Month: June 2017

Ditch (Kaneto Shindo, Japan, 1954)

After being raped a traumatised woman named Tsuru (Nobuko Otowa) wanders into a squatter camp and is immediately taken advantage of by Toku (Taiji Tonoyama) and Pin (Jukichi Uno), two residents keen to use her to fund their gambling habit. Exploiting Tsuru’s good nature by posing as a hard up student Pin worms his way into Tsuru’s affections and convinces … Read the rest

Snow Flurry (Keisuke Kinoshita, Japan, 1959)

In 1940 the only son of an aristocratic family commits suicide with his pregnant wife (Keiko Kishi). However the latter survives to eventually give birth to a son, Sutueo (Yusuke Kawazu). 19 years later, with the family having lost its status along with most of its land, the adult Suteo harbours a deep love for his adoptive sister Sakura (Yoshiko … Read the rest

Detective Story (Kichitaro Negishi, Japan, 1983)

Wealthy university graduate Naomi (Hiroko Yakoshimaru) discovers that her absent father has hired a private detective named Shuichi (Yusaku Matsuda) to keep an eye on her. But when Shuichi’s estranged wife becomes the chief suspect in the murder of a Yakuza employee the irrepressible Naomi throws herself into solving the case whilst wrestling with her increasingly affectionate feelings toward her … Read the rest

Sanjuro (Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1962)

A terrific film that vaults into the first rank of my favourite Kurosawa’s alongside Ran, Rashomon, High and Low and Rhapsody in August. Toshiro Mifune is an absolute delight here as the scruffy, indolent, but-light-years-ahead-of-everyone-else warrior who rescues a bunch of witless samurai and then cleans up their corruption difficulties in local government. Two things I loved … Read the rest

The Road Home (Zhang Yimou, China, 2001)

An exquisitely crafted, emotionally overwhelming experience, The Road Home ranks for me as one of the all time great cinema love stories and one of my favourite Asian films. It really blew me away. The tale is simplicity itself being essentially the story of how an illiterate teenage girl named Di (Zhang Ziyi, astonishingly good from her facial expressions to … Read the rest

World War Z (Marc Forster, US, 2013)

A worldwide zombie outbreak sends UN investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) on the trail of the mysterious infection. As Gerry makes his way to a military outpost in South Korea, then to a country (Israel) which appears to have forseen the disaster and made preparations to protect itself, each destination is ultimately overrun by the dead. Escaping from Israel by … Read the rest

Flag In The Mist (Yoji Yamada, Japan, 1965)

A poor and desperate young woman named Kiriko (Chieko Baisho) makes a long journey to request help from Otsuko (Osamu Takizawa), a rich, successful lawyer, to defend her brother on a murder charge. But Otsuko brushes her off because she can’t meet his fees and the brother dies in prison. After befriending Otsuko’s mistress Kiriko has her framed on a … Read the rest

Saving My Hubby (Hyeon Nam-seob, South Korea, 2002)

A former volleyball star Geum-sun (Bae Doona) whose dreams have taken a knock after a shoulder injury ended her career is now a married housewife with a baby daughter and a nervous husband named Ju-tae (Kim Tae-Woo) about to start his first day in a new job. But later that evening Geum-sun gets an unexpected call from the owner of … Read the rest

My Dear Desperado (Kim Kwang-shik, South Korea, 2010)

An innocent country girl Sae-jin (Jeong Yu-mi), travels to Seoul to begin her first job. When the company she’s joined quickly goes bust she finds herself reduced to a crappy basement flat in a shabby neigbourhood with a lowly gangster, Dong-chul (Park Joong Hoon) for a neighbour. Before long the pair strike up an unlikely friendship and as Dong-chul’s bulldog … Read the rest