Asian Film
It’s Halloween and I therefore decided to do a recap of horror-related tropes or subgenres in Japanese entertainment! An obvious choice, taking up a fair amount of the genre landscape, are slashers – something much less associated to Japanese cinema. Now, clearly, Japan has no shortage of iconic slasher movies: …However, as my core interest
It is hard to know where to begin when discussing the epic that is Labyrinth of Cinema, the final directorial feature of Nobuhiko Obayashi. Perhaps it is best to start with the director himself. With a career spanning sixty years, Obayashi has garnered critical acclaim and an incredible cult following. From his first feature House
I had the great fortune of viewing the documentary Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist (2021) at this years’ Nightstream horror film festival. As a longtime fan of his work it turned out to be an emotional journey that affirmed of my love of animation and felt like a visit with some of my favorite creators. The surprising
Sometimes you luck into a genre film so good that you feel the need to champion it, to place your hopes in it to reach the hearts and minds of many and call it the next great leap forward. Chi Zhang’s Annular Eclipse, a Chinese cyberpunk actioner with lofty aspirations and many qualities, feels like a
Cursed Land (in competition at the Dracula Film Fest under the name Cursed Land. Fate), was one of the best films I saw at that festival, a big surprise basically coming out of nowhere – if for ‘On the 3rd Day’ I knew what to expect, here I had just a great poster to start
Ivy, played by Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, is a Taiwanese student living in San Francisco. She shares a dormitory with other students of her diaspora. The pupils consume most of their American life in gossip, anecdotes, and leisure. For Ivy, who appears to be a relatively serious character, chattering is secondary to spending time with pals
We are happy to present our interview with Rob Jabbaz, director of The Sadness as an incredible debut. The Sadness has achieved all kinds of accolades throughout festival circuits and is easily the most trendy watch of genre festivals in 2021. The film has been praised as a slick production of extreme cinema and notable for
Being a subjective genre, horror, much like its fans, is incredibly varied compared to other genres in film. From solid scares, slow-burning tension or just a general spooky atmosphere, there are a lot of things that can be grouped together under the horror umbrella. But, for those that require something a little more unyielding in
Considering the renowned success of Parasite (2019), among many others, South Korean cinema has finally started to receive a recognition outside of Asia that has been mostly reserved for Japanese cinema. The high calibre productions released throughout South Korea recently have flown under the radar of most moviegoers in the West, barring a few exception
The strength of the Japanese independent cinema has often rested on its ability to embrace absurdity and bring it together in a distinct yet cohesive manner. Consequently, the intuitive approach to micro-budgeted madness has launched such titles as Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus into international acclaim. Comparative to the breakout action flick, director Yugo Sakamoto embraces the