Tag: university

The Crazy Family
Gyakufunsha Kazoku,
逆噴射家族)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 20 April 2024
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Gyakufunsha Kazoku,
逆噴射家族)
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Director – Sogo Ishii – 1984 – Japan – Cert. 18 – 105m

*****

After proudly moving into their first home as owner-occupiers, a family go berserk and destroy the building – out in selected New York cinemas from Friday, April 19th and selected UK cinemas from Friday, April 25th

This seemingly starts out as a conservative family drama. The family in question comprises father Katsukuni Kobayashi (Katsuya Kobayashi in his debut feature role), mother Saeko (Mitsuko Baisho who worked with directors Akira Kurosawa, Shohei Imamura and Kaneto Shindo), elder teenage son Masaki (Yoshiki Arizono from Ichi the Killer, The Happiness of the Katakuris, both Takashi Miike; Electric Dragon, 80,000 V, Sogo Ishii, all 2001) and younger teenage daughter Erika (Youki Kudoh from Typhoon Club, Shinji Somai, 1985; Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch, 1989; Heaven’s Burning, Craig Lahiff, 1997). The Kobayashis move in to their first home as owner-occupiers which, although it’s a little on the small side, promises an idyllic existence. Father is the breadwinner with a nondescript office job, mother waters the plants and does the cooking and housework, the daughter wants to be an idol singer and the son is spending all his time studying for school and university in his room upstairs.… Read the rest

Tags a place to live, accommodation, armour, baseball bat, basement, bicycle, biker gang, bravado, breadwinner, build, building work, catalyst, Chinese, coffee, defensive, derelict, digging, drama, drill, failure, family, family unit, father, floor, flyover, grandfather, hand-held, head of the family, Hitoshi Ueki, home, horror, house implosion, housewife, housing, husbands and wives, idol singer, intimacy, intimate, Japan, Japanese cinema, JG Ballard, Katsuya Kobayashi, killing, kitchen implements, living room, living room floor, Mitsuko Baisho, mother, naive, nuclear family, office job, one-piece swimsuit, outer space, owner-occupiers, parents and children, pixelation, poison, power tool, primal types, public housing, rape, rape as weapon of war, room, run, salaryman, school, Second Sino-Japanese War, SF, sibling, sick, social breakdown, societal norms, Sogo Ishii, soldier, streets, studying, suburbia, sword, teenage, threat, train, turmoil, uniform, university, upstairs, warrior, weapon of war, white ant, World War Two, Yoshiki Arizono, Youki Kudoh

Features Live Action Movies

If Only I Could Hibernate
(Baavgai Bolohson)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 18 April 2024
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(Baavgai Bolohson)
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Director – Zoljargal Purevdash – 2023 – Mongolia, France, Switzerland, Qatar – Cert. 12a– 96m

****

A gifted Mongolian boy is torn between providing for his siblings and pursuing his studies – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 19th

Teenager Ulzii (Battsooj Uurtsaikh) lives with his mum and his three younger siblings in the yurt district of Ulaanbaataar, Mongolia’s capital city, their father having long since disappeared. Mum (Ganchimeg Sandagdorj) is illiterate and struggles to find work, and there is much antagonism between her and Ulzii, who is going through the school system his mother never experienced and took money from his summer job to buy sneakers before giving the remainder to his mum, who needs it to buy coal for their yurt’s stove to keep the family warm in severe, subzero wintry conditions. Sometimes it’s all too much for their mum, who often gets drunk at night.

In class, Ulzii is the star pupil at physics, often completing complex equations using solutions his teacher wouldn’t expect from anyone less than two years older. His teacher (Batzorig Sukhbaatar), finding a prodigy on his hands, starts to coach him to do well in the National exams in order to win a free university scholarship to study physics, which the boy wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.… Read the rest

Tags alcoholism, Battsooj Uurtsaikh, Batzorig Sukhbaatar, bunk off school, capital city, chop up wood, city and countryside, coach, coaching, coal, complex equations, cut down trees, Davaasamba Sharaw, dependents, drinking, drunk, earning money, eldest child, exams, family, fuel, Ganchimeg Sandagdorj, gifted, heating, illegal job, illiterate, logger, Mongolia, mothers and children, National exams, Nominjiguur Tsend, physics, play truant, pregnant, prejudice, prodigy, pull out of the school, responsibility, scholarship, school, school system, schoolboy, seeking work, siblings, sneakers, star pupil, student, subzero, summer job, teacher, teaching, teenager, Tuguldur Batsaikhan, Ulaanbaataar, unemployment, university, university scholarship, Winter, yurt, yurt district, yurt’s stove, Zoljargal Purevdash

Animation Features Live Action Movies

The Lyricist Wannabe
(Tin4 Ci4 L,
填詞L,
lit. Lyrics Nerd / Dickhead)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 March 2024
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(Tin4 Ci4 L,
填詞L,
lit. Lyrics Nerd / Dickhead)
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Director – Norris Wong – 2023 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12a – 112m

****

A girl pursues her dream of becoming a Cantopop lyricist – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 15th

The movies are full of rags-to-riches stories in which someone dreams of becoming a star, works hard to achieve that, and it ultimately all comes true. While that can happen, because in real life there are clearly stars out there, in most cases it doesn’t. This film follows a similar path: a girl gives her all to achieve her chosen dream but ultimately doesn’t make it, which is probably a far more common occurrence than the one in which the aspirant succeeds.

Law Wing Sze (Chung Suet-Ying) is a student at a church school run by nuns. She doesn’t read music, but is obsessed by Cantopop and wants to write lyrics, spending much time rewriting lyrics of old Cantopop songs such as Infernal Affairs which she rewrites as Student Affairs. For this endeavour she is summoned to Sister Che’s office where the nun / teacher helpfully gives her a crit session and suggests she change certain words to more accurately express what she’s trying to say without unintended double entendres.… Read the rest

Tags 0243 method of writing Cantonese, 2D animation, achieve, apartment, bestie, bounced email, brothers and sisters, BVM, Calvin Poon Yuen-leung, Cantopop, Chu Pak Hon, Chung Suet-Ying, church school, contest. Shortlist, contract, cooking, crit session, death and love, demo, double entendres, elevator, Eric Kot, farm, Henick Chou, home, Hong Kong, inspiration, internet, Jeannie Ng Ka-Yan, lift, Luna Shaw, lyrics, music, Norris Wong, nuns, object animation, parents, parents and children, parents and daughters, performance, performance slot, piano, producer, professional, radio station, read music, record company, record producer, rhyme, rhythm guitar, Sabrina Ng Ping, school, singer, songwriting contest. songwriting, star, statue, Stephy Tang, student, studying, success, Tai Yukki, Teachers’ Day, tone, Tony Wu Tsz-Tun, travel, tune, university, Virgin Mary, work hard, write, write lyrics, Yeung Wei-lung

Features Live Action Movies

Crazy Thunder Road
(Kuruizaki
Sanda Rodo,
狂い咲きサンダーロード)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 10 June 2022
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(Kuruizaki
Sanda Rodo,
狂い咲きサンダーロード)
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Director – Sogo Ishii – 1980 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 97m

*****

Following on from Arrow’s superb BD of Sogo Ishii’s Burst City (1982) comes Third Window’s equally impressive BD release of its predecessor in the Ishii canon Crazy Thunder Road (1980) – on Blu-ray from Monday, February 21st 2022 and, as of January 2024, available to stream on Amazon Prime UK

This was Ishii’s Nihon University student graduation project, his first to be shot on 16mm rather than Super 8, which somehow got picked up for distribution by major Japanese Studio Toei which led to their giving him a budget for Burst City. Tom Mes, who as with Burst City supplies a commentary for the film, describes Crazy Thunder Road as “one of the Holy Grails of Japanese film releases if not the Holy Grail.”

When Toei presented Ishii with what seemed like astronomical funding for Burst City, it led him to overreach himself. In retrospect, he considers Burst City unfinished… [Read the full review at All The Anime]

Crazy Thunder Road was out on Blu-ray in the UK on Monday, February 21st, 2022 and, as of January 2024, available to stream on Amazon Prime UK.… Read the rest

Tags 16mm, 1970s, 1976, Adam Torel, amateur, amateur film, amateur film movement, anti-establishment, army, aspiring filmmakers, Autonomous Film, barmaid, bike, biker, bikers, bookend, camera spin, car, commentary, concrete, defence, defend, destruct, doom, enthusiasm, entry points, eruption, film club, film production, funding, Gakuryu Ishii, gang, gang leader, gangster movie, gone soft, graduation, Holy Grail, improvisation, independent, Japan, Japanese film production, Jasper Sharp, Jishu Eiga, Kinji Fukusaku, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, leader, listings magazine, maboroshi, microbudget, Naomi Kawase, nationalist, Nenji Kobayashi, Nihon. student, no money, on your own terms, p, paramilitary, performance, phantom, Pia, Pia Film Festival, production, project, punk, punk ethos, rage, raining, renegade, right-wing, script, Shinya Tsukamoto, shooting at different speeds, Sogo Ishii, stopped hiring, Super 8, Tatsuo Yamada, Time Out, Toei, Tokyo, Tom Mes, UK, unfinished, university, university film club, volcanic ash, volcano, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, YIDFF

Features Live Action Movies

Tinker Ticker
(Deulgae,
들개,
lit. Wild Dog)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 6 November 2023
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(Deulgae,
들개,
lit. Wild Dog)
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Director – Kim Jung-hoon – 2013 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 102m

*****

A university professor’s aide who in his spare time builds bombs and sends them to people free of charge connects with a spoiled student prepared to detonate them – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2023 which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November 2nd to Thursday, November 16th

High school student Park Jung-gu (Byun Yo-han) makes bombs as a hobby. Ten years later, he’s on the internet, sending bombs out free of charge to any interested parties. However, people who receive his bombs do nothing with them.

By day, Park works forBaek (Kim Jong-goo from Exit, Lee Sang-geun, 2019; Poetry, Lee Chang-dong, 2010; Nowhere To Hide, Le Myung-se, 1999), a lecturer in business studies at the local university, and watches arrogant, rich kid Lee Hyo-min (Park Jong-min from LKFF 2023 Closing Night Film Dr. Cheon And The Lost Talisman, Kim Seong-sik, 2023; Decision To Leave, Park Chan-wook, 2022; Deliver Us From Evil, Hong Won-chan, 2020; Netflix series Hellbound, Yeon Sang-ho, 2021) argue coherently against Baek’s pro-consumerist lecture and get failed in the course for his trouble.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Lust, Caution
(Se, Jie,
色, 戒)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 13 May 2023
No Comments on Lust, Caution
(Se, Jie,
色, 戒)

Director – Ang Lee – 2007 – China, Taiwan, US – Cert. 18 – 158m

*****

A Chinese student joins an assassination plot against a high-up Japanese collaborator, for which she must sleep with him – originally published in Third Way, to coincide with 4th January 2008 UK cinema release.

Some will consider this erotic espionage thriller a no-go area, while others will want to see it for its director. Mandarin Chinese language outing Lust, Caution is based on a short story which highly regarded Chinese author Eileen Chang spent decades honing. Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee (award winner for both Brokeback Mountain, 2005, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000) claims he hasn’t so much adapted Chang’s tale as, in collaboration with his cast, re-enacted it. Given her story concerns the activity of a troupe of actors, perhaps this isn’t so surprising.

Shanghai 1942. Mrs Mak, waiting for a rendezvous in a café, is not who she appears. She recalls how in China 1938 she was shy Wong Chia Chi (Tang Wei) who as a university student got involved with a drama group to encourage patriotism under Kuang Yu Min (Wang Leehom). Acting before an enraptured audience, she realises she has found her métier.… Read the rest

Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Leaving To Remain

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 27 April 2023
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Director – Mira Erdevički – 2022 – UK – Cert. 12a – 88m

**1/2

Three Roma people who have settled in the UK after leaving the Czech and Slovak Republics must navigate life both after Brexit and during the pandemic lockdown – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 28th

Something film does extremely well is to show people’s lives or wider social attitudes at a given point in time. This documentary was planned to explore a very specific subject matter, but when events changed, the film changed with them to take account of developments. Erdevički originally intended to study the effect on Roma people immigrating to the UK, but as she was doing so, first, the UK’s vote in favour of Brexit resulted in extra bureaucratic obstacles for these people to navigate should they wish to stay in the UK and, second, trying to deal with all that as well as facing all the challenges everybody else was facing under pandemic lockdown. During the pandemic, she had her three subjects film themselves.

Erdevički has chosen her three Roma subjects well: they are all go-getters. The type of people who get things done. All three have come to the UK because they or their families wanted to better their lives and make a positive contribution.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Cairo Conspiracy,
(original title:
Boy From Heaven,
Walad Min Al Janna,
صبي من الجنة)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 April 2023
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(original title:
Boy From Heaven,
Walad Min Al Janna,
صبي من الجنة)
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Director – Tarik Saleh – 2022 – Sweden, France, Finland – Cert. 12a – 126m

***

A naive, young, Egyptian student at a top Islamic university is recruited as a spy for the secret police – out in UK cinemas on Friday, April 14th

Adam (Tawfeek Barhom), a bookworm born and raised in rural Egypt where he works as a fisherman like his father before him, visits the local mosque where his trusted Imam gives him a letter informing him he’s been accepted into Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar University, the top seat of Sunni Muslim learning and thought. He’s worried his widowed father won’t let him go, but his father fatally accepts it as the Will of Allah. In his university dorm, Adam finds his bed taken by fellow student Raed (Ahmed Laissaoui) and winds up in the bunk below. (The university is for men only: no women. At least, we see none here.)

Unexpectedly, the Grand Imam, the head of the university, dies and a successor must be chosen. At the security forces building, the General (Mohammad Bakri) listens to the analysis by Colonel Ibrahim (Fares Fares) of the possible candidates, throwing all files on the floor except one – the one with whom the President’s views align, the candidate who must win.… Read the rest

Tags academic, Academy Awards, Academy Awards 2022-23, Academy Awards 2023, Ahmed Laissaoui, Al-Azhar University, authorities, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Foreign Language Film 2022-23, Best Foreign Language Film 2023, bookworm, Cairo, clerics, conspiracy, dorm, edcation, Egypt, Egyptian security forces, election fixing, Fares Fares, Finland, fisherman, France, Grand Imam, higher education, holy man, hypocrite, Imam, Islam, Islamic education, Islamic learning, Jawad Atawil, John le Carré, Koran, learning, leave the country, local mosque, Makram Khoury, Mehdi Debhi, Mohammad Bakri, mosque, Muslim, Oscars, Oscars 2022-23, Oscars 2023, Ramzi Choukair, reciting contest, rual and urban, rural, secret marriage, secret police, security, security forces, Sheikh, Sherwan Haji, spiritual wisdom, Sunni Muslim, Sweden, Tarik Saleh, Tawfeek Barhom, threat of imprisonment, threat of prison, thriller, university, urban

Art Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Fashion Reimagined

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 3 March 2023
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Director – Becky Hutner – 2022 – UK – Cert. 12a – 100m

*****

A fledgling designer appalled by her industry’s environmental record attempts to do fashion sustainably – out in UK cinemas on Friday, March 3rd

The title put me off before I even knew anything about this documentary. On further investigation, however, its subject is up-and-coming fashion designer Amy Powney who decided, in the interests of sustainability, not to do fashion as fashion industry wisdom has always done it, but rather to find out if it was possible to do fashion in an environmentally sustainable way.

We are told that if the fashion industry were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest polluter, preceded only by the US and China. So clearly, this is an industry with a problem.

Amy had always wanted to design clothes. At Kingston University, studying fashion, she got hold of and read Naomi Klein’s anti-capitalist tract No Logo then felt herself increasingly at odds with the ethos of the course. Her background was a little different from most of the students: she grew up in the Lancashire countryside, off grid, on a farm with her sister and parents.

After college, she got a job sweeping the floor at small, indie UK fashion house Mother Of Pearl where she slowly but surely worked her way up to become first studio manager then the company’s creative director, clearly a very determined and driven young woman.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

Paris
13th District
(Les Olympiades,
Paris 13e)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 14 October 2021
No Comments on Paris
13th District
(Les Olympiades,
Paris 13e)

Director – Jacques Audiard – 2021 – France – Cert. 15 tbc – 105m

***

The criss-crossing lives and loves of four characters in Paris 13th District – in cinemas from Friday, March 18th

Shot for the most part in stylish black and white, this starts off with apartment resident Émilie Wong (Lucie Zhang) naked in her grandmother’s flat with her new tenant Camille (Makita Samba), their situation swiftly explained in a “how it all began” flashback. Their intense passion cools after a mere couple of weeks, however, with Camille subsequently bringing another girl he fancies back to the flat.

Meanwhile, law student Nora Ligier (Noémie Merlant from Jumbo, Zoé Wittock, 2020) gets mistaken for online sex cam girl Amber Sweet (Jehnny Beth) at a nightclub and the image of her (incorrect) identity immediately plastered over the internet. She quits university and gets a job at a real estate company, an area in which she has a lot of experience, run by Camille who is looking after the company for a friend and has no idea what he’s doing.

Although Nora delineates boundaries for the office, pretty soon she and Camille are involved in a passionate, physical relationship. Meanwhile, she tracks down Amber Sweet on the web, first for conversations on Amber’s expensive website and later for lengthier conversations for free on Skype.… Read the rest