Blog Archives

Inugami (2000)

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Posted on March 18, 2007 by Mark Morrison

Nature is pretty unbalanced in Inugami, director Masato Harada’s dark modern folk tale filmed from Masako Bando’s novel. On the surface, the rural village of Omine looks like a pleasant posting for new art teacher Akira Nakahura. Nice wooded hills, friendly locals, and a local paper-maker called Miki Bonomiya who seems to become more beautiful each time he sees her. But strangely she doesn’t seem so popular around the village, maybe due to the fact that everyone knows that … (read more)

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Sleepless Town (1998)

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Posted on March 12, 2007 by Deni

A modern film noir, with all the squalor and seediness that the pleasure district of Tokyo – the infamous Kabuki-cho – can bring to bear, Sleepless Town is a dark, moody thriller of ambitious proportions.

The culturally diverse cast and crew – Takeshi Kaneshiro as Keniichi Ryuu, a half blood Japanese Taiwanese, Eric Tsang as Cantonese crime lord Yuan and Lung Si-Hung as Kenichi’s adopted father and Taiwanese mob boss just to name a few – almost literally reflect the … (read more)

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Shikoku (1999)

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Posted on March 12, 2007 by Alison

I like my Japanese horror. I like getting the bejeesus scared out of me by some master of total creepiness with a budget in two figures. I even, in a weird sort of way, like the inevitable aftermath of a good horror film: lying wide-eyed and quivering in bed, quilt pulled up to my chin, scanning the darkness for signs of ghosty activity. It’s surprising I’ve got any bejeesus left, in fact.

Shikoku, however, is no threat to anybody’s … (read more)

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