Tag: Jasper Sharp

November 8, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. It’s often reported how first-time visitors to Japan find themselves dumbfounded by the cacophony of new colours, sounds and symbols that greet them. What does the jumble of neon-lit hieroglyphs on that building mean? Why is that woman wearing traditional kimono on the metro? Why are there stone statues with little red […]

September 30, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. Who would have thought that one of the talking-point animated releases of the year would be an obscure title made in Japan over 40 years ago? Hailed as “One of the great lost masterpieces of Japanese animation”, Belladonna of Sadness (also known as Tragedy of Belladonna) was originally released in 1973 as […]

September 9, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp.It is that time of year again, as the tumbling temperatures, dwindling daylight hours and falling leaves signal the last gasp of summer, that UK film fans can take heart in the knowledge that a new season is just about to dawn – the film festival season. The past weeks have seen programme […]

September 1, 2016 · 1 comment

By Jasper Sharp. Tetsuya Nakashima’s 2010 movie Confessions, in which an embittered teacher avenged the death of her child at the hands of schoolchildren, caused plenty of commotion on its overseas release. World of Kanako continues Nakashima’s trawl into the darker recesses of the soul and will similarly divide opinion. Adapted from by Akio Fukamachi’s […]

August 14, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. The clammy deathly-blue pallor, the single drooping eye leering through lank, matted black hair, the white cotton smock, the slow, spasmodic, Butoh-esque movements: there must be few out there unfamiliar with the imagery of the Japanese ghost since the shuffling form of Sadako first seeped into Western consciousness in Hideo Nakata’s Ringu […]