BLAST OF EYES: ASIAN CINEMA

HEAVEN’S STORY aka HEVUNZU SUTORII aka ヘヴンズ ストーリー (2010, Takahisa Zeze)

+ Takahisa Zeze is a fucking director of actors

+ Takahisa Zeze films really well his actors

+ Festival of supporting roles of japanese cinema: Takeshi Itoh, Ken Mitsuishi, Kaei Okina, Shun Sugata, Akira Emoto, Kanji Tsuda, Jun Murakami, Taro Suwa...

+ The story is very ambitious: dense and complex

+ 278 min. from Takahisa Zeze !

- Too complex, too long ?

BLOODY SNAKE UNDER THE SUN aka HABU TO GENKOTSU aka ハブと拳骨 (Yu Nakai, 2007)

+ Good and charismatic actors

+ Story of marginal people

+ beautiful landscapes but...

- ... the movie wasn’t filmed in Okinawa like the story but in Thailand

- The bad guy is very sadistic (many violent scenes)

NORA aka ノラ (2009, Norichika Oba)

+ Good actors

+ Very good shooting: mix of japanese style & hong kong style

+ Beautiful outdoor settings

- Too short

TOUCHING THE SKIN OF EERINESS aka BUKIMI NA MONO NO HADA NI SAWARU aka 不気味なものの肌に触れる (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2014)

+ great choreographies

+ The actors are really good

+ Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the new hopes of Japanese cinema

- so short :/

MEET ME IN A DREAM: WONDERLAND aka YUME DE AIMASHO: WONDERLAND aka 夢で逢いましょう (Hisayasu Satō, 1996)

+ Not 1 hour of Hisaysu Satō as usual but a full-length feature

+ The great atmosphere (the characters are imprisoned in their dreams)

+ Koji Endō (many Takashi Miike’s films) made the music!

+ Not violent but...

- ... the movie contains many strange & disgusting sexual practices (like eat women’s poop!)

- Always the same Hisayasu Satō movie ?

THIS WINDOW IS YOURS aka KONO MADO WA KIMI NO MONO aka この窓は君のもの (Tomoyuki Furumaya, 1994)

[part 1]

+ The first appareance of Hideo Sakaki in a leading role, 7 years before Versus (Ryuhei Kitamura, 2001)

+ Strong female characters

+ The many silent scenes of approaches

+ The female leading role is shown like a cat: many great scenes on the rooftops. The boy and girl playing cat and mouse.

- The music is exasperating

OGYA aka おぎゃあ。 (2002, Fujirō Mitsubishi)

+ A tragicomedy with serious theme (raising a child alone)

+ Hilarious secondary characters

+ Beautiful landscapes

+ The successful combination of different temporality in same space

+ The dreamlike scenes

+ The gap between the masculinity of heroin and motherhood

- The secondary characters are caricatures like a manga

OUR HUFF AND PUFF JOURNEY aka WATASHITACHI NO HAA HAA aka 私たちのハァハァ (Daigo Matsui, 2015)

+ Good acting

+ Original shooting (by the actresses and the director)

+ beautiful film for its simplicity (no sfx, just real places)

+ A road-movie in bicycles!

+ Many beautiful outdoor places

+ A feel good movie

- Maybe few lengths

GIRLS DANCE WITH THE DEAD aka 女の子よ死体と踊れ aka ONNA NO KO YO SHITAI TO ODORE  (Kayoko Asakura, 2015)

+ It’s bold. The message of the movie is: suicide: it’s cute and funny!

+ Good shooting

+ It’s really funny

+ Good script ideas

+ Good special effects for a DTV

+ The film lasts just 1 hour

- Suicide: it’s cute and funny!

- Wrong set of actresses

RABBIT ON THE MOON aka USAGINO DANSU aka 兎のダンス (chihiro Ikeda,2007)

+ The actors are really good

+ The work on the sound

+ Really good achievement

DANCE ! DANCE ! DANCE ! (Ken Ochiai, 2014)

+ The music of Arsenal

+ The trips scenes

+ Ayumi Ito

+ The dreamlike atmosphere

IN THE TICKET aka IN A TICKET aka YABU NO NAKA aka 藪の中 (Hisayasu Sato, 1996)

+ A unique incursion for Hisayasu Sato to Jidei-geki movie!

+ Not 50 min as usual, here, it’s 90 min of Hisayasu Sato!

+ Koji Endo (many Takashi Miike’s films) made the music!

RIVER OF FIREFLIES aka HOTARUGAWA aka 蛍川 (Eizo Sugawa, 1987)

+ The music theme

+ The fantastic ending

+ All seasons

+ 101% drama

+ The making of the film is good

IN FADING MEMORY aka USUREYUKU KIOKU NO NAKADE aka 薄れゆく記憶のなかで (Kazuyuki Shinoda, 1992)

+ The beautiful scenery of Gifu

+ A false happy-ending

+ A false feelgood movie, a real drama

THAT’S IT aka SOREDAKE aka ソレダケ (Gakuryu ‘SOGO’ Ishii, 2015)

+ Sogo Ishii is back with a punk movie like Electric Dragon 80000 V!

+ Elina Mizuno is a great actress!

+ Great punk music

GOOD BY MY SECRET FRIEND aka IKECHAN TO BOKU aka いけちゃんとぼく  (Toshihiko Ohoka, 2009)

+ Excellent CGI

+ Yu Aoi is the voice of the “blob”

+ The blob is very cute

+ Good young actor

GOOD LUCK MY VENUS aka MEGAMI GA KURETA NATSU aka 女神がくれた夏 (Imai Hiroki, 1990)

+ Two Aya Sugimoto (the “venus” and the intellectual neighbor)!

+ The running gags