Fantasia XXV Review: Kazuaki Seki’s JIGOKU-NO-HANAZONO: OFFICE ROYALE, Hell Hath No Fury Like A Salarywoman Scorned!
The last six years of buzz and fandom hit pretty damn hard as audiences galavanted over their favorite moments of the rather male-dominated HiGH&LOW franchise. Having conquered multiple mediums right through its streaming launch on Netflix last year, imaginably it left a certain curiosity as to what a more female-centric take on gangbuster action cinema would look like. Leave it to the creative controls of screenwriter Bakarhythm, and filmmaker Kazuaki Seki as they bring you of a world beneath the veneer of quiet, reserved female office workers – a world where OL (office lady) gangs frequently collide in their daily battles for dominance over one another. It’s a brutal, violent and rigorous responsibility, the kind that sets a person apart from the “ordinary” types who lead idyllic, mundane and modestly fulfilling lives – people like Naoko (Mei Nagano), for example. This is the world presented in Seki’s feature directing debut, […]