Movies
Ten Nights of Dreams
A wonderful collection of shorts, visually pleasing, fun to watch and from time to time refreshingly weird.
Matsuo is growing as a director. Welcome To The Quiet Room is in improvement on his previous films in every respect.
Suzuki Matsuo features Ryuhei Matsuda and Fumi Nikaido in his latest comedy. The film itself didn't quite meet my expectations, but it's a fun and quirky movie regardless. Matsuo is truly one of a kind and the rural Japanese setting combined with slightly fantastical elements makes for a unique experience.
A somewhat disappointing anthology, especially when looking at all the impressive names involved. Five famed directors (apart from Nishikawa all male) each take on a female story. Few of them grabbed this opportunity to come up with something unique, which means you only get some decent but relatively standard drama. With these directors, I needed more. The first story is about a girl returning to her hometown, the second one sees two women bonding after one attempts to steal money from the other. The third short follows a woman on holiday with her employer, the fourth one has a young man fancy the friend of his mother, and the final one tells of a mistress waiting for her lover. Matsuo's short is the best one, while Tsukamoto's short has the best individual scenes. Hiroki's film is probably the least successful of the bunch, but comedy isn't his strong suit. I just wish there were more memorable entries here. When you have less time to impress, you have to go bigger, even if that means failing spectacularly. In contrast, I'd rate all shorts here in the 3-3.5* range, which is not what I'm looking for in a good anthology.Read all