Country: Far East

This is the last film by the Japanese filmmaker Sadao Yamanaka, directed in 1937, before he was drafted in army and sent to the Chinese front, where he died of illness at the time of 29 years old. In spite of his young age, he had managed to make more than 20 films. 'Humanity and Paper Balloons' is one of the three Yamanaka's works luckily survived.
A period piece that goes against the tendency to idealize the image of samurai. Anti-heroic and realistic, it talks about human feelings, everyday life and personal tragedies. It's the tragicomic portrait of a feudal society in 18th century Japan, far from glorious myths, where the poor lower-class men try to survive among indifference, crimes and abuses.
Elegant, minimalist and visually impressive masterpiece.

The intense drama of a woman, deeply anchored to old traditions, whose moral values seem in contrast with the fast socio-economic changes in Japanese post-war society, more and more influenced by western culture. A minimalist and elegant, yet engaging 50's piece of work, beautifully shot by Mizoguchi.

Koji Wakamatsu, one of the independent directors with the worst reputation in Japan, took inspiration from a real event - the Chicago massacre in a nurse home in 1966 - to talk about life and death, love, sexuality, misanthropy, violence, madness. Everything in this film is portrayed from the killer's point of view and is contextualized in a Japan marked by social and political tensions. 'Violated Angels' is extremely dark and morbid, without lapsing into vulgarity though. It immediately captures the viewer's attention, not only for it's strong contents, but also for the almost poetical and nightmarish style, the cold black and white which changes to color in only two powerful scenes, the hypnotizing images and score. Hard to watch, provocative, with complex and subtle meanings.

Torture and convict, humiliation and power, sex and death are curiously amalgamated in this almost mystical experience from outrageous Japanese master Kôji Wakamatsu.
Delirious and allegorical.

My rating might change once i get to see the last few mins of the film, which I missed!

a.k.a. 'Adventures of Electric Rod Boy'

Pre-Tetsuo cyberpunk oddity, in which Tsukamoto introduces some of the cinematic techniques and basic themes that would be developed and refined in his later, better-known work. It's a medium-length underground film created with a paltry budget and limited resources, but full of creativity, innovation and fun. Mandatory viewing for fans of the director!

Miike Takashi is a brilliant wacko who enjoys torturing psychologically his viewers and this psycho-horror is one proof!

Absolutely brilliant!!! It's hard to describe a movie like this, so complex, powerful, ambiguous and visionary. It mixes violence and cruelty with moments of romanticism and melancholy. All is ambivalent and confused.
Park brings to the screen a dark story of obsessive and inexorable vengeance, which conceals a secret sin. A secret revealed slowly, until the shocking ending...touching and terrifying ending!

This grotesque noir concludes "The Vengeance Trilogy" of Park Chan-wook. As Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, it's a tale of revenge and sin, that this time turn to redemption and purification. Less strong and original than Oldboy, but nevertheless another electrifying and visually impressive masterpiece. Darkness, violence and perversion are still present, but are portrayed in a more refined style. The creativity of this director is truly surprising: I fell in love with his film from the first frame.

Along with Carpenter's Cigarette Burns, Imprint is the only episode from 'Masters of Horror - season 1' I actually loved. I think it could be better, especially in the development of the plot, but the result was very impressive nevertheless. This Miike's short Tv-movie is a clever, refined, terribly beautiful and f*cking sadistic horror story, told in its purest and most abstract form. Visually outstanding!