TIFF13 REVIEW: R100 [2013]

“Is that an earthquake?” What do you get when you cross one of Japan’s most influential comedians, a premise similar to The Game but with a zany wild streak of subversive humor, and a whole lot of S&M? The answer is Hitoshi Matsumoto‘s R100, a film following the mild-mannered Takafumi (Nao Ohmori) as he descends into a world of painful pleasure the likes of which he wasn’t prepared of course. Similar in tone to his previous film Scabbard Samurai, I fortunately didn’t have to worry about bridging the cultural divide…

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REVIEW: 殺し屋1 [Ichi the Killer] [2001]

“Giving pain is a serious business” Based on a Manga by Hideo Yamamoto, Takashi Miike’s 殺し屋1 [Ichi the Killer] is just as brutally gory as people say. This was my first screening of a Miike work and I’m not quite so sure of how I want to continue delving in. Definitely more style and gratuity than any real desire to tell a story; the film pushes the envelope by allowing its main characters to be complete sadomasochists. These completely depraved souls seem to relish the joy of inflicting pain, mixing…

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