Julian Ross
Archipelago
Christopher, played by real-life painter Christopher Baker, paints shapes into the clouds in his paintings that actually don’t exist as the colourless sky over Tresco only casts a formless wash of white into the visible distance. He explains in his private painting lessons that we must “integrate chaos into order,” to bring out an underlying [...]
DN Special: Confessions of a Dog – Gen Takahashi
In preparation for a screening at the Glasgow Film Festival which kicked off last weekend and a DVD release from Third Window Films in March, Confessions of a Dog’s director Gen Takahashi joined me to discuss his epic drama of police corruption in Japan, an eye-opening disclosure of the hidden infrastructures within Japanese society. We [...]
Back to the Future: Japanese Cinema Since the Mid-90s
For their eighth year, the Japan Foundation have curated a film season out of their archives to present at the ICA and venues elsewhere in the U.K. For this year’s theme they decided to celebrate the forgotten gems of Japanese cinema of the past 15 years or so. Many of the films in their selection [...]
IFFR2011: Bleak Night
Another astonishing Korean debut on the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Tiger Awards line-up was Bleak Night, written, edited and directed by the 28-year old Yoon Sung-Hyun. In fact, not only is Bleak Night a remarkable first feature, it was submitted as a final project for the Korean Academy of Film Arts, KAFA, and thus, could [...]
DN IFFR2011: Bleak Night – Yoon Sung Hyun
Competing for the Tiger Awards at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Yoon Sung Hyun’s Bleak Night shows how petty squabbles amongst school friends can descend into life and death consequences when people aren’t prepared to lose face and drop the macho posturing. Yoon Sung Hyun joined me to discuss the film and why he prefers [...]
DN IFFR2011: The Journals of Musan – Park Jung-Bum
Park Jung-Bum’s accomplished debut feature The Journals of Musan was awarded both the FIPRSECI Jury Award and a Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. I was lucky enough to grab some interview time with Park to discuss his depiction of the plight of North Korean defectors and his tutelage under South Korean auteur [...]
IFFR2011: End of Animal
Tales of the apocalypse are often told in epic gravitas and loud explosions, yet a recent trend of filmmaking has searched for strategies to dig under our skin from a different angle. The Road tracked a relationship between father and son and focused on microcosmic details of their tragedy to expound on larger themes. Cause-and-effect [...]
IFFR 2011: Love Addiction
Love Addiction, alternatively titled Fuyu no Kemono which means ‘Winter’s Beast’ in Japanese, throws four characters with conflicting personalities into a melting pot of emotional lava. The foursome all work in the same company and, in a strangely incestuous way, spend their time off work sleeping with each other. The variation in attitudes on interpersonal [...]
IFFR2011: The Journals of Musan
The Tiger Awards Competition line-up showcased an impressive array of world cinema feature-length debuts (and some second features), but none of these displayed the confident vision and accomplished cinematic sensibilities of The Journals of Musan. The deserved winner of both the FIPRSECI Jury Award and one of three Tiger Awards at the International Film Festival [...]
IFFR2011: Poetry
When Yang Mija, performed with exquisite passion by veteran actress Yun Jung-hee, begins attending a local poetry class to attend to her late-life ennui, she is advised to observe the small things in life for poetic inspiration. She starts to look out for the dancing leaves as the branches shake and monitor the flowers that [...]
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