TIFF 2015: Journey To The Shore Review
Journey To The Shore TIFF 2015 review
Japan
TIFF 2015: Yakuza Apocalypse Review
Yakuza Apocalypse TIFF 2015 review
A Beginner’s Guide to Studio Ghibli
With the return of TIFF's retrospective of the works of Studio Ghibli returning to the Lightbox starting this Thursday (and running to January 3rd), lets look back at our Beginner's Guide to the works of possibly the best animation studio operating today.
TADFF 2011: Redline Review
Redline isn’t about nothing, but it isn’t about much. Nothing stops Redline from hitting goals. Nothing stops Redline from victory. Redline is so ferocious and unwieldy that it’s too dangerous to be bound in your hands, it’s too fast for the qualms of plot or logic. It can’t slow down. The wonderful thing about animation is that it’s a world from scratch, created only by the pen instead of constructs of likelihood. Redline is its own universe, and it rockets through it so fast you’ll miss planets if you blink.
Godzilla #1 Review
Worst comic read ever! Not that this was a surprise though, given that one of my rules for deciding if I should buy a new comic title is to see how many/how ”˜big’ it’s variant covers are going to be. The more variant covers linked to an issue, the worse the read usually is. And IDW’s Godzilla variant campaign was epically huge!
5 Ronin #1 Review
5 Ronin is a new mini-series, being released in weekly succession, which reinvents five of Marvel’s most popular characters in 17th century Japan. This is an out-of-continuity tale, in the same vein as DC's Elseworlds line, or Marvel’s 1602 .
TIFF 2010
13 Assassins Review
Takashi Miike is not known for his subtlety. When his film Ichi the Killer premiered, the audience were given vomit bags (several of which, apparently, were used.) He is also one of Japan’s most prolific filmmakers, often churning out more than one film a year. It is not often, though, that he focuses on true […]
TADFF 2010
RoboGeisha Review
When a new film is being made by the same group who gave us the camp hits Tokyo Gore Police and Machine Girl , the purchase of your ticket is like an informal contract that you are basically down with whatever is about to happen for the next feature-length amount of time. No matter what. […]
TADFF 2010
Alien vs. Ninja Review
How often does a film truly deliver on its premise? The very title of Alien vs. Ninja makes a promise to the audience that aliens and ninjas will go head-to-head in the film. Now I know what you’re thinking: this is a Japanese b-movie, surely there is a musical number or some boring melodrama getting […]
Fantasia 2010 – Fish Story Review
A lone man meanders through the seemingly empty streets of Tokyo on his scooter. Garbage is strewn in the streets; cars are abandoned; there is not a soul in sight. That is, except at a strange little record shop. The man seems annoyed that the owner, a strange and exceedingly calm man would open his […]
TIFF Review: Air Doll
Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda has written and directed some of the most sublime, strange and touching films to come out of his home country in recent years, including After Life and Nobody Knows . Unfortunately his most recent film, Air Doll , is not as original or interesting. A sex doll comes to life while […]
