9 Souls (Nain souruzu)

Working with people in rehab, one of the things that stands out is how common it is for someone getting caught making one mistake spirals into a way of living that facilitates more. Not because they are bad people, but because suddenly they enter a system that tracks them,…

reibureibu

Between 1998 and 2003, director Toshiaki Toyoda released three films that focus on disaffected youth and outsiders within Japanese society. His debut film Pornostar, released in 1998, is a visually impressive, nihilistic tale of a man concerned with eliminating people he…

Ben

In a few days, I will graduate. One of the most important things I have learned and my professors have kept repeating from the first to the last year is how important a good (story) structure is. A funnel structure. This film is a good example of that. For me, perhaps the…

Maya

The snail can never hide where he’s been. As soon as he is born and makes his first moves forward, a residuum trails him, hard to clean, even harder to hide—he cannot outrun it, for wherever he goes, it follows him—that indelible substance of life traces his path like a…

Jerry

For a film that undoubtedly holds so much heart, I found it so difficult to grasp any of the emotions it provides. Frustrating because I was supposed to like this, but it didn’t hit as hard as I thought it would. I really need to rewatch this when I'm in a different…

Jomari Bashin

We open with an aerial shot of Tokyo. It is a perspective of liberation and freedom. The camera soars, taking in everything. There is so much opportunity and possibility (the music is perfect here, it's perfect throughout: guiding emotion, never manipulating it. The same…

Stephen Gillespie

فيلم عجيب جدا يبدو في البداية كفيلم هروب من السجن أو Road Movie عبثي مع بعض الامل المعتاد في هذه الأفلام ثم ينكشف تدريجيا أنه يتكلم عن شئ أكثر حزنا بكثير و مأساوي ولهذا أحب قراءة الفيلم كرحلة جنائزية كل محطة يزورونها تشبه وداعا لشيء قديم وداع لعلاقة،وداع لحلم،وداع لصورة…

M

a gritty, kaleidoscopic road movie that manages to be both a nihilistic punch to the gut and a strangely poetic search for a second chance. it follows nine escaped convicts who are essentially looking for a treasure that probably doesn't exist, but the film is less about…

meyi

The way this so seamlessly flows from a leisurely, absurdist dark comedy following the exploits of 9 escaped convicts to a poignant, deeply melancholic rumination on their near impossible task of making amends for past misdeeds is simply outstanding. The inability to find…

Chris