By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Director Satoshi Nishimura’s anime feature “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” begins with frantic police radio calls and the ringing of a burglar alarm inside a bank. We see bank employees held hostage as the robbers pillage the vault, arguing about how to divide the loot. But this is no ordinary bank […]
Hard to breathe easy in this gripping tale of infidelity and imprisonment
“Breath,” the latest dramatic film from eccentric South Korean director Ki-duk Kim, begins with a prison inmate scratching on a wall with some kind of pen-shaped object.
Charismatic Donnie Yen is a ‘legend’ in his own right
“Legend of the Fist,” a sweeping historical epic from Hong Kong director Andrew Lau, begins with the dismal, gray battlefields of World War I.
“Evangelion 2.0” worthy of its predecessor
The first installment of the “Neon Genesis Evangelion” film series (adapted from the Japanese science fiction TV anime) begins with eerie near-silence.
Film details Japan’s buggy love affair
Director Jessica Oreck opens her made-in-Japan documentary, “Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo,” with two Japanese insect hunters in a wooded area.
“Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl,” a monster movie already bad before it became racist
The first three minutes of “Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl” contain more blood than you will see in any other movie this year.
Director captures Japan’s history on film
Alexander Sokurov’s “The Sun” opens in an awkward fashion. On the surface, life seems ordinary enough at the Imperial Palace of Japan. A servant brings in breakfast for the emperor on a tray. A second servant reads off the itinerary for the day. The emperor must attend a meeting with his war ministers. Then he will study marine biology, his favorite subject.
‘Evangelion’ film a good addition to anime
“Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone” (a film adapted from the Japanese science fiction anime “Neon Genesis Evangelion”) is set in the not-too-distant future, in a city called Tokyo-3. The buildings shimmer in a heat wave. The streets are suspiciously empty. A huge spray suddely sprouts out over the water.