Sensei Sensibility

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, this festive season, you're looking for a Christmas movie with genuine class and intelligence, the darkly comic  Tokyo Godfathers  (2003) is a 92 minute gift to yourself.  Already a fan of director Satoshi Kon’s work (in particular, the iconic horror  Perfect Blue  and anime thriller  Paranoia Agent ) I had long been anticipating a time when I would  finally  get to watch this unique re-imagining of... the birth of Jesus Christ. (Literally.) Tokyo Godfathers  kicks off on a Tokyo Christmas Eve, and  three homeless persons  stumbling upon an abandoned new-born girl, hidden in the garbage. This small trio of ragtag misfits then embark upon a fantastical, yet grimly real, quest to return the baby to her birth mother. L...

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 S...

*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 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 ...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind, yearning to devour Asian horror themed cinema; I am the (questionably) Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. I have a question for you. One Missed Call. Originally the novel Chakushin Ari by Yasushi Akimoto, later adapted for film in 2003 by enfant terrible Takashi Miike. (Audition, Ichi the Killer - to name but a few.) IS IT ACTUALLY ANY GOOD? What do you think? Let us discuss further, dear reader… One Missed Call is one of those movies that feels like it should be excellent. It’s a 2004 J-Horror centred around an exceedingly eerie urban legend, filmed by a renowned director -  who at the time was still in his ghoulish prime.  It ticks all the boxes. It should, in theory, be the number one J-Horror of all time. So what went wrong? Let me pause there, and rewind. One Missed Call focuses on the beautiful, young Yumi Nakamura. (Played by none other than Ko Shibasaki who also portrayed the ...

  Welcome to Sensei Sensibility! You are the hungry mind, yearning to devour Asian horror themed media; I am the (questionably) knowledgeable Sensei , more than happy to satiate your televisual appetite. Much like yourself, I’m a fanatical connoisseur of Asian horror. In particular, the Ju-On franchise to me was not just the gateway into horrific Asiatic obsessions, but the whole haunted house and backyard to boot. Despite spawning three noughties American remakes as The Grudge  -  (yes, the Buffy Grudges – which were a decent effort) and one absolutely appalling reimagining in January 2020 (more like a generic Insidious universe spin-off than anything remotely Grudge related)  - as far as western modern mainstream cinema was concerned: Ju-On , was nothing more than a nostalgic relic from the golden era of J-Horror. A relic, and franchise, that stayed by and large in its original era. Those in the know, however, knew that from 1998 right up to 2016, Kaya...