In a career that spanned four decades, prolific novelist Shinji Fujiwara explored a wide range of genres in his work, though is most famed for his 1950s suspense stories. The widespread popularity of his work quickly lent itself to the medium of film, and he would eventually be dubbed “film’s favourite novelist” due to the

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Despite being one of Japan’s biggest film studios throughout the late 40s and 50s during the golden age of Japanese cinema, Daiei were struggling by the mid-60s and had to slash budgets for their productions. This eventually led to a merger with Nikkatsu in 1970, followed by bankruptcy in 1971. Somewhat overlooked is Daiei’s 1968-1969

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When looking at the origins of sukeban media, the first representation of the genre came in 1967 with Taro Bonten’s Modern Delinquent Girl Stories manga; with the first proper sukeban film, Girl Boss: Broken Justice, not coming later until 1969. That isn’t to say, however, that vestiges of these themes weren’t explored prior to this.

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Despite being one of Japan’s biggest film studios throughout the late 40s and 50s during the golden age of Japanese cinema, Daiei were struggling by the mid-60s and had to slash budgets for their productions. This eventually led to a merger with Nikkatsu in 1970, followed by bankruptcy in 1971. Somewhat overlooked is Daiei’s 1968-1969

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Exposure therapy is a psychological treatment used in helping patients with confronting and overcoming their fears. With KIMI, Steven Soderbergh’s mix of paranoid, domestic suspense and techno-thriller, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker has seemingly managed to do the impossible:  identify and unite every source of modern fear while also providing a unique form of cinematic exposure

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Yakuza Princess Film Review

There is probably no better place to start discussing Yakuza Princess than with its setting of Sao Paulo, Brazil. As the film quickly points out in its introduction, Sao Paulo has the largest concentration of individuals of Japanese descent outside of Japan. Centered around the Japanese community in the Liberdade neighborhood, there are estimated to

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Cure 1997

 In this short article, I want to write something about Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure (1997). Yet, I do not want to present a common review, but I want to offer a somewhat more poetic piece on the rather scandalous truth of Kiyoshi’s mystery-horror masterpiece. Cure follows detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho) as he is tasked to

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Memories of Murder Film Review

Memories of Murder is a 2003 South Korean thriller that served as Bong Joon-ho’s breakthrough film – it brought him the acclaim to later direct profound films such as ‘Parasite’ as the first non-English film to win ‘Best Picture’ in the Academy awards. The premise is simple as rural police and their antiquated techniques, including

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The Forest of Love is Japanese psychological horror and crime drama from the eminently brilliant director Sion Sono. The Japanese filmmaker is exceptional at depicting the drama of stranger facets to life, conveying dark poetry from said drama. This film follows a psychopath, who is based on a real life serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga, as he seduces, manipulates, terrorizes and coerces various impressionable people into his absolute control.