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 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 ...