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Fantasy fun from director Yojiro Takita, but seriously, it’s no When The Last Sword is Drawn… (more…)

Another solid horror from South Korea, but surely the lesson here is don’t give your daughter a scary haircut like that girl from The Ring?… (more…)

A beautiful film by veteran filmmaker Im Kwon-taek with a fine performance by Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik, but suffers from covering far too long a period… (more…)

The Guardian are giving away a DVD of the classic original 1954 Godzilla movie this Saturday.

Writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s thoughtful and hilarious take on the samurai genre… (more…)

More schlock thrills from the J-Horror Theatre, but this is more Garth Marenghi’s Dark Places than Lars von Trier’s Kingdom Hospital… (more…)

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…)

Scary and genuinely unsettling, presenting the latest cult Asian horror to get a Hollywood makeover… (more…)

There’s no doubting director Takashi Shimizu’s ability to do some very scary, very unsettling stuff, but has he achieved his potential yet?… (more…)

The groundbreaking manga that influenced generation upon generation of comic book creators and inspired the notorious ‘Baby Cart’ series that began with Shogun Assassin… (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’.

The opener for Takashige Ichise’s J-Horror series is Asian horror by numbers, but with a redeeming finale… (more…)

Somewhat derivative but well played sci-fi action flick - a welcome alternative to the lame Matrix sequels… (more…)

The book that spawned the cult movie, not to mention the US remake, and led the tsunami of Asian horror movies in the last few years. But is it really that scary?… (more…)

A nicely played and well-directed swordplay film – but haven’t we seen it all before? (more…)

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…)

A triumph of autonomy over consequence, what begins as a sharp comedy blurring the lines between reality and fiction quickly devolves into a banal mess that an art student might be ashamed of (sorry Beat!)… (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…)

First Zhang Yimou made a film about the same subject as Chen Kaige had, now Kaige has followed Yimou by making a CGI led ‘wuxia pian’ movie - will these guys ever stop treading on each others toes?… (more…)

Solid horror anthology with three very different takes on life after death from three different Asian countries and directors… (more…)

A solid follow-up to horror anthology Three features segments by Park Chan-wook, Miike Takeshi and Fruit Chan… (more…)