Chess Of The Wind (1976)

The Iranian film, Chess Of The Wind (1976) is initially reminiscent of a Anton Chekov short story, as it observes the fall-out from a matriarch’s death and the remaining family members in the one house, circling around the prospect of her inheritance. The daughter Lady Aghdas (Fakhri Khorvash) is in a wooden wheelchair, looks pale […]

Lady Snowblood (1973)

Double edged sword to be a cult movie reference used by Quentin Tarantino; there’ll be fans that will seek out the original texts, though they’ll now always have to be in conversation with them. Particularly a text like Lady Snowblood (1973) that serves as an inspiration for Kill Bill, well, to the degree that an […]

Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002)

Yakuza movies are very macho, often mainly about male gangsters either meeting in board rooms or fighting each other in the street. The best Yakuza movies interrogate the codes of honour and loyalty that are merely lip service to the criminal drive to make money and grab power. Takashi Miike has a hundred plus movies […]

Kaili Blues (2015)

When it comes to slow cinema, there can sometimes be a split inside myself during the experience. Like in Kaili Blues (2015), there’s a beautiful long take of the camera watching Chen Shen (Yongzhong Chen) on the back of a motorbike as it winds around mountain roads, greenery and mist in the landscape behind them. […]

Fascination (1979)

There’s something prototypical about a Jean Rollin film, in that it can be classified as what people would think of when it comes to ‘Euro-horror’ (nude women, vampires, castles). And yet, there’s something distinct, which probably helps when you’ve seen a few other 1970s exploitation movies. That there’s something slow and atmospheric, which feels very […]