Blog Archives

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)

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Posted on September 30, 2012 by Deni

While the latest films of relatively young directors like Mamoru Hosoda and Makoto Shinkai feature the supernatural in all its intimate and archetypal forms, Studio Ghibli, in an almost been-there-done-that gesture has instead turned its gaze elsewhere, this time into the imperfect past as opposed to the fantastical present. Based on a girls’ manga illustrated by Chizuru Takahashi and written by Tetsurou Sayama and serialised in 1980, From Up on Poppy Hill is an unabashedly old-fashioned feel-good straight out of … (read more)

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Quick (2011)

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Posted on September 24, 2012 by Justin

Han Gi-su (Lee Min-ki), a street racer in a biker gang in his (relatively recent, judging by his looks!) youth, is a courier who’s good at his job and very, very fast on a motorcycle. One day, he picks up an unusual job: he’s couriering a young lady across the city to a K-pop concert that she’s supposed to be on stage for. As she gets on to the bike and puts on his helmet, though, there’s an ominous beep, … (read more)

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Vulgaria (2012)

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Posted on September 21, 2012 by John Snadden

Director Pang Ho-Cheung is one of Hong Kong cinema’s chameleons. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, he is well worth discovering. In just over a decade he has made quality and sophisticated dramas like Isabella and Beyond our Ken, which sit comfortably with his cunning and often ground breaking (and at times violent) satires such as You Shoot, I Shoot and Dream Home. His recent RomComs Love in a Puff and Love in the Buff are intelligent and … (read more)

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Children Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)

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Posted on September 17, 2012 by Deni

Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Down Below is screening around the country at the Reelanime Festival 13-26 September. Please check the website for session times.

Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Down Below might seem like an unnecessarily long title, (let’s be honest, like all of them seem to be) but director-writer Makoto Shinkai still hasn’t lost his ability to tell a poignant and entertaining story. This feature is, deep in its depths, about grief and acceptance, a tale … (read more)

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Berserk: Egg of the King (2012)

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Posted on September 10, 2012 by Deni

Berserk: Egg of the King (Golden Age Arc part 1) is screening at the Madman Reelanime Festival, 13-26 September. Check the website for screening times at a city near you.

Okay, I’m going to say this once and only once – be warned. If you’re already familiar with the original 1997 anime series then you’ll be aware that it is, possibly beyond all expectation, a surprisingly gripping story. If you’re not already a fan and just thought you’d check … (read more)

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The King of Pigs (2011)

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Posted on September 7, 2012 by Justin

Unflinchingly brutal and visually arresting, Yuen Sang-ho’s animated film The King of Pigs — the director’s first feature — definitely made an impression. It scooped up three awards at Busan in 2011, was invited to screen in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2012, and this year’s Sydney Film Festival programmed it as the first Korean film ever in competition. Where I missed out on it.… (read more)

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Wolf Children (2012)

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Posted on September 6, 2012 by Deni

Wolf Children screens nationwide at Reelanime, 13th – 26th of September. Check the website for session times.

You could probably be forgiven for wondering whether you’re watching a secret project of Hayao Miyazaki’s in Mamoru Hosoda’s new animated feature film Wolf Children. His sweet-bordering-on-saccharine domestic fable about two siblings gifted with the tendency to turn into wolves shares many a standard “Ghiblism” – the quaint rural setting to which the family escapes the stress of urban life; the … (read more)

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The Taste of Money (2012)

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Posted on August 26, 2012 by Justin

The Taste of Money is Im Sang-soo’s seventh film, and a successor of sorts (if not a direct sequel) to 2010’s The Housemaid. I haven’t seen the latter, so I can’t write much about it here, but it seems clear from this trailer that it’s a thriller/melodrama set in the rarefied world of South Korea’s super-rich.

The Taste of Money inhabits the same universe. … (read more)

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