Social criticism and the inner journey in Battle Royale
In one of the first sequences of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru, 2000), a group of boisterous pupils on…
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Discover this generation-spanning drama about old age in the modern world
An angry-looking man hastily leaves a shabby house in the middle of nowhere, repeatedly throwing his walking stick to the…
Revisiting Gus Van Sant’s disturbing portrait of a high school shooting
Of the three films comprising Gus Van Sant’s so-called “Death Trilogy” (the others being 2002’s Gerry and 2005’s Last Days),…
Discover Kurosawa’s forgotten film about nuclear terror during the Cold War
Since the success of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon at the International Film Festival in Venice in 1951 – which opened the…
Discover this generation-spanning drama about cultural change in post-war Japan
In Mikio Naruse’s 1956 film A Wife’s Heart, the family serves as a microcosm for tradition and changes in post-war Japanese society….
Lost Classic: the overlooked brilliance of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore
Writer-director Paul Schrader is both insider and outsider. His screenplays for Martin Scorsese include the masterpieces Taxi Driver and Raging Bull,…
Review: The Battle of Algiers
The Algerian War of Independence was one of the defining conflicts of the twentieth century: a potent symbol of the…
Lost Classics: discover the sparse realism of this dystopian road movie
We follow the Rover through hostility and violence on his journey through the Outback.
How Black River perfectly captures the cultural corruption of post-war Japan
Kobayashi’s vitriolic portrayal of a society dominated by crime and corruption.
