War as absurdity: Kihachi Okamoto’s Desperado Outpost
Desperado Outpost (Dokuritsu gurentai, Japan, 1959) starts with shots of a man on horseback in a landscape reminiscent of a…
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Sociopolitical reality as horror: Joon-ho Bong’s The Host
The Host (Gwoemul, South Korea, 2006) starts with gloomy images in a morgue at an American military base in South…
Todd Solondz: The home as a battlefield in Happiness and Life During Wartime
In Happiness (1998), the ever-smiling Trish (Cynthia Stevenson), in her neat kitchen, is strongly reminiscent of the female ideal as…
Human fragility: Sang-il Lee’s Unforgiven
Sang-il Lee’s Unforgiven (Yurusarezaru mono, 2013) bears many similarities with Clint Eastwood’s eponymous masterpiece from 1992. The storyline and narrative…
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…
Thousand Words: A Nightmare Called Belfast (’71, 2014)
In 1971, Private Gary Hook (Jack O’Connell), a young British soldier from Derbyshire, arrives in Belfast with his platoon. His…
Thousand Words: Young, White and Aggressive (Made in Britain, 1983)
A young man, head shaved, the tattoo of a swastika on his forehead, stands up abruptly and moves towards the…
