Author: The Reviews Hub - Film

Writer and Director: Seiji Tanaka The Man Who Failed to Die, written and directed by Seiji Tanaka, is a curious film which has elements familiar from older movies and borrows from genres like ghost stories and rom-coms but does not commit to their formula. At a low point in his life comedy sketch writer Ippei Sekiya (Mizukawa Katamari) contemplates suicide. But his disappointments continue as he fails to die – the train under which he intended to jump does not arrive. Ippei is shocked to discover this is due to someone at an earlier station copying his idea and successfully…

Writer and Director: Masanori Tominaga According to writer and director Masanori Tominaga passive-aggressiveness is so deeply engrained in the culture of Kyoto nothing can be taken at face value. Strangers in Kyoto explains, in such an ambiguous environment, the invitation to take green tea over rice is not an offer of refreshment but a veiled insult letting a guest know they have overstayed their welcome. Madoka (Mai Fukagawa) visits the parents of her husband in Kyoto planning to write a manga comic about their 450-year-old artisan hand fan shop. She is greeted politely when interviewing the female proprietors of the…

Writer: Sô Kuramoto Director: Setsurô Wakamatsu Sentimental and confusing, veteran director Setsurô Wakamatsu’s art mystery is also terribly dull. At a prestigious exhibition where the Culture Minister is in attendance, famous artist Shuzo Tamura spots something odd about one of his paintings, a canvas that he hasn’t seen for years. At the end of the opening night, he returns to the picture to study it some more. He’s convinced that it isn’t his creation; the sea is too finely painted. He declares it a forgery. The discovery is an embarrassment for the Culture Ministry, and the gallery owner begs Tamura…

Writer and Director: Go Furukawa This strange, unpredictable film from Go Furukawa gives us a glimpse into the Japanese prison system. This insight is fascinating, but it also presents us with some moral issues that to a European audience might seem a little suspect, especially when it comes to the murder of a sex worker who has forced her young daughter into prostitution too. Furukawa certainly gives us much to think about in his portrayal of murderers and ineffectual mothers. Kaneko runs a low-key commissary where he takes provisions to inmates at the Chufo Prison on behalf of their friends…

Writer and Director: Max Keegan The Shepherd and the Bear is an unshowy documentary, written, directed and produced by Max Keegan, filmed around the small town of Ariege in the French Pyrannees. There is no voice over, but the footage shot over a year shows an old pastoral way of life that is under threat. The focus is Yves, a lone shepherd in his sixties, who after sheep sheering, drives his flock up to lush mountain pastures, to live all summer in a basic cabin with his sheep dogs. But there is a new EU-French-Spanish ecological initiative to re-introduce brown…

Writers: Michal Grzybowski and Tomasz Walesiak Director: Michal Grzybowski Separating art from life proves a challenge for Marcin in Michal Grzybowski and Tomasz Walesiak’s Polish film Seasons coming to streaming platform Viaplay, when he discovers devastating news just before going on stage. A more dramatic take on disasters unfolding during stage productions than the Goes Wrong series, Grzybowski and Walesiak follow Marcin, his wife and their beleaguered company through two live performances and a dress rehearsal as they attempt to bring three very different shows to life. With enjoyable control of the personalities and the backstage and onstage shenanigans it…

Writer & Director: Paul Schrader When Richard Gere’s wizened, terminally ill documentary maker, Leonard, agrees to be interviewed by his former students keen to celebrate the impact of his life, he promises revelations that even his wife sitting in the room may be unaware of. With an esteemed counter-culture reputation built on draft-dodging in the 1970s, escaping to Canada, Paul Schrader’s film spools back in time to the young Leonard revealing his true motives for crossing the Canadian border. And while his now middle-aged students remained entranced by the man and his work, the audience will discover his rather mundane…

Director: Michael Premo With extreme views and a tendency to shout simplistic offensive opinions and wear really weird headgear it is easy to mock Make America Great Again (MAGA) supporters. Director Michael Premo’s documentary Homegrown suggests MAGA supporters are trying to promote a more nuanced view of their movement. The documentary covers the run-up to the 2020 USA elections, which Joe Biden won but then-president Donald Trump refused to concede defeat, and the consequential storming of the State Capitol in Washington by Trump’s supporters.  Premo concentrates on three members of The Proud Boys, of whom Randy Ireland is the least…