There are two telling facts that need establishing first and foremost when discussing Arrow Video’s new release of the Daimajin trilogy. The studio landscape for the monster movie was divided between Toho and Daiei. Toho had the spoils with Godzilla and Mothra, whereas Daiei had Gamera and the Daimajin. Secondly, […]
Japan
Young Dais & Tokyo Tribe – Pop Screen 21
Classic Film Kid: The Invisible Man Appears (1949)(Review)
Kagemusha (1980) Kurosawa, the master visual story-teller (Blu-ray Review)
74 years old Akira Kurosawa was when he directed Kagemusha. And, funnily enough, the 1970s weren’t a kind decade to the master director with the highest-profile film, of the three he produced that decade, being the marginal Serbian Adventure Movie, Dersu Uzala. A point stressed in the extras of this […]
Wild Zero: Pop Screen Episode 3
Love knows no boundaries, nor does rock, and nor does Pop Screen, which journeys outside of Britain for the first time to look at Wild Zero, a delirious horror-comedy-musical road movie starring the uncompromisingly rock-oriented band Guitar Wolf. Join Graham and Rob as they try and piece together what they’ve […]
Melancholic (2018): Darkly Hilarious Romantic Dramedy with added Yakuza violence (Review)
Before launching into Third Window Films latest release – Seiji Tanaka’s Melancholic – allow me the indulgence of explaining why I adore East Asian cinema. Japanese, Chinese and Korean cinema use their time as a canvas to evolve, expand or become something else entirely. Outside of the few high profile […]
Spirited Away – Classic Film Kid
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) Satire and Chaos in Feudal Japan (Review)
For many, the samurai movie is the domain of Akira Kurosawa, with both the legendary director and chanbara (sword fighting movies) tied at the hip. Naturally, that isn’t true. That said, perception is reality by anything beyond Kurosawa being difficult to find; it’s getting better, but still – it’s not […]
The Assistant – Cinema Eclectica Podcast 262
Cinema Eclectica is back for another round-up of the latest streaming titles, this week taking in America and Romania via Japan. First up, Rob lauds Julia Garner’s performance in #MeToo drama The Assistant, then Graham is off to Tokyo with frequent flier Werner Herzog for his haunting new film Family […]
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) The Sexual or the Spiritual? (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Arrow Academy this last week, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is the renowned Japanese new wave filmmaker Nagisa Ōshima’s 1983 adaptation of Sir Laurens van der Post’s semi-autobiographical works, The Seed and the Sower from 1963 and The Night of the New Moon from 1970, each inspired […]