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. Anime Supremacy! is the live action adaptation of the same-name light novel written by Mizuki Tsujimura and illustrated by CLAMP.   Though it may be by women, and about women, this is a story for everyone who's ever wanted to peek behind the curtain into the chaotic Oz that is the anime industry. Just be warned, what has been seen - can't be unseen.  A pox! A pox on both your anime! Hitmoi Saito (played by the understated Riho Yoshioka) is an ambitious young woman on the cusp of her anime directorial debut. Soundback: Playing Stone is a passion project years in the making, and not only must it be a roaring success to prove Saito's prowess as a director, it must surpass the ratings of all other anime so that it's creator may achieve the titular "Anime S...

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...

  For those of you who wish to retain your romanticised notion of boarding school being a Mallory Towers -esque picnic of a time, read no further.  Ginanti Rona's 2022 folk-horror  Qorin is  a harrowing portrayal of a remote Indonesian boarding school, which highlights the sexual vulnerabilities and isolation of the young females within, touching on themes of dark rituals and mass hysteria. Young Zahra (Zulfa Maharani) is on the cusp of graduation at a Muslim all-girls school. Run by a married couple and one tough nun, mobile phones and other modern privileges are banned - as is (seemingly) contact with the outside world. Zahra, like many of her peers, is piously devout and religiously (excuse the pun) follows the word of their male teacher and spiritual leader Ustad Jaelani (creepily portrayed by Omar Daniel) . Ustad has round the clock access to these impressionable young girls, and is not afraid to abuse this position of trust.  As his undivided atten...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to devour bonkers Kaiju cinema;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your cinematic appetite. It's Kaiju Time! *Takes off glasses, massages nose bridge and exhales deeply. Eyes closed* Shin. Ultraman. How to review legendary Tokusatsu director Shinji Higuchi' s superhero send-up without sounding like I've spent the last month licking a barrel of hallucinogenic toads? The backstory to the character alone goes all the way back to the 1960s!  Feck it! I can't.  Might as well just go in, all "nasty laser beams" blazing.  So strap yourself in, it's going to get weird . Back in the SSSP... Present day Japan, Kaiju (giant monsters such as Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, and so on) openly   exist, and randomly pop up around Japan causing all manner of amusing chaos and destruction to varying degrees.  A counter-Kaiju organisation known as the S-...

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. "I can't shake this creepy feeling..." In a terribly jaded world where everyone has already seen everything , it's a tremendous pleasure to stumble across something that one has not in fact, seen. One such previously un-seen entity is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 made-for-T.V. movie Séance (Kôrei).  Starring Japanese screen legends Koji Yakusho (Cure, Pulse, Tokyo Sonata) and Jun Fubuki (Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, Call me Chihiro),  Séance is a cerebral slow-burn paranormal thriller. And bloody eerie to boot. Based on Mark McShane's  Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1961 novel, 1964 film adaptation), Kurosawa's version centres around Junko and Koji Sato, a couple whose outwardly placid marriage is irreparably rocked by the kidnapping of a yo...

"An unopened door is a happy door..." - Maurice Moss 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. For those concerned about who will gift the world with spellbinding, epic anime once Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki finally travels on The Great Cat Bus to the Sky , fear not. Makoto Shinkai is here. Suzume is the latest release from the award-winning director, and like his recent popular works  Your Name  and Weathering With You , Suzume is an, action-packed coming-of-age fantasy, with  Ghibli-esque aesthetics and jaw-dropping animation.  And, forgive the cheesy cliché, a lotta heart.  "Strangers on a hill, exchanging eye contact..." I had the privilege of watching a special preview screening of Suzume at Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin with thanks to Japanese Film Festival Ireland (in ...

Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to learn about whether or not this article title is mere click-bait, or truly an eye-opening exposé on sentient, malevolent nineties toys;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your nerderous appetite. I'm an adult, but not like an "adult" adult: From Homer's Telemachus  (that auld classics lad)  to Homer Simpson's Squeaky Voiced Teen, there comes a time in all our lives when we must  "put childish things away, and become a man!" However, according to a suggested Facebook post I recently saw (in your face extensive journalistic business research, this is as deep as we're going), 40% of North American toy sales now belong to the over 30s-with-no-children-but-heaps-of-disposable-income-to-indulge-in-nostalgia-purchases demographic. In essence, millennials. Just take a look around any Game Stop or attend any comic/nerd culture convention and you...

  Big Nedry Energy! Welcome to Sensei Sensibility!  You  are the hungry mind yearning to learn about the secret, inner workings of Ireland's largest Comic Con;  I  am the (questionably) knowledgeable  Sensei , more than happy to satiate your nerdy appetite. Sunday, March 12th, 6am: Up! Up! GEDDUUUUP! Bellows the internal scream, as I externally sob. Ireland is in the grips of a dual monsoon-season/snow-spell; it is as bitterly miserable a Sunday morning as you can possibly imagine. Only madmen or those being paid to be up at this time, in these conditions, would be up.  But I am not gaining financially from being up at this ungodly hour, I am in fact volunteering my sacred Sunday to help out at Dublin Comic Con .  Not only that, but I even PAID a volunteer deposit to offer up my (not so) free time. Does this mean I fall under the latter, "madmen", category?  Unequivocally. 8am: Armed with a belly-full of porridge, comfortable shoes, my ref...