Japan 408
Alita: Battle Angel
By Andrew Osmond. Midway through Alita: Battle Angel, the cyborg heroine realises she’s provoked the mother of all bar brawls – with a crowd of horribly beweaponed cyborgs – and now must kick an ironmonger’s worth of metal ass. She cautions her human boyfriend Hugo (Keean Johnson) to stand back, way back. This line of […]
The Scythian Lamb
By Roxy Simons. “You don’t fear me?” Ryuhei Matsuda’s Miyakoshi asks council worker Tsukisue (Ryo Nishikido) when he arrives in the sleepy town of Uobuka, his new home for the next ten years. “You and I are humans,” Tsukisue responds, despite his reservations about the sudden influx of ‘suspicious’ people in the town. Miyakoshi is […]
Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura
By Andrew Osmond. The family fantasy Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura is at the populist end of this year’s Japan Foundation Film Programme, which tours UK and Ireland through February and March. Released in Japan over the Christmas season in 2017, Destiny is a little like Harry Potter, and a little like Ghibli. It’s also […]
Mirai at the Oscars
by Andrew Osmond. And so, it’s finally happened. For the first time ever, an anime feature film which isn’t made by Studio Ghibli has become an official Oscar nominee – namely Mamoru Hosoda’s toddler’s-view fantasy Mirai. As far as most people are concerned, this is the director’s fifth film, following Girl Who Leapt Through Time, […]
Books: Fragrant Orchid
By Jasper Sharp. People often assume that the animated muse in Satoshi Kon’s celebration of Japan’s cinematic heritage, Millennium Actress (2001), was based on Setsuko Hara, the film star who anchored Yasujiro Ozu classics like Tokyo Story, and who retired from the screen for fifty years of self-imposed exile. There is, however, at least one […]