visitor q / takashi miike

Last week I reviewed Takashi Miike (Sun Scarred, Crows Zero, Crows Zero II, Zebraman 2)'s most impressive arthouse venture 46 Okunen no Koi, this week I'll be tackling Miike's biggest anti-arthouse middle finger: Visitor Q. Visitor Q is without a doubt Miike's most infamous film. It's a sick and depraved piece of cinema, but it manages to be pretty hilarious in the process. If you ever wondered where Miike got his reputation from, look no further.

irresponsibly responsive / tower of babel

2011 was an exciting year for the web development community. We saw the rise of mobile, coined concepts like mobile-first and responsive and braced ourselves for a future where anything could be seen by anyone, anywhere, on any device. It was a great year for experimentation and mucking about, but now it's time to get serious. The question is, can we still control the beasts that responsive and mobile-first have become?

make up / yi-chi lien

2011 was a prime year for Taiwanese cinema, with films like Honey PuPu, Blowfish and Starry, Starry Night topping my end of year list, so when I sat down to watch Yi-Chi Lien's first-time effort Make Up my expectations were up. Luckily Lien delivers, though not in the same amounts as his predecessors. Still, Make Up should prove to be a great film for all of you exploring the modern realm of Taiwanese cinema.

rogue river / jourdan mcclure

Jourdan McClure's Rogue River may not be the world's most original, genre-bending or exciting film, but for a simple genre film it has all the perks it needs to make for a convincing 80 minutes of horror entertainment. The film popped up out of nowhere and chances are it will go by completely unnoticed for most of you people, but if you find yourself in a spot where you can get a chance to watch it, make sure you don't miss out on this one.

46-okunen no koi / takashi miike

Takashi Miike (Sun Scarred, Crows Zero, Crows Zero II, Zebraman 2) still stands as one of my all-time favorite directors, even though the quality of his recent output has somewhat diminished. It isn't easy to pick one film from his vast oeuvre that stands out as his absolute best, but after some thorough soul-searching 46-Okunen no Koi is the film that survived all scrutiny. It's and arthouse flick, it has dancing, gay prison inmates and space rockets: vintage Miike in other words.