A mid-2000s departure from his wuxia epics, Zhang’s largely restrained work about an aged Japanese father travelling to China to film a traditional mask opera for his estranged dying son ultimately teeters towards the emotionalism of the director’s earlier melodramas.
This 19th installment is a rather straightforward if still serviceable affair, as the guilt-ridden blind swordsman protects a woman from nefarious harm.
This beautiful Japanese animated feature by Hosoda is endearing, but it may feel a bit too lengthy at times.
A triptych of warm-spirited stories forms Hamaguchi’s worldly treatment of the serendipitous, in what is a perceptive work about connections and human relationships.
It may sometimes be a sensorial overload, but Hosoda’s invigorating reworking of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ tale, now set in the virtual world of psychometric avatars, largely works and makes a point for the necessity of real human connection.
Kawase’s naturalistic and graceful filmmaking is there for all to see, but she doesn’t quite pull off successfully an oddly-structured work about the sometimes fateful circumstances surrounding mothers and babies.
Excellent performances of nuance and subtlety aside, Hamaguchi’s work here is emotionally rich but its plot shifts remain unconvincingly executed.
Wakamatsu mixes exploitative sex with subversive politics, but the film doesn’t really compel and is too long-winded.
Fantasy encroaches into reality in this slight if charming little anime from Studio Ghibli that might just finally make non-feline lovers realise why cats are to be fussed about.
There’s a certain indescribable sense of tranquility and ‘silence’ to this beautiful melancholic work that is as much about grief as it is about the end of mourning.
Eternality Tan 