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. "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. "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 Asian horror cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Rosemary's Baby meets Joko Anwar in Netflix's latest Indonesian release The Womb . ( Inang in Indonesian) Papa Don't Preach, Wulan is in trouble deep!  Poor, young Wulan, sympathetically played by Naysila Mirdad , has found herself landed with an unexpected pregnancy, a job loss and an impending eviction.  The charming young gent who put her in the family way wants nothing to do with Wulan and the baby -  unless it's to pay for an abortion. Financial assistance and compassion are  not to be found in her sleazy manager's office at the local supermarket where she works - unless she's succumbs willingly to his moustachioed, sexual advances. And the animal print shirt wearing landlord of the grotty slums where Wulan lives has had enough of waitin...

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 recently stumbled across   Lee Chung-hyun's 2020 South Korean thriller The Call . With such a generic title, I had vague expectations of a knock-off of  Ahn Byeong-ki's 2002  top-notch horror  Phone .  Whilst I do always like to be right , when it comes to Asian Cinema, I love it when a movie proves me wrong . Little did I know that The Call was one of the most hotly anticipated movies of 2020. How to define its genre? Thriller, crime drama, horror and, surprisingly, science fiction time travel roller-coaster – The Call is an absolute powerhouse knock out cinematic experience. The main action of the movie is set in 2019, where mopey millennial Kim Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) is dealing with more baggage than a concierge for a Kardashian. De...

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. "Joy and despair on an endless cycle..." If you like non-linear storytelling, oddly-disjointed but still loosely connected overlapping vignettes, based on a cult manga then Zokki from  Third Window Films  should definitely be next on your watch list!  Based on the manga  "ZOKKI A" and "ZOKKI B" by Hiroyuki Ohashi's and directed by not one, not two, but THREE top-notch Japanese directors - Naoto Takenaka, Takayaki Yamada, and Takumi Saitoh; Zokki is a quirky comedy that draws its laughs from the toilet, and its characters from the heart. Starting off Road Movie style, the film sees thirty-something Fujimura (Matsuda Ryuhei) cycling away from his ramshackle apartment, and travelling "aimlessly" around the picturesque rural roads out of Sakamoto To...

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 dragon lives in the human heart..." Every now and then, a movie comes along that reminds you exactly why you want to spend all your spare time thinking, talking and writing about Asian cinema. Sogo (now Gakuryu ) Ishii's 2000 cult classic Electric Dragon 80.000 V is one such film. Move Over Detective Pikachu... Highly reminiscent  of the works of Shinya Tsukamoto,  Electric Dragon  is an  electrifying , punk renegade sci-fi, that draws on an exquisite B-Movie aesthetic. Shot entirely in black and white and set in a vaguely dystopian future/alternate reality Tokyo, we meet "Dragon Eye" Morrison, the great reptile detective. Trawling the backstreets and side-alleys of the city, Dragon Eye makes his living tirelessly searching for lost or mis...

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. As someone whose first introduction to the legendary Shinya Tsukamoto was through his off-beat, disturbed acting roles in cult classics such as  Ichi the Killer  and  Marebito , I was apprehensive as to how he would fare behind the camera, as well as in front.  However, having recently seen his iconic oeuvre “Tetsuo Iron Man 1” for the first time, I was expecting a similar, shocking and experimental outing when watching the Third Window Films' edition of Tsukamoto's Gemini . I stood corrected. Tsukamoto's 1999 movie Gemini, set during Japan's Meiji period, is an exquisitely designed and elaborately accurate period piece inspired by author Edogawa Ranpo's short story “The Twins.  Shot with low lighting, off-kilter sepia colouring - gone is the...

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. Let me ask you, "are you ready to die for the Emperor?" Regardless of your answer, one person who certainly isn't ready to die anytime soon, and in fact has been explicitly forbidden to die, is young Hiroo Onoda. (Solidly played by both Yuya Endo and Kanji Tsuda.) Hand-picked by the Japanese intelligence service in 1944, Onoda is now stationed in World War II Lubang, where he and his troops must carry out merciless Guerilla warfare and suicide missions in the name of "the Fatherland." Such is Onoda's unyielding devotion to his sinister boss, Colonel Yoshimi Taniguchi (Issey Ogata) , and his feral abhorrence of surrender, Onoda refuses to back down and cease fighting, even when the war ended almost thirty years ago.  Arthur Harari's 2hr 46min slow burn ep...