The concept of “bullying the bully” has been one that has been repeatedly explored in Japanese cinema with films like “Confessions” and “Liverleaf” being the first that come to mind. Mayu Nakamura, however, takes it to a whole new level, as this time, we have a story of ‘scamming the scammer’, which goes much further than one could have imagined.
“Intimate Stranger” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia
Yuji is a young phone-scam artist, who, under the instructions of Kenichi, is tricking old ladies out of their money, pretending to be their grandson, sick with Covid and in need of hospital fees, who are to be picked up by a friend. Of course, the friend is Yuji himself. During one of his “endeavors”, he stumbles upon Megumi, a middle-aged woman who is in search of her missing teenage son. Yuji claims that he has information about him, and gradually strips...
“Intimate Stranger” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia
Yuji is a young phone-scam artist, who, under the instructions of Kenichi, is tricking old ladies out of their money, pretending to be their grandson, sick with Covid and in need of hospital fees, who are to be picked up by a friend. Of course, the friend is Yuji himself. During one of his “endeavors”, he stumbles upon Megumi, a middle-aged woman who is in search of her missing teenage son. Yuji claims that he has information about him, and gradually strips...
- 5/5/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
In the beginning, one could be forgiven for rolling their eyes at Mayu Nakamura’s “Among Four of Us.” Its opening has all the makings of a generic Covid flick; it skims over the now almost cliche uncertainty we face amidst a phone-call catch-up, and shows its small ensemble pining for some form of normality. Yet, by its culmination, it evolves into so much more. At its core, it is resolutely thought-provoking, and is the type of short which skilfully uses its backdrop as a prop, not a crutch.
“Among Four Of Us” is screening at the Osaka Asian Film Festival
Centrally, the film revolves around a trio of middle-aged former college classmates, all gathered in local public spaces at night to converse with each other over alcohol. At first, their conversations are playful and breezy, mostly focused on the situation everyone finds themselves living in, but imbued with optimism...
“Among Four Of Us” is screening at the Osaka Asian Film Festival
Centrally, the film revolves around a trio of middle-aged former college classmates, all gathered in local public spaces at night to converse with each other over alcohol. At first, their conversations are playful and breezy, mostly focused on the situation everyone finds themselves living in, but imbued with optimism...
- 3/11/2021
- by Nathan Sartain
- AsianMoviePulse
The plethora of indie family dramas in the Japanese industry have a number of motifs in common. The accusation of the current generation towards the previous ones, the overall lack of parenting, that not all women are fit to become mothers and bullying are the most central ones. Tatsushi Omori, in his latest work, which is now streaming on Netflix, seems to have managed to include every one of them, in a film whose pragmatism is quite shocking even more so since it is based on an actual incident that took place in 2014.
The film shows its colors from the initial scene, where we see Akiko, a single mother, trying to get money from her parents and her hard-working sister, first by yelling and becoming violent and then by begging. However, they will not have none of it, since their patience is obviously exhausted, and a frustrated Akiko leaves along with her little son,...
The film shows its colors from the initial scene, where we see Akiko, a single mother, trying to get money from her parents and her hard-working sister, first by yelling and becoming violent and then by begging. However, they will not have none of it, since their patience is obviously exhausted, and a frustrated Akiko leaves along with her little son,...
- 11/7/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
During the latest years, Kazuya Shiraishi has emerged as one of the prominent names of the “entertaining” Japanese film, with works like “The Blood of Wolves” and “Birds Without Names” among others. This tendency of his continues in “Dare to Stop Us”, a rather appealing look at the work of Koji Wakamatsu (Shiraishi actually worked for his production company), through the eyes of an almost completely unknown assistant, Megumi Yoshizumi.
“Dare to Stop Us” is screening atUdine Far East Film Festival
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s “family” as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gatheres to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama, who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning,...
“Dare to Stop Us” is screening atUdine Far East Film Festival
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s “family” as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gatheres to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama, who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning,...
- 5/3/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
During the latest years, Kazuya Shiraishi has emerged as one of the prominent names of the “entertaining” Japanese film, with works like “The Blood of Wolves” and “Birds Without Names” among others. This tendency of his continues in “Dare to Stop Us”, a rather appealing look to the work of Koji Wakamatsu (Shiraishi actually worked for his production company), through the eyes of an almost completely unknown assistant, Megumi Yoshizumi.
“Dare to Stop Us” screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s family as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gathered to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning, Wakamatsu ignores her,...
“Dare to Stop Us” screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019
The story begins in 1969, when Megumi, 21-year old at the time, manages to get to Wakamatsu’s family as assistant director, through a common acquaintance known as the Spook. While there (with there meaning an office where everyone gathered to organize their movies), she meets a number of “figures” except the eccentric Wakamatsu, including Masao Adachi, Haruhiko Arai and Kenji Takama who eventually becomes a love interest. At the beginning, Wakamatsu ignores her,...
- 3/18/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Forum
BERLIN -- Suffused with recollected passions of a bona fide activist, and sober historical hindsight, "United Red Army" transcends its national and historical specificity as an elegy to Seventies idealism, in kindred spirits with Ken Loach's "Land and Freedom" and "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." Its accounts of the "Mountain Base Incident" and "Asama Lodge Incident" create a celluloid monument to a chapter in Japanese history skipped over in school books. However, at 190 minutes, it is so fanatically faithful in tracing the roots of Japan's left-wing movement and ensuing fractured radicalism, so unflinching in its re-creation of Orwellian internal purging as well as the power hunger and bloodlust that motivates it, that it is a physical and emotional long haul for any viewer.
As the vanguard of Japanese radical cinema and a friend/collaborator of Japanese Red Army member/filmmaker Masao Adachi, there is arguably no one more qualified than Koji Wakamatsu to take the helm. His cult status among European cineastes as a master of pink eiga will no doubt secure that niche market. The film was named best Japanese film at Tokyo International Film Festival.
Structured into three acts, the first charts the rise of the zenkyoutou student movement in 1970, its waning, and splintering into factions. The morass of merged archival and fictional material takes an hour to unfold, and totally swamps the uninformed. However, there are scenes crucial to later dramatic development, such as the activists' inherent violence to each other.
The second act is breathtakingly tense, when two extremist factions merge to become the United Red Army on July 15, 1971. Members undertake military training in a hidden base inside Nagano's mountains. Their initial Boy Scout enthusiasm as they hike and build a log cabin form an ironic prelude to the harrowing Maoist "self-criticism" that escalates from verbal humiliation to bloody beatings and executions with ice picks. The final act and climax is the seizing of a ski resort inn by a few desperado members following the group's disbanding. Their 10-day hold-off is objectively stresses both their politeness to the hostage, and their caged animal madness.
The brittle performance of Akie Namiki, as deputy leader Nagata impersonates a spine-chilling cross between Gang of Four leader Jiang Qing and Mrs. Ceausescu. Go Jibiki's Mori is equally memorable in his cold-blooded brutality and calculation. Wakamatsu eschews the dazzling experimental techniques of his earlier work in favor of a documentarylike and utilitarian style. His mastery of shooting in cramped interiors, alternates with his signature location shooting in single takes and natural lighting create powerful contrasts of the claustrophobia of a torture chamber with the glistening snowy landscape outdoors.
Although the narrative sometimes totters under the weight of its own gravitas, "United Red Army" is a must-see for students and intellectuals.
UNITED RED ARMY (JUTSUROKU RENGO SEKIGUN: ASAMA SANSO E NO MICHI)
Wakamatsu, Skhole Co/Wakamatsu Productions Tokyo
Credits:
Director-Editor: Koji Wakamatsu
Screenwriters: Koji Wakamatsu, Asako Otomo
Producers: Koji Wakamatsu, Noriko Ozaki, Asako Otomo
Director of photography: Tomohiko Tsuji, Yoshihisa Toda
Production designer: Geb Uti
Music: Jim O'Rourke
Cast:
Hiroko Nagata: Akie Namiki
Tsuneo Mori: Go Jibiki
Mieko Toyama: Maki Sakai
Running time 190 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BERLIN -- Suffused with recollected passions of a bona fide activist, and sober historical hindsight, "United Red Army" transcends its national and historical specificity as an elegy to Seventies idealism, in kindred spirits with Ken Loach's "Land and Freedom" and "The Wind That Shakes the Barley." Its accounts of the "Mountain Base Incident" and "Asama Lodge Incident" create a celluloid monument to a chapter in Japanese history skipped over in school books. However, at 190 minutes, it is so fanatically faithful in tracing the roots of Japan's left-wing movement and ensuing fractured radicalism, so unflinching in its re-creation of Orwellian internal purging as well as the power hunger and bloodlust that motivates it, that it is a physical and emotional long haul for any viewer.
As the vanguard of Japanese radical cinema and a friend/collaborator of Japanese Red Army member/filmmaker Masao Adachi, there is arguably no one more qualified than Koji Wakamatsu to take the helm. His cult status among European cineastes as a master of pink eiga will no doubt secure that niche market. The film was named best Japanese film at Tokyo International Film Festival.
Structured into three acts, the first charts the rise of the zenkyoutou student movement in 1970, its waning, and splintering into factions. The morass of merged archival and fictional material takes an hour to unfold, and totally swamps the uninformed. However, there are scenes crucial to later dramatic development, such as the activists' inherent violence to each other.
The second act is breathtakingly tense, when two extremist factions merge to become the United Red Army on July 15, 1971. Members undertake military training in a hidden base inside Nagano's mountains. Their initial Boy Scout enthusiasm as they hike and build a log cabin form an ironic prelude to the harrowing Maoist "self-criticism" that escalates from verbal humiliation to bloody beatings and executions with ice picks. The final act and climax is the seizing of a ski resort inn by a few desperado members following the group's disbanding. Their 10-day hold-off is objectively stresses both their politeness to the hostage, and their caged animal madness.
The brittle performance of Akie Namiki, as deputy leader Nagata impersonates a spine-chilling cross between Gang of Four leader Jiang Qing and Mrs. Ceausescu. Go Jibiki's Mori is equally memorable in his cold-blooded brutality and calculation. Wakamatsu eschews the dazzling experimental techniques of his earlier work in favor of a documentarylike and utilitarian style. His mastery of shooting in cramped interiors, alternates with his signature location shooting in single takes and natural lighting create powerful contrasts of the claustrophobia of a torture chamber with the glistening snowy landscape outdoors.
Although the narrative sometimes totters under the weight of its own gravitas, "United Red Army" is a must-see for students and intellectuals.
UNITED RED ARMY (JUTSUROKU RENGO SEKIGUN: ASAMA SANSO E NO MICHI)
Wakamatsu, Skhole Co/Wakamatsu Productions Tokyo
Credits:
Director-Editor: Koji Wakamatsu
Screenwriters: Koji Wakamatsu, Asako Otomo
Producers: Koji Wakamatsu, Noriko Ozaki, Asako Otomo
Director of photography: Tomohiko Tsuji, Yoshihisa Toda
Production designer: Geb Uti
Music: Jim O'Rourke
Cast:
Hiroko Nagata: Akie Namiki
Tsuneo Mori: Go Jibiki
Mieko Toyama: Maki Sakai
Running time 190 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/10/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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