Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kenichi Matsuyama, Erika Toda
Genre: Manga

I’ve officially had to watch this film twice past my patience limit just because I couldn’t get on the review quick enough before I forgot it all. So here it is, just in time for Halloween cosplay ideas, and so I won’t have to watch it again. —Kris
Death Note: The Last Name starts off running, with an admirably quick and tidy recap, hinging on your ability to ignore the odd usage of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California …

Director: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson
Genre: Drama, Supernatural

HE-SAID
X-Files: I Want to Believe. Color me pleasantly surprised. I know that this film has been receiving quite a bit of flack from the general viewing populace, but I’m finding that for the most part, the people who are upset or disappointed by the film are casual X-Files fans at best. Most of the particularly vocal ones seem not to have even watched the show.
I Want to Believe is not as complex as The Dark Knight. It’s far more-so. While The …

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring: Hitomi, Ryuhei Matsuda, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yoshio Harada, Ren Osugi
Genre: Japan, Horror, Supernatural, Splatter

Note: This was originally going to be an “in-brief” review, but it soon ballooned out of control. It’s not as polished as I would like, but it is what it is. Enjoy.
Taking cues from Nightmare on Elm Street, The Cell, detective thrillers, and possibly the ending to Hellraiser II: Bloodlines, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Nightmare Detective depicts a modern day Tokyo plagued by a sleep-invading serial killer. Targeting those with a hankering for self-destruction, the killer …

Episodes: 1-26
Genre: comedy, vampire, supernatural, romantic
Release Date: March 18, 2008

So I’m not an Anime enthusiast; even the occasional Anime series makes me cringe (do they have to squeal and flap their arms all the time?), but if you are making an attempt because, like me, your betrothed is up to his eyeballs in coursework and DVD screeners, or just because you’re curious, then I hope to be some help. And, as you can see, I’d be a hard-sell.
Moon Phase (Tsukuyomi) describes the backstory of each character eloquently and with …

NOTE: This is my introduction to Mushi-Shi. Anything below was gleaned from vol 6. Hopefully I will get to watch more!
In hidden rural pockets all across historical Japan, supernatural beings called “mushi” roam, ravaging villages and village folk. Because humans become immersed in routine and tangible expectations, sometimes the mushi invade invisibly, inadvertently (due to reckless human error or ignorance), and the only way to tame them is through a Mushi master, vigilantly trained in creature classification and warding. In Mushi-Shi, the master …

In 2005 the Anime world saw something akin to America’s own Grindhouse double feature. The Clamp Double Feature was a “co-op” production of two back-to-back theatrical films from the works of all-girl doujinshi group turned superstar-manga-team, Clamp. These two flicks take place in vastly different worlds, each providing a substantial stand-alone entertainment, but feature enough interplay of narrative and thematic elements that the two films demand to be watched in conjunction more than once.
Now, before watching these two films I was not familiar with the Tsubasa or xxxHolic universes, save …

Paprika
Note: If you’re already a fan of anime and familiar with Satoshi Kon, skip to the third paragraph.
HE SAID
Truth be told, anime is no different than any other storytelling medium. The rabid otaku would like you to believe otherwise, but really, it’s just like everything else. There’s a vast wasteland of uninspired, tedious dreck, above which rises a small mountain of notable works. The majority of the forget-ables are children’s shows, much like what plays on the Cartoon Network or Saturday morning; endless serialized battles, or tales of consumerist …

A landmark film in every respect, Jigoku (Hell, aka: The Sinners of Hell), directed by the “father of Japanese horror,” Nobuo Nakagawa (Duel at Lightning Pass), is rife with Faustian allegory, religious symbolism, theological meditations, and brilliantly innovative special effects. The film has since been remade twice, by Tatsumi Kumashiro (The Inferno) and cult favorite Teruo Ishii (Japanese Hell) respectively, and inspired such American films as The Cell and What Dreams May Come. But after forty years, it is still Nakagawa’s original that stands head and shoulders above the rest
The …

With director Takashi Miike, you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get. Whether stoic dramas (Sabu), gonzo comedies (Zebraman), gross-out masterpieces (Ichi the Killer) or radical takes on tried and true genres (Gozu), you can be sure you’re in for something you’ve never seen before. This film has been described as a live action Miyazaki tale, and while it certainly has a lot in common with Spirited Away, it’s definitely more Miike than Miyazaki. In fact, this cinematic tale of fantastical goblins and heroic tweens is actually a …

A friend once jokingly said, “if you expect the worst from the world, you’ll never be disappointed”. Such must be the mantra of paranoid psychopaths like Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto, director of Tetsuo, actor in Ichi the Killer) who wanders through Tokyo with his only friend (a video camera) and a supposed mission: to find others with the “Fear”. An invisible drone, he emphatically creates whatever he wants to see in his encapsulating society (director Shimizu accomplishes this by cleverly melding ethereal and tangible–spooky ghouls and real-life maniacs). His hub is …

There are quite a few Russian fairy tales that may even instill fear in the hearts of adults as they portend the forces of good and evil in, let’s just say less than subtle descriptions. Swooping spectres and witches flying around in Williams Sonoma-ware (Babayaga in her mortar-and-pestle mobile), children and the elderly bound and chained up for decades, and grossly misshapen scenery all add up to a stunningly spooky time. What’s really interesting is that beyond the supernatural exaggerations exists an impass from various other European mythology. Sometimes morality …

Let me remind you that Yakusho Koji (Tampopo, Charisma, Memoirs of a Geisha) is much more than a pair of walking cheekbones with a ‘fro. He possesses the ability to simultaneously emote strength and warmth, intelligence and naïveté, charming fragility with weight-of-the-world endurance. This is why he’s perfect in the role of Michio Hayasaki, a hard-ass robotics engineer who, shortly after discovering doppelgängers or exact metaphysical xeroxes exist, is visited by his own. A scientist relies on strict order and facts, so of course Hayasaki is disturbed …

Perpetually oscillating between the disturbing, mysterious, perverted, horrific, explosive, meditative, surreal, hilarious, and introspective, Gantz is one of the most entertaining, and frankly, best animes I’ve seen in recent years.

Restore the rules of the world… Freedom’s just another disease… A truly healthy human longs to obey… These [magic] mushrooms are delicious!

CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES? Kiyoshi Kurosawa became one of my favorite filmmakers rather quickly, although it has been a bumpy ride. I was enthralled by Cure, regrettably rushed through Kairo (aka: Pulse or Circuit), gleefully devoured Doppelgänger and Bright Future. Admittedly, I had to view the former in installments, periodically accessing the “rewind button of the mind” to comb through the surreal scenes …

This was a review from Lee back when we used to write for Film Rotation. We are reprinting it here for the first time. Give it up for Lee!
From the land that seems pre-occupied with death, ghosts and the supernatural, (not necessarily in that order) comes another bit of heart stopping scare – “Juon: the Grudge” from director Takeshi Shimizu. Featuring popular film actress Megumi Okina, “Juon: The Grudge” brings the concept of the classic Haunted House and puts it on a more personal level.
The story centers about an …