Tag: Tom Wilmot

May 5, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. While misguided pre-conceptions have resulted in many Japanese films being flippantly and unjustly branded as ‘weird’ or ‘perverted’, I struggle to find two words more wholly appropriate to describe Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005) and The Warped Forest (2011). Released in the West for the first time by Third Window Films, this pair of outrageous […]

April 29, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. After what has been a tough couple of years for the film industry, it’s uplifting to see an indie gem that proves the magic of filmmaking is well and truly alive. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is the brainchild of screenwriter Makoto Ueda and directed by first-time filmmaker Junta Yamaguchi, the film […]

March 17, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. When was the last time you picked a movie to watch solely based on its title? This was the case when I saw that Arrow Video would be releasing Shinji Somai’s 1981 film, Sailor Suit and Machine Gun. The film is as strange as its title implies, although perhaps not in the […]

February 18, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. Yokai have been a point of fascination for film fans for many years. The word Yokai in very general terms means “strange thing”, and is used to label creatures that have, according to folklorists, been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. These bizarre creatures have popped up in video games, […]

January 24, 2022 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. When people think of the new masters of Japanese cinema, the same roster of names continues to crop up. Hirokazu Koreeda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Takashi Miike, among others, tend to be the usual suspects as far as international acclaim goes. However, there is another director whose consistently introspective, vibrant, and brutal work […]