Blog Archives

Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t (1992)

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Posted on January 8, 2011 by Samson

I like sports movies, and I love Japanese sports movies. They are often touching, usually inspiring, and almost always entertaining. Sumo Do Sumo Don’t was one of the first sports movies that I have ever seen, and what a fine example of the genre it still is. I have had the joy of seeing this film again with its release on DVD in Australia, and here are my thoughts some 15 years on from the time I first saw it … (read more)

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The Shinjuku Incident (2009)

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Posted on April 26, 2009 by Justin

Jackie Chan has been making forays into more dramatic acting in the last few years — there were early attempts like Crime Story and Thunderbolt, and in the last few years we’ve had New Police Story and The Myth as well. But these have still been identifiably Jackie Chan movies — grueling stunts, inventive high-impact fight choreography, Jackie front-and-centre as the hero.

I didn’t think it very likely that we’d get one of those from director Derek Yee, though. … (read more)

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Waterboys (2001)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Alison

Ninety-one minutes of wet Japanese boys: I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. For those that need further convincing, Waterboys is also piss-funny. It’s a simple story, about a boys high school swim team. Team membership goes from one to fifty when the boys find their new coach is a girl, then back to five when she wants them to do synchronized swimming. Bummer. They’ll be called nancies if they succeed, and losers if they don’t.

If you’ve ever … (read more)

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Stereo Future (2001)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Deni

Hiroyuki Nakano’s Stereo Future can quite confidently be described by something that might have seemed a bit of paradox had it been applied to just about any other film.

Fresh and funky.

And it even manages beautiful and charming too, but maybe it’s all due to the fact that the film doesn’t try too hard, somehow speaking without saying all that much. Hiroyuki Nakano paints with a light hand, using the far greater weight of colour, music and the lush … (read more)

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