The films of Sion Sono, who is fast closing in on Miike Takashi as Japan’s cinema wildman rebel, are increasingly outrageous, unhinged, extreme, and unpredictable, pushing expectations as well as boundaries, and trying anything and everything in a wildly creative (if unfocused) attempt to refresh familiar genres. Tokyo Tribe (Japan, 2014), adapted from a graphic […]
Takashi Miike made his reputation as Japan’s gonzo gun-for-hire, a genre madman who pumped manic energy and wild style into films he pushed to the extremes in every way, from violence to surreal twists. He once described himself as “an arranger, not an author.” Taking a cue from one of his own film titles, I […]
In the enigmatic, hypnotic Last Life in the Universe (2004) from Thailand, Asano Tadanobu is a meek Japanese librarian in Bangkok who has fastidiously transformed his apartment into an oasis of calm and order. He plans to complete the transformation with his suicide, but fate (or merely conflicted self-preservation) keeps him alive when he kills […]
