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 a delicious bowl of noodley-human emotion -  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite.  From gorging on celebrity T.V. chefs, nibbling on Netflix's smorgasbord of foodie shows, all the way to the mukbang craze, people love food. People love watching other people make, and eat food. As an entertainment source, this basic format has endured while the faddiest of on-screen trends have passed their best, and been thrown out. With so many options on the menu, how can one documentary about an old man and his (almost just as old) ramen shop stand out? Well, director John Dashbach finds a way.  Come Back Anytime centres around Masamoto Ueda , the hard-working, endearing "Master" of Bizentei, a little known but none-the-less popular eatery in Tokyo. Master is nearing retirement age, and what will that mean for the resta...

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, 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...