Category: Live action
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Ghosts in their own ghost stories: Shokuzai
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Read More →: Ghosts in their own ghost stories: Shokuzai“If it cannot break out of its shell, the chick will die without ever being born. We are the chick-The world is our egg. If we don’t crack the world’s shell, we will die without ever truly being born. Smash the world’s shell. FOR THE REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD!” –Revolutionary Girl Utena Shokuzai (Penance) is…
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Japanese punk
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Read More →: Japanese punkLately, I’ve felt a little empty. Waiting for something to spark a little inspiration in me. So, as I often do, I ended-up on YouTube, listening to music, when The Blue Hearts appeared with their song, Linda Linda. It’s a Japanese punk-rock song that you’ll have heard before if you’ve seen the film Linda Linda…
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After Life, Angel Beats! and anime blogging
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Read More →: After Life, Angel Beats! and anime bloggingIf the anime blogosphere is a living purgatory, then the bloggers are the helpers, themselves stuck, but willing to point others in the right direction. As we see our friends come and go, sometimes it feels like there’s only a few of us left, but seeing people change is fulfilling in itself, and there’s always…
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The art of fading into the scenery; introducing Megane
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Read More →: The art of fading into the scenery; introducing MeganeThe only way I can think to describe Megane is “a movie for B-type personalities”. It ambles along at a pace that – to the outside observer – seems foreign, but somehow fascinating. Other than that, it’s hard to pin down. The film builds its own internal language of keywords and signs, yet offers the…
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People with cold hands have warm hearts (Air Doll review)
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Read More →: People with cold hands have warm hearts (Air Doll review)Two years is a long time. Just two years ago, I’d seen very few Japanese live-action films, only to eventually realise that my interest in anime was linked to a broader fascination with the whole spectrum of Japanese art; what I get from anime, I hear in Japanese music and see in Japanese film, too.…
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Bitter sweet school days; All About Lily Chou-Chou
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Read More →: Bitter sweet school days; All About Lily Chou-ChouBack in June, I reviewed a Japanese live action film called Linda Linda Linda. It was a great movie, so great, in fact, that it encouraged me to dig deeply into the depths of Japanese cinema. Since then, I’ve been working my way through the recommendations in the comments of that post. It has been…
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Linda Linda Linda; slice of life done good
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Read More →: Linda Linda Linda; slice of life done goodWhile I’m fairly confident that I’ve built up some decent knowledge of anime over the past few years, I can’t say the same for Japanese live action. Sure, I’ve watched many of the cult classics; Audition, Azumi, Battle Royale, Ringu, to name but a few, and there’s no denying that they are cool movies (albeit…
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A movie about Ping Pong, can't be good, surely?
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Read More →: A movie about Ping Pong, can't be good, surely?One of my favourite films of all time; a charming and philosophical portrait of human nature painted by an eccentric quartet of characters in love with ping pong. Here’s why.
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Densha Otoko TV – If Looks Could Kill
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Read More →: Densha Otoko TV – If Looks Could KillTsuyoshi Yamada is an otaku… a lonely otaku. He throws away his free time watching anime and surfing the net, dreaming of one day falling in love, but alas, he is merely an awkward, shy bloke who lives in his bedroom with nothing but dolls and figurines for company. One non-specific day, riding the train…