Retro Reviews

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Streaming Sleepers: In BULLET BALLET, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Ballistic Noir Still Hits Its Mark Years Later

Just shy of half a century is how long its been since director Shinya Tsukamoto entered filmmaking. He’s become one of the most celebrated filmmakers of this generation next to the likes of Takashi Miike and Sono Sion, and for good reason, aptly applying his visionary and stylish craft to numbers like his 1998 film, Bullet Ballet. Granted, Tsukamoto’s accolades didn’t come without some requisite pot-stirring along the way, which is exactly what Bullet Ballet achieved at the time, becoming one of the most polarizing pieces of work. Some critics have taken a liking to his “aggro art” style more so than others in the years since surfacing on the cinema map. The film certainly even goes out of its way breaking all sorts of rules during the more raucousing moments of action and danger, culminating its psychedelic, trippy, edgy indie feel to go hand-in-hand with its 35mm black-and-white lensing. All, in the end, to […]

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JFF Theater: SUMO DO, SUMO DON´T Review: An Irresistible, Underdog Comedy Classic

With the sole intention of earning enough credits to graduate and secure a lazy job at his uncle’s company, Shuhei Yamamoto reluctantly joins his university’s failing sumo club. What he doesn’t expect is that alongside a highly peculiar, misfit group of outsiders, he will actually find the motivation needed to save the club from total disbandment. To the average gaijin, sumo wrestling might look like nothing more than two oversized men in traditional loincloths trying to shove each other out of a sand ring. For the Japanese people, however, it is a deeply rooted, thousands-of-years-old cultural tradition packed with spiritual symbolism that transcends the boundaries of mere sports. This modern classic of Japanese cinema—and say what you want, but 1992 feels like it was just yesterday—stands as perhaps the most iconic representation of the sport ever put to film. It is an inspiring sports comedy that went on to sweep […]

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