Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Manga, the cartoon in contemporary Japanese Life 1982

  Watched 12 Jan 2025

  FYI episode 116 of the Pure Tokyoscope podcast is a commentary track for this from Matt Alt and Patrick Macias.

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  Tokyo Sonata 2008

  ★★★½ Watched 29 Oct 2024

  Kazumasa Hashimoto’s soundtrack for this is so good. I’ve been listening for a couple of years (first heard it in a Kidkanevil mixtape on NTS) and it was strange to finally hear it in context. Least favourite of the three Kiyoshi Kurosawa films I’ve seen (after Cure and Bright Future). Felt like it didn’t win me over enough to take me to such dark places.

Popular reviews

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  Bright Future 2002

  ★★★★ Watched 22 Aug 2024

  Me: “Kiyoshi Kurosawa, I am going to watch a DVD and I want your strongest imagery”

  KK: “My imagery is too strong for you, traveller”

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  The Boy and the Heron 2023

  ★★★½ Watched 07 Jan 2024

  Caveats: I watched this exhausted from sleep problems and at a screening with cropped video (when I first noticed it during the trailer for The Holdovers, I thought it was a deliberate bit of faux-vintageness) and a dodgy speaker producing distortion that really stood out during the quietest moments.

  Imaginative, moving, funny and difficult for me to follow at times. I liked this a lot, but on first viewing it has made the smallest impression on me of the Hayao…

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