Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

T he Christmas come and gone, but there’s a way to prolong the atmosphere. Here’s my 5 favourite Christmas themed horror films that will plunge you into the dark world of Santa impersonators, dark carols and blood on snow. 5. BLACK CHRISTMAS (2006 remake) The original BLACK CHRISTMAS of 1974 predated HALLOWEEN by four years and was officially the first movie featuring a prank calls killer. There were so many of those in the years to come! But here I wanted to talk about the 2006 remake,a flim with cheesy gory fun, inventive kills, dumb victims and a killer twist! The plot is simple – several hot female students are haunted and being dispatched one by one by a killer called Billy who had killed and ate (!!!) his mother many years ago on Christmas Day. Now he has escaped the mental hospital and is back to his old tricks. Crawling between the walls he relentlessly stalks his victims and in his imagination, by killing them, he turns them into the members of his future fami...

6/10 Here is an unusual love story. Misako is a film interpreter, who writes a visual description for visually impaired moviegoers. Masaya is a famous photographer whose sight has almost completely deteriorated. She is an artist, he is a critic. When their personalities collide something special is born. The director Naomi Kawase has excelled at making documentaries, and her latest film RADIANCE, whilst being fiction, has adopted the documentary style. The ever shaking camera struggles to find focus, but it is a perfect approach to the story about visually impaired people. By the end of the film you get a little taste of what it’s like to not be able to see the world clearly or even see it at all. The story is slow and the dialogue is minimalistic, apart from the scenes where the visually impaired viewers criticize Misako’s work, and when she and Masaya go head to head over scene interpretations. The romantic plot unfolds naturally and the chemistry between the ch...

  6/10 Kokone lives parallel lives. When she is awake she is a high school student, who is getting ready for her exams and making the next big step in her life. When she  is asleep she is a magical princess, Ancien, who can make any wish come true by typing them into her magical tablet. When these two worlds collide, family secrets are revealed and the past comes knocking at her door.   Kokone has to reconcile her two worlds, and find the place where she truly belongs. This is first feature length theatrical film of Kenji Kamiyama, who came from directing many TV anime, his previous works being Ghost in the Shell and Eden of the East. He worked as a character designer for many projects, and has a unique, recognisable style. His storytelling, however, can be confusing for the unprepared. In a long running series there is plenty of time to fill in the gaps, in a single feature things unexplained can create confusion. Switching between the real...

9/10 A suspect in a double homicide is on the run. Police knows his identity, but it seems the man they are looking for has undergone extensive facial surgery and has changed his name. With the storytelling split between three suspects we get a charismatic hitchhiker, a dock worker and a gay man, all with mysterious pasts… but the story is not about them, it's about people beside them. Three tales of love, suspicion and mistrust. And murder, of course. Based on a successful novel, RAGE is a perfectly structured piece of work. The only connection between the three sets of characters is the murder we are introduced to in the beginning. There is a father played by Ken Watanabe, who will do anything to save his daughter from her shameful past, but can any man truly love her unless he has something to hide? A successful businessman hiding his gay persona  is reluctant to fall seriously  in love, but when a mysterious stranger comes along he struggles with trust issu...

8/10 Tanaka and Mitsuko are brother and sister who are trying to reconcile their terrible past. When Mitsuko is imprisoned for neglecting her baby daughter, Tanaka throws himself into the investigation of a terrifying murder case. A family of three has been slaughtered a year ago and the culprit is still at large. Interviewing one person after another, looking for a hidden clue that could be a motive for the murder, Tanaka slowly but gradually approaches the terrifying truth... TRACES OF SIN is a labyrinthine movie that examines many characters who represent many levels of the social ladder in Japanese society. Focusing on the lives of the outcasts and the choices they have to make to adapt, the story slowly unravels the motives behind the crime, leading to some spectacular revelations.  There could have been much gore in the film, but the filmmakers have chosen to “tell” rather than “to show”, focusing on the characters’ emotions instead. This creates far more u...

8/10 In a city of 10 million people Mika and Shinji keep on stumbling into each other. Is it fate or one of the meaningless coincidences of life? Mika is suffering from internal pain over the suicide of her mother and is obsessed with death. Shinji can barely see with his left eye and it gives him the impression that he can only see and discover half of the world. Can these two “damaged”people make each other complete?   Director Yuya Ishii has based this movie on a poem, telling the story of two different people who do not belong anywhere. The film is a vivid portrait of modern Tokyo, it is shown as a place of isolation, where even in the midst of a crowd, one’s individuality dissolves. For the characters of the film it is both a terrifying and a liberating feeling. During Q&A Ishii said that the first focus while working on the film was the sound, which is crucial to his work. In TOKYO images come first. They naturally transition into one another, and the short an...

7/10 Steven has everything a man could aspire to - he is a successful surgeon, is rich and he has a beautiful wife and two children. But when he strikes an odd friendship with the young son of one of his patients things quickly spin out of control, leading to terrifying results. THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER is an eerie piece of cinema that is designed to shock, and when you think you get over it, it throws you off balance once more.  It starts as a few awkward scenes between an older man and a young boy and, although their conversations seems quite innocent, it is easy to imagine the worst. Needless to say that where it’s all going will challenge expectations.  Director Yorgos Lanthimos applies his signature style of dialogue, previously seen in his feature LOBSTER. It is intentionally detached and expressionless, but somehow it makes the viewer pay closer attention. The way the characters deliver their lines creates a dreamlike atmosphere, similar to ...

7/10 The city morgue is flooded with new victims. A blood sample of a famous serial killer nicknamed Jigsaw is found under the fingernails of one of the corpses. While the law enforcement officers  are trying to cope with the idea that John Kramer came back from the dead, five people are fighting for their lives in one of the JIGSAW traps. Who is the new killer and who will survive? If it’s Halloween it must be Saw. For seven years I had seen a Saw movie on the first day of its release, and this time wasn’t an exception. JIGSAW is the 8th instalment in the series that boasts extreme violence and promises a great final twist. The new chapter does not disappoint. If you were hoping for a breath of fresh air for the franchise, JIGSAW will not deliver that for you, but it is a solid SAW movie the way some remember them. The gore is turned down a notch, and is shot with style. I personally believe that what you don’t see usually leaves a more lasting impression as one's...