I don’t envy anyone who sets out to make an H.P. Lovecraft film. When people think of unfilmable — or at best, extremely difficult to film — authors, such luminaries as James Joyce, Kurt Vonnegut, and Thomas Pynchon usually top the list. However, I contend that Lovecraft is up there as well, and three reasons […]
For many folks, the Nineties represent the finest decade of Hong Kong filmmaking, and I’d be hard-pressed to disagree with them. So many filmmakers — Wong Kar-Wai, John Woo, Tsui Hark, Jackie Chan, Johnnie To, Stephen Chow — were either at the top of the their game during that decade, or arrived at the top […]
Two things are certain about the legacy of Neon Genesis Evangelion. First, the fourteen years or so that have passed since its TV debut have done little, if anything, to diminish the shadow that it casts over the entire anime landscape. Indeed, nearly any anime title that involves giant robots, (young) characters struggling with psychological […]
Steven D. Greydanus (of Decent Films fame) has posted a wonderful overview of Hayao Miyazaki, his films, and their influence on American cinema. Miyazaki’s American proponents hoped Ponyo would be his breakout film stateside, but mainstream success in America continues to elude him. That is a shame, and our loss. Hayao Miyazaki is one of […]
PopMatters explores some of the themes lurking in of my favorite anime series: The animated series Cowboy Bebop is a blend of classic film noir motifs mixed into a futuristic setting that reverses the roles of gender and character. Consisting of a concise 26 episodes and one movie that doesn’t drag out the story, the […]
Studio Ghibli’s next film will be an adaptation of Mary Norton’s The Borrowers. Entitled Karigurashi no Arrietty (lit. The Borrower Arrietty), the film will be the directorial debut of Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who has worked as an animator on previous Ghibli films, including Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away. […]
LoveHKFilm — one of my favorite sources for all things Asian cinema — recently posted reviews of arguably the two biggest Korean film releases of the year, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother and Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst. Kevin Ma’s review of Mother: As strong as the script is, the strongest aspect of Mother is the continuing maturation in […]
It’s now even easier to access the film archives of Canada’s National Film Board, provided you have an iPhone (or iPod Touch): the NFB have just released their very own iPhone app. Most of the films that are available on the NFB website have been encoded for iPhone, with rest becoming available soon. You can […]
Twitch gives Mamoru Hosoda’s (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) Summer Wars some very high praise: Make no mistake, Summer Wars is gorgeous to look at. The surprise success of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time means that Hosoda had far more resources at his disposal for his second film and seemingly every penny was […]