy swords to something […]
Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau (1976-81)
The thing about Alain Corneau’s crime thrillers is, for all they take their time telling a story, they let you know what they’re really about straight away. Each of the three titles collected in this Radiance Films Blu-Ray set kicks off with a sequence or shot that immediately flags up […]