A Tale Of Sorrow And Sadness (1977)

My knowledge of Seijun Suzuki as a director is around his 1960s gangster movies like Youth Of The Beast, Tokyo Drifter and Branded To Kill. All of which are shot through with distinctive black comedy and visual panache that made Suzuki beloved to directors he later inspired like Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch. While there’s […]

Kids Return (1996)

Kids Return (1996) is a title I remember because it would always be programmed on SBS. I was aware of Takeshi Kitano as a teenager, mainly when Fireworks was released and received praise from critics like Margaret and David on The Movie Show. There’s a power and beauty to Fireworks with the subplot of the […]

Boiling Point (1990)

Takeshi Kitano treats violence with the same structural impact as building a gag in comedy. Boiling Point (1990) veers between violence as a joke – a call back, or a punchline, like when a young kid refuses a helmet on his first motorcycle, and then cut to him sitting stunned with a bloody face – […]

Carts Of Darkness (2008)

I had never heard of the documentary Carts Of Darkness (2008) until Chris Cobilis wrote about it for a past issue of the VHS Tracking zine; recently, another friend, Coel, also recommended it. The film itself is only an hour long, and is available to stream for free on YouTube (and is also on Tubi). […]

American Harmony (2009)

As a documentary about barbershop quartet competitions, you can file American Harmony (2009) under the sub-genre of “I can’t believe it’s not a Christopher Guest movie!” I can’t say barbershop quartet is my favourite type of music, but you get all the different people devoted to the ole timey stylings, from the fans to the […]