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Little Red Riding Hood retold as a psychological thriller from the director of Ghost In The Shell and Patlabor – but just who exactly is the wolf? (more…)

One of Studio Ghibli’s first films, director Hayao Miyazaki creates a beautiful film to be enjoyed by children and adults alike… (more…)

A tense and intelligent psychological Anime thriller (yes - ANIME!)…

Fed up with watching the likes of Will Young or Kelly on your TV screens, thought you might have a go yourself? Take heed, being a pop idol might not be as easy as you think…

Mima Kirigoe is the lead singer with a popular girl band, on the cusp of quitting them to concentrate on acting. Led more by her management than her own desires, it’s a decision that doesn’t please all her fans - particularly the pale, crazily obsessed ‘Me-mania’. When she lands a role in a popular murder mystery series, her life begins to fall apart.

She begins receiving threats that become all the more deadly as she takes on a controversial rape plot line in the show. When she discovers a web site that contains a diary that describes all her secret thoughts and feelings, the line between reality and fantasy begin to blur. As a murder begins to kill those connected to Mima, we follow her deeper into a nightmare existence where nothing makes sense.

With more than a hint of Hitchcock, Satoshi Kon’s debut movie throws us headlong into this world, continually pulling the rug from under our feet until the mystery is revealed. It’s also a wry look at the empty, superficial life of the celebrity. Mima is as shut off from the world or any real friends as her obsessive fan. Beyond her public persona, her sense of her own identity has been completely lost.

This is the perfect example of how powerful and intelligent a medium animation can be, something only Japanese Anime seems to be taking advantage of. Not to be dismissed it as ‘just a cartoon’.

A beautiful, bizarre and completely compelling masterpiece, Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar winning follow up to Princess Mononoke is a wonderfully dark fairy tale for all ages… (more…)

Nearly twenty years on from the groundbreaking Akira, was director Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s first feature length anmie since really worth the wait?… (more…)

Another fine fantasy movie from Studio Ghibli, but this debut from Hayao’s son Goro Miyazaki misses out on the magic of Spirited Away and the potential of the Earthsea novels… (more…)