Dead Or Alive 2: Birds (2000)

Yakuza assassinations cross-cut with world vision footage of starving children in Africa. CGI birds representing the childhood spirits of our two protagonists. Digital graphics illustrating the geometry of three bullets entering a head at 60 degree angles. A powerful comet sighted against the night sky. The title card “Where are you?” repeated, white text against […]

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) belongs undeniably to a sleazy exploitation category, the “women in prison” sub-genre. Yet if you can stomach that grubbiness, this entry proves to be an artistic triumph because of two strong elements: (1) the theatrical and surreal style that director Shunya Ito (his debut film!) brings to it, and (2) […]

Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword Of Vengeance (1972)

It’s hard not to be nostalgic for things like Saturday Cult Movie nights on SBS with Des Magnan with the type of movies I’d get exposed to on free to air TV growing up as a teenager. The Lone Wolf And Cub series tended to get played a lot, and I think I’ve only seen […]

After The Storm (2016)

One evening, I was looking for something soothing and gentle for a movie, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After The Storm (2016; Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) worked its charms on me. I’ve only seen Kore-eda’s Shoplifters and that had me bawling at the end, with its displays of human kindness and compassion in an unjust world. […]

First Love (2019)

First Love (2019; Hatsukoi) combines a couple of my favourite sub-genres: One Wild Night and Multiple Parties Want One Thing. Directed by the prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, Blade Of The Immortal), we follow a young boxer Leo (Masataka Kubota) who goes from shiftless to despondent when he receives some bad news after […]