Category: Japanese
-
Porco Rosso (1992) is one of Studio Ghibli’s more unusual films. Despite its lighthearted tone, the titular character’s cynicism towards war and his more traditionally masculine attitude is a far cry from other male protagonists such as Jiro from The Wind Rises (2013) and Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). That being said, Porco Rosso…
-
When it comes to imperialism, it normally boils down to a few images. Tanks rolling over flattened cities. Flames engulfing fertile forests. Soldiers planting down their nation’s flag after they have successfully won a battle. These images almost always accompany a nation’s creation of gendered identity, which is almost always masculine and visible. But there…
-
At a 4K Restoration at the SBIFF Riviera Theater, Masayuki Suo’s tale of a businessman learning ballroom dancing is as timeless as ever. In one pivotal scene from Masayuki Suo’s Shall We Dance? (1996), successful Japanese businessman Shohei Sugiyama dances alone underneath a bridge, while the private investigators his wife hired to follow him look…
-
Grave of the Fireflies (1988) defines itself as a relentlessly grim film from start to end. The opening scene sees siblings Seita and Setsuko run frantically through Kobe as it is firebombed, and while they make it out alive, they are nevertheless terrified. When Seita learns that their mother died during the attack, he and…
