Sensei Sensibility

  For those of you who wish to retain your romanticised notion of boarding school being a Mallory Towers -esque picnic of a time, read no further.  Ginanti Rona's 2022 folk-horror  Qorin is  a harrowing portrayal of a remote Indonesian boarding school, which highlights the sexual vulnerabilities and isolation of the young females within, touching on themes of dark rituals and mass hysteria. Young Zahra (Zulfa Maharani) is on the cusp of graduation at a Muslim all-girls school. Run by a married couple and one tough nun, mobile phones and other modern privileges are banned - as is (seemingly) contact with the outside world. Zahra, like many of her peers, is piously devout and religiously (excuse the pun) follows the word of their male teacher and spiritual leader Ustad Jaelani (creepily portrayed by Omar Daniel) . Ustad has round the clock access to these impressionable young girls, and is not afraid to abuse this position of trust.  As his undivided atten...

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. "I can't shake this creepy feeling..." In a terribly jaded world where everyone has already seen everything , it's a tremendous pleasure to stumble across something that one has not in fact, seen. One such previously un-seen entity is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 made-for-T.V. movie Séance (Kôrei).  Starring Japanese screen legends Koji Yakusho (Cure, Pulse, Tokyo Sonata) and Jun Fubuki (Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, Call me Chihiro),  Séance is a cerebral slow-burn paranormal thriller. And bloody eerie to boot. Based on Mark McShane's  Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1961 novel, 1964 film adaptation), Kurosawa's version centres around Junko and Koji Sato, a couple whose outwardly placid marriage is irreparably rocked by the kidnapping of a yo...