Sensei Sensibility

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour Asian crime cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. Brothers in Harm: Time and time again, cinema has confronted the black and white morals and ideals of its audience. From Park Hoon-jung's underworld masterpiece New World (2013), to (yes, even) Point Break  (1991) - we have been presented with the fact that the crime equation doesn't always follow as: Cops = Good Bad Guys = Bad.  The honour and unswerving solidarity amongst big screen murderers and thieves often results in some of the most unflinchingly emotional, beautiful pieces of cinema.  Think I'm wrong? Ask yourself: How many times have you mysteriously gotten something in your eye whilst watching an Undercover Cop Posing As Gangster, on his knees in the rain, screaming at the sky, holding his slain comrade in crime, as said comrade bleeds out p...

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. "Happiness creeps into you so slowly that you don't notice, but misfortune arrives abruptly" If "misfortune" means a hardened loan shark bursting into your shabby apartment, stuffing his sweaty sock into your mouth while issuing severe threats re: repayment of your staggering debt, then yes, misfortune has rudely arrived for our anti-hero Fumiya. Fumiya (haplessly played by the adorable Joe Odagiri ) is a perennial student, apathetically chain-smoking his way through a life that has no real meaning or merit.  Passively accepting things as they are, and accumulating great debt along the way, his childhood trauma colours how he sees, and fears, the world today.  It would take divine intervention to get Fumiya off his backside and out into the world. Ent...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind, yearning to devour Asian cinema; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite! If you’re looking for a blood-soaked, badass gangster movie - look no further than Kazuya Shiraishi ’s 2018 Yakuza epic The Blood of Wolves ( Korō no Chi). Set in Hiroshima, summer 1988, maverick Detective Shogo Ogami has just teamed up with young rookie Shuichi Hioka on The Case of the Missing Financier from a Yakuza Affiliated Company. Kinda feels like a waste of time either of them hoping to find him alive as the film actually opens with a graphic and brutal depiction of Missing Financier’s sad, stomach churning, and darkly comic demise. However, this one death is just the tipping point for what will be an unforgiving and savage war between the Odani-gumi and Kakomura-gumi yakuza gangs - heads will roll. Literally. The irascible, womanising Ogami is played with genuine wit and charisma by ...