Sensei Sensibility

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour Asian horror cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Junji Ito's iconic Uzumaki - does the 2000 Higuchinsky film adaptation do it any justice or should the oeuvres of Ito just be left the hell alone, in a book, where they belong? I love Junji Ito and I want everyone in the world to revere his genius. Surely the endless film and anime adaptations are a sign that others agree with me, right? Yes, but as I said in my recent review of  Nagaiyume , the intricate and nightmarish works of Ito rarely translate well off of the page. Considering their often cosmic and other-worldly style, how can they possibly be replicated in the flesh?  Let's break it down. It's safe to say that we're all familiar by now with the basic premise of Uzumaki.  Sweet young schoolgirl Kirie (Eriko Hatsune) and her gloomy boyfriend Shuichi (played by the s

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour Asian horror cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. J-horror found footage shocker Occult (2009) by controversial director  Koji Shiraishi - is it scarier than Noroi: The Curse ? That's exactly what we're here today to find out. You may or may not be already familiar with the 2005 J-horror found footage Noroi: The Curse   A supernatural  documentary style  murder-mystery; focusing on ancient demonic entities, enraged at the forward march of time and subsequent desecration of their old sacred sites.  Due to the slow-burn menace, masterful unfolding of the plot and downright unsettling events within the film, Noroi has garnered quite the reputation on the underground Asian horror scene as being the most terrifying Japanese horror of (nearly) all time. Yes, it initially took me three attempts to complete Noroi , such was my cowardice

*Trigger Warning: The Sadness strongly features many scenes of sexual violence that some viewers may wish to avoid.* Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to devour Asian horror cinema; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. If you’re looking for a film filled with expert character development, in-depth plot progression, providing a fresh take on an over-exhausted genre, avoid Rob Jabbaz's  The Sadness at all costs. However, if you would like to see the most shocking pandemic-themed extremity horror I think anyone has ever produced, then please, embrace The Sadness with open arms and a full heart. The “Alvin Virus” is running amok in modern day Taipei, in a fictional pandemic that initially is almost parallel with our non-fiction one. The one difference between Alvin and Corona is: Alvin has terrifying mutational possibilities, producing violent results not dissimilar to rabies. Let u

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to devour Asian themed literature; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your literary appetite.  If you’re looking for a grim and ghoulish read this winter, may I recommend You-Jeong Jeong’s The Good Son ? This 2016 South Korean crime thriller is the perfect read to get your blood racing on a dark, dismal night. Han Yu-jin wakes one morning in the family’s luxury sea-view apartment to find his mother brutally murdered and laid out in the sitting room – Yu-jin, covered in blood. Yu-jin has absolutely no memory of the night before and must now retrace both his and his mother’s steps to uncover the events leading up to this terrible incident. Can he solve this mystery before anyone discovers a murder has taken place? And, must Yu-jin then clear his name, or hide his crime? Starting at the end and working backwards is a fairly common crime trope, and when handled poorly, can often