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Ishiro Honda Double Feature
by Jeremy Clarke. Out now on Blu-ray alongside the standalone release of Mothra (1961) comes a double bill of two more Toho science fiction movies, The H Man (1958) and Battle in Outer Space (1959), both also directed by Ishiro Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The Toho studio is more readily associated with […]
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Mothra
by Jeremy Clarke. You’d be forgiven for assuming Mothra (1961) to be a typical Toho monster movie in which a giant moth attacks Tokyo. However, the film single-handedly redefined the genre as much as the original Godzilla film defined it.
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Japanese Box Office Round-up 2020
By Jasper Sharp. So, what happened at the Japanese box office in 2020? The critics lists and industry stats from the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, or Eiren, are all now in, so it’s time once more for my annual mull over the figures, trends and top titles of another year in Japanese cinema. 2020 […]
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Japan Foundation Film Tour 2021
By Jasper Sharp. The ongoing Coronavirus crisis may have disrupted many aspects of the cultural calendar, but it is heartening to report that one the Japan Foundation UK Touring Film Programme is still pushing ahead. Its 18-film line-up for 2021 is organised under the theme “This is My Place: Carving out a sense of existence […]
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Books: Chinese Movie Mags
By Jasper Sharp. In these days of cosplay conventions and K-drama and Chinese sci-fi blockbusters on Netflix, it is easy to forget how little access to – and, let’s face it, interest in – Asian popular culture the West had for the vast bulk of the twentieth century. Not so in the other direction, however, […]