Sensei Sensibility

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. The great thing about the  Katsuhito Ishii Collection Box Set  from Third Window Films is that the works selected show the staggering diversity and continued growth of the director they're highlighting. Everything from violent, hyper-surreal, stylized V Cinema pieces to charming, heart warming coming-of-age movies. The genres may change, but Kasuhito Ishii stays very much - wonderfully - the same.  Hello Junichi! (2014): Who doesn't love a Little Rascals-esque coming of age story that shows the beauty of friendship but in a cool, non-saccharine way? The lives of wimpy third grader Junichi Hayashida (Amon Kabe) and his little pals are changed forever when a sassy new student teacher Miss Anna (Mitsushima Hikari) enters their classroom.  The di...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Oh sweet baby Jesus gently swaddled in a manger with assorted farm animals lowing reverently in his general mystical direction. The  Katsuhito Ishii  from Third Window Films is the bonkers gift that keeps on giving. I'm rarely stuck for words and yet - here we are! I will attempt to review Party 7 , however, in the interests of journalistic integrity I must admit... I hadn't a bloody clue what going most of the time.  So, without further ado: Elvisly coiffed, pink leather jacket wearing Miki (majestically portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase)  is on the run from his Yakuza family with a suitcase full of stolen syndicate moolah.  He decides to lie low at hotel New Mexico where he bizarrely ends up crossing paths with stunning ex-girlfriend the gold...

  Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. If you like girls, guns, gangsters, and bloody hideous (but weirdly fabulous) outfits - then you are in for a treat . Tonight, my dear readers, we have a double-bill of Katushito Ishii related madness that we know will melt your butter. So dim the lights and grab the popcorn, it's time to raid the Third Window Films  Katsuhito Ishii Collection . SHARK SKIN MAN & PEACH HIP GIRL (1998) Based on Minetaro Mochizuki's manga of the same name, SSM&PHG is a violent flick about on-the-run Yakuza Samehada. (Mischievously played by the absolutely gorgeous Tadanobu Asano .)  Samehada has been a very bold boy indeed and has stolen 100 million yen from his syndicate; an act his Bond-Villain-Esque boss Tanuki (coldly played by Ittoku Kishibe) takes exce...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - Juliet Capulet If cinema is the great zeitgeist reflector it claims to be, what does that say about turn-of-the-millennium Japan? While Isao Yukisada 's adaptation of Kazuki Kaneshiro 's novel GO isn't as dystopian as Battle Royale (2000) , it's still as grim a portrayal of disillusioned, angry youths as Blue Spring   (2001) or Bright Future (2003).  Not exactly a bunch of happy campers, are they? Sugihara, (played with seething perfection by Yosuke Kubozuka) however, has even more cause for displeasure. Part Korean, part Japanese, all " Zainichi ", Sugihara is too Japanese for the Koreans (he wears jeans and listens to Mariah Carey! "Traitor!") and ...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Who doesn't love an overly long anime title that refuses to trip elegantly off the tongue, but awkwardly stumbles out in the wrong order, complete with loo roll stuck to its shoe. Such is the fate of light-novel-now-anime The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit of Goodbyes. Gloomy but handsome Kaoru Tono (Oji Suzuki) is just one in a long line of awkward anime teens who decide to tamper with the very fabric of existence in order to escape their grim reality. Kaoru has begun fleeing his troubled homelife and traversing ever further into the secluded Urashima Tunnel. Local legend has it that the further you go into this mysterious, ethereal tunnel, the closer you are to regaining a lost heart's desire. As Kaoru is harbouring a dark secret pertaining to his tragic past, he has...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Anime Supremacy! is the live action adaptation of the same-name light novel written by Mizuki Tsujimura and illustrated by CLAMP.   Though it may be by women, and about women, this is a story for everyone who's ever wanted to peek behind the curtain into the chaotic Oz that is the anime industry. Just be warned, what has been seen - can't be unseen.  A pox! A pox on both your anime! Hitmoi Saito (played by the understated Riho Yoshioka) is an ambitious young woman on the cusp of her anime directorial debut. Soundback: Playing Stone is a passion project years in the making, and not only must it be a roaring success to prove Saito's prowess as a director, it must surpass the ratings of all other anime so that it's creator may achieve the titular "Anime S...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. "Is this literature, or a prank?" - Masahiro Higashide Gakuryu Ishii 's 2018 movie adaptation of Ko Machida 's novel Punk Samurai Slash Down - how the hell do I review this without sounding like I've been licking hallucinogenic toads?  Let us start at the beginning, dear readers.  Picture it: Rural feudal Japan. A purple haze rolls over the mountains of the Kuroae domain. The camera surfs along with the rock 'n' roll soundtrack. A lone samurai and a ne'er do-well cross (exquisitely framed) paths. The ne'er do-well is obviously a member of the troublesome "Bellyshaker Party" and must be cut down by the lone samurai. And in an explosion of blood worthy of a  Tokyo Gore  flick, we are introduced to the potty-mouthed, "superhuman swordsm...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind yearning to devour quality Asian cinema; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. To anyone who's had the grave misfortune of living through the years 2020 to, well,  now , the phrase "New Normal" invokes chilling flashbacks to masks, hand sanitizer, and extremely awkward outdoor day-time coffee dates walking two metres from your crush.  However, thanks to the ever wonderful Dublin International Film Festival , New Normal means a raucously dark Korean thriller from Haunted Asylum 's Jung Bum-shik.  Jung has created a masterful, Hitchcockian anthology where the lives of strangers meet, and part, in ways unexpected - and often deadly.  The film opens with an ominous tone. Violence and misery run rampant in Seoul, fear and paranoia are the order of the day, and the weather adds to the apocalyptic overtones.  It's snowing. In June. For the first ti...