A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Vladimir Chebotaryov and Gennady Kazansky, “Chelovek-Amfibiya” aka “Amphibian Man” (1962) An unusual science fiction / fantasy / romance of a doomed love affair combined with a…
Akira Kurosawa, “Rashomon” (1950) For this film, director Kurosawa used a blend of two short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “Rashomon” and “In a Grove”, the latter…
Mitsuyo Seo, “Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors” (1945) Japan’s first full-length animated movie is a World War II propaganda film aimed at children and centred around a…
Joel Coen, “Fargo” (1996) A kidnap plot cooked up to save a car salesman’s hide going awry through sheer bad luck, incompetence and stupidity is the…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming, “Princess Iron Fan” / “Tian Shan Gong Zhu” (1941) This retelling of a Chinese folk tale “Journey to the West” featuring…
Yevgeny Sherstobitov, “The Andromeda Nebula” (1967) Based on a novel “Andromeda: a Space-Age Tale” by Ivan Efremov, this is a very visually striking film about the…
Alan J Pakula, “Klute” (1971) Ostensibly a crime thriller about a prostitute who assists a small-town private investigator in a missing-person case, this film is better…
Jindrích Polák, “Ikarie XB-1” (1963) A compelling early 1960’s science fiction gem from the old Czechoslovakia is this lavish effort by Polák that details the day-to-day…
French and French-language Films
René Clair, “Paris qui dort” (1925) An amusing and light-hearted moral fable about what would happen if individuals suddenly had unfettered freedom to do what they…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films
Johnnie To, “Exiled” aka “Fong Juk” (2006) Set in Macau territory just before its return by Portugal to China in 1998, this gangster film is a…