Tag: personal demons

Kaneko’s Commissary
(Kaneko Sashiireten,
金子差入店)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 February 2026
No Comments on Kaneko’s Commissary
(Kaneko Sashiireten,
金子差入店)
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Director – Go Furukawa – 2025 – Japan – Cert. N/C 15+ – 125m

****

An ex-con runs a service delivering clothing, other supplies and messages from loved ones to convicted prisoners – plays UK cinemas in the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026 which runs from Friday, 6th February to Tuesday, 31st March

A young mum, babe in arms, takes bags for her husband to a drop-off facility / creche so she can visit him in prison. The helpful assistant informs her that the commissary will be unable to accept most of the contents of the bag – basically, any clothing other than underwear. And off she goes for a prison visit with her husband, who has anger management issues and takes out on her the fact that she failed to visit last month, telling her, “it’s easy for you to abandon me.” His unabated rating and verbal abuse eventually drives her to a primal scream before she walks out, leaving him to ask, redundantly, after she’s left, if their child has been born yet.

His visit isn’t from her but the self-announced “Kaneko from Hosoda’s Commissary”, who has a deliver from his wife; divorce papers to sign.… Read the rest

Tags #JFTFP26, Akira Terao, anger, ants 80% / 20%, assault, best friend, borrow, bullied, childhood friend, closure, clothing, convict, delivery, divorce papers, dutiful daughter-in-law, duty, ex-con, ex-convict, ex-prisoner, family, family life, Go Furukawa, Goro Kishitani, husbands and wives, interview glass, interview room, Japan, Japan Foundation, Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026, JPF, JPF 2026, Kira Miura, loved ones, Mana Kawaguchi, messages, mothers and sons, murder, parents and children, personal demons, potted plant, primal scream, primary school, prison, prison system, prison visit, prisoner, purpose in life, relatives and convicts, remorse, restrained, Risa Kaneko, rules and regulations, Ryuhei Maruyama, school, school staff room, small business, Takumi Kitamura, targeted vandalism, teacher, teenage, teenager, Toshie Negihshi, vandalism, welcome counter, yakuza, Yoko Maki, Yuko Natori

Features Live Action Movies

The Last Dance
(Po Dei Juk,
破·地獄)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 15 November 2024
No Comments on The Last Dance
(Po Dei Juk,
破·地獄)
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Director – Anselm Chan – 2024 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12a – 130m (extended version – Cert. 15 – 140m)

**** (regular version) / unseen (extended version)

A failed, professional wedding planner joins a Taoist funeral director as a partner in his company as various crises come to a head in the latter’s family – engaging drama is back out in UK cinemas in an extended version on Friday, April 24th following the original version’s release on Friday, November 15th 2024

There have been movies about undertakers and funeral parlours before, but never one quite like this. Whether or not one is at a stage in life where one has had much experience of bereavement, at some point, each one of us is going to die – and, before that, in all likelihood, have to deal with our nearest and dearest dying and, by extension, undertakers and funeral directors in whatever culture we happen to live. Consequently, there is a universal fascination with such matters.

Hong Kong has a very specific cultural take on this phenomenon in its Taoist priests and rituals. While these have over the years supplied the basis for much beloved and fantastical Hong Kong action or horror fare such as Zu Warriors From the Magic Mountain (Tsui Hark, 1983) or the Mr.… Read the rest

Tags ambulance, Anselm Chan, baptismal class, belief system, bereavement, Breaking Hell’s Gates, business partner, casual sex, Catherine Chau, Catholic, Catholic school, Catholicism, co-worker, community, company, culture, Dayo Wong, death, deceased soul, Elaine Jin, failure, family, family duty, fathers and children, fiery sword, funeral director, funeral directors, funeral parlour, grief, Hong Kong, male-oriented, menstruation, Mexican stand-off, Michael Hui, Michelle Wai, paramedic, Paul Chun, personal demons, priest, professional, reincarnation, religion, religious, retirement, ritual, ritually unclean, robe, shopkeeper, smoker, sons and daughters, subplots, surrogate mother, sword, taboo, Tags: Hong Kong, Taoism, Taoist priest, Thor Lok, Tommy Chu, undertaker, wedding planner

Features Live Action Movies

Small Things Like These

Director – Tim Mielants – 2024 – Ireland – Cert. 12a – 98m

*****

A coal delivery man is troubled by the recurring sight of a deeply traumatised young woman at one of his regular customers, a convent – out to buy on Digital on Monday, January 20th, and on Blu-ray & DVD and to rent on Digital on Monday, February 3rd

Bill Furlong (Cillian Murphy) runs a company delivering coal to customers in and around Wexford, Ireland. It’s tough, backbreaking work, as is evident from the sight of his assistants loading up his truck, one bag of coal loaded onto the back by two men. He’s happy with his men, who do a good job. Doing his rounds as driver and delivery man (locked-off camera looking out from the driver’s cab) he carries one sack at a time himself. Finishing up delivering to the local convent, where he’s required to leave the coal bags behind the door in the designated coal house, he witnesses a scene where a young woman clearly doesn’t want to be in the care of the head sister.

He comes home. As is his wont, he furiously scrubs the coal black off his hands, producing a pool of blackened water in the bathroom sink.… Read the rest