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 great thing about the  Katsuhito Ishii Collection Box Set  from Third Window Films is that the works selected show the staggering diversity and continued growth of the director they're highlighting. Everything from violent, hyper-surreal, stylized V Cinema pieces to charming, heart warming coming-of-age movies. The genres may change, but Kasuhito Ishii stays very much - wonderfully - the same.  Hello Junichi! (2014): Who doesn't love a Little Rascals-esque coming of age story that shows the beauty of friendship but in a cool, non-saccharine way? The lives of wimpy third grader Junichi Hayashida (Amon Kabe) and his little pals are changed forever when a sassy new student teacher Miss Anna (Mitsushima Hikari) enters their classroom.  The di...

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. Oh sweet baby Jesus gently swaddled in a manger with assorted farm animals lowing reverently in his general mystical direction. The  Katsuhito Ishii  from Third Window Films is the bonkers gift that keeps on giving. I'm rarely stuck for words and yet - here we are! I will attempt to review Party 7 , however, in the interests of journalistic integrity I must admit... I hadn't a bloody clue what going most of the time.  So, without further ado: Elvisly coiffed, pink leather jacket wearing Miki (majestically portrayed by Masatoshi Nagase)  is on the run from his Yakuza family with a suitcase full of stolen syndicate moolah.  He decides to lie low at hotel New Mexico where he bizarrely ends up crossing paths with stunning ex-girlfriend the gold...

  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. If you like girls, guns, gangsters, and bloody hideous (but weirdly fabulous) outfits - then you are in for a treat . Tonight, my dear readers, we have a double-bill of Katushito Ishii related madness that we know will melt your butter. So dim the lights and grab the popcorn, it's time to raid the Third Window Films  Katsuhito Ishii Collection . SHARK SKIN MAN & PEACH HIP GIRL (1998) Based on Minetaro Mochizuki's manga of the same name, SSM&PHG is a violent flick about on-the-run Yakuza Samehada. (Mischievously played by the absolutely gorgeous Tadanobu Asano .)  Samehada has been a very bold boy indeed and has stolen 100 million yen from his syndicate; an act his Bond-Villain-Esque boss Tanuki (coldly played by Ittoku Kishibe) takes exce...

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 quality Asian cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. "Is this literature, or a prank?" - Masahiro Higashide Gakuryu Ishii 's 2018 movie adaptation of Ko Machida 's novel Punk Samurai Slash Down - how the hell do I review this without sounding like I've been licking hallucinogenic toads?  Let us start at the beginning, dear readers.  Picture it: Rural feudal Japan. A purple haze rolls over the mountains of the Kuroae domain. The camera surfs along with the rock 'n' roll soundtrack. A lone samurai and a ne'er do-well cross (exquisitely framed) paths. The ne'er do-well is obviously a member of the troublesome "Bellyshaker Party" and must be cut down by the lone samurai. And in an explosion of blood worthy of a  Tokyo Gore  flick, we are introduced to the potty-mouthed, "superhuman swordsm...

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. "Joy and despair on an endless cycle..." If you like non-linear storytelling, oddly-disjointed but still loosely connected overlapping vignettes, based on a cult manga then Zokki from  Third Window Films  should definitely be next on your watch list!  Based on the manga  "ZOKKI A" and "ZOKKI B" by Hiroyuki Ohashi's and directed by not one, not two, but THREE top-notch Japanese directors - Naoto Takenaka, Takayaki Yamada, and Takumi Saitoh; Zokki is a quirky comedy that draws its laughs from the toilet, and its characters from the heart. Starting off Road Movie style, the film sees thirty-something Fujimura (Matsuda Ryuhei) cycling away from his ramshackle apartment, and travelling "aimlessly" around the picturesque rural roads out of Sakamoto To...

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...