Fatal Pulse (2018)

FINAL STAGE – GLASS BRICK PORTALFEBRUARY 1991Fatal Pulse (2018) announces itself as operating within the Yuppie Fear thriller mode, using clips and trailers of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Pacific Heights, Deceived, etc. The actual experience of Fatal Pulse itself is comparable to Tim and Eric, Inland Empire, and Southland Tales. An evisceration of a cultural era – the early 1990s in […]

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. […]

Creepy (2016)

There’s a masterclass sequence in Creepy (2016) that shows off Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s command with visually increasing uneasiness. A retired detective now a college professor Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima from Drive My Car) is working with his former partner Nogami (Masahiro Higashide) on a cold case, a missing family who disappeared five years ago. Within the university […]

New Jerusalem (2011)

New Jerusalem (2011) takes the trope of the talkative co-worker to an intimate, thoughtful level. In a Virginian garage, two men are first seen moving tires around the driveway. Sean (Colm O’Leary) is brooding and quiet, opening up a little to the inquisitive Ike (Will Oldham). Originally from Ireland, but having served in the US […]

Yourself And Yours (2016)

This has happened before with a previous Hong Sang-soo movie where I just took the events at face value, and only later browsing other people’s reviews saw the different ways they were reading into it. Because what the film, Yourself And Yours (2016), covers is often so ordinary and everyday – people meeting at bars, […]