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. "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...