Category: Features

April 30, 2017 · 3 comments

By Jonathan Clements. In Stockholm, Hayao Miyazaki had been awake since before dawn, watching the carpenters heading to their studios with their tin lunchboxes, and young mothers in the morning, strolling proudly with their babies. In Visby, he stared in mute amazement at the gingerbread houses and medieval stone walls, as if a fairy tale […]

April 27, 2017 · 0 comments

By Jonathan Clements. “Who will make anime now?” asks Tadashi Sudo in his new book, just published in Japan. His subtitle, “The quiet revolution in Chinese capital and Net distribution”, plays most of his hand before the book is even open, citing these two factors as the most disruptive and, potentially, lucrative elements to strike […]

April 27, 2017 · 0 comments

by Jeremy Clarke. Originally released to international acclaim in 1952, this live-action drama chronicles the slow decline over a lifetime of an imperial lady-in-waiting, step by horrible step, to the level of a street prostitute. It’s based on the novel The Life of an Amorous Woman by Ihara Saikaku, first published in 1686 and set […]

April 24, 2017 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. Let’s think about sex; let’s talk about sex; let’s obsess about sex. Shimoneta has sex on its brain. And so it visualises the ultimate nightmare world, where the mere concept of sex is fast becoming a thought crime, porn is burned on sight, naughty words have police battering the door down, and […]

April 21, 2017 · 2 comments

By Andrew Osmond. In September 2007 I was in Tokyo at the so-called “Cinema Square” in the Shinjuku district. I saw fans queuing for one of the first screenings of the science-fiction/action film, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone. The film was revised a bit for its home release, and renamed Evangelion 1.11; it’s this […]