Recent reviews

• 

  2/Duo 1997

  ★★ Watched 20 Feb 2025

  Filmmaking: good.
  Content: bad.

  For the life of me I can's see why anyone would be interested in the "crumbling relationship" of a pair of dull, obnoxious people as the two leads. I found it excruciatingly dull.

  BTW, it is worth paying attention to the weird pub scene in the middle (the "Yoko" scene) as, combined with something Yu says towards the end, it seems to imply something about her past relationships.

• 

  Following the Sound 2023

  ★½ Watched 22 Feb 2025

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

• 

  After the Fever 2023

  ★★ Watched 25 Jan 2025

  Film festival fare. A filmed play. Deadpan faced people speaking monotonously about "the nature of love" (and not in a good way, like in Hal Hartley films), just like bad theater.

  Contains some amazingly corny dialog ("I wanted us to die together so that our love would last forever"...).

  A real shame, as the setting is nice and there are some worthy actors.

• 

  Initiation Love 2015

  ★★ Watched 22 Jan 2025

  A completely "meh" film which relies heavily on 80s nostalgia (they literally shove in your face the music, fashion, cars etc.).

  I kept watching, waiting for something interesting to happen, but it never did... just annoying relationship drama that drags on and on.

  There are some decent actors in this, but their performances are far from remarkable (I literally didn't recognise Fumino Kimura in this).

  I'm not much of a fan of Yukihiko Tsutsumi, but even for him this is…