Cinema 158
Hiroshima
By Jonathan Clements. After his classroom is disrupted by a girl with a nosebleed, Mr Kitagawa (Eiji Okada) comes to understand that many of the people in Hiroshima are still suffering the after-effects of the city’s atomic bombing seven years earlier. Although parts of the city have returned to relative calm, with volley-ball matches under […]
Mr. Vampire
by Jeremy Clarke. If your knowledge of vampire lore comes from Western movies about Dracula you’re in for some real surprises with the 1985 Hong Kong movie Mr. Vampire. This is the movie that put the Chinese hopping vampire on the map. It’s evening, as mortuary assistant Man Choi (Ricky Hui) checks a number of […]
Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
By Jonathan Clements. In a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1942, interpreter Lawrence (Tom Conti) struggles to maintain the uneasy peace, as camp commandant Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto) feuds with the charismatic prisoner Celliers (David Bowie). The love-hate between the two is mirrored in a different sort of relationship between Lawrence and the brutal officer Hara (Takeshi […]
Nobuhiko Obayashi & Hanagatami
By Jasper Sharp. Hanagatami (2017) has to be among the most important Japanese films of the last 20 years. This sweeping, emotive and flamboyant tale of love and friendship among a group of six college-age teenagers whose lives are about to be changed irrevocably by WW2 is an undisputable masterpiece for Nobuhiko Obayashi, a filmmaker […]
Books: Chinese Cinema
By Jonathan Clements. Hot on the heels of The Japanese Cinema Book, Bloomsbury puts out a new edition of The Chinese Cinema Book, edited by Lim Song Hwee and Julian Ward. Perhaps reflecting smaller returns, both citationally and financially, The Chinese Cinema Book is half the size of its Japanese stablemate, despite China being one […]