The twilight of the cockroaches (1989)

	Also Known As: Gokiburi-tachi no tasogare
	Year of first release: 1989
	Director: Hiroaki Yoshida
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, War, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Naxoshalle, Japanese version with English subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: A society of cockroaches who live peacefully in the apartment of a bachelor named Seito until a woman moves in and the humans begin to exterminate the cockroaches. Then the different groups of cockroaches try to find out a military strategy to fight against humans. But humans have weapons of mass destruction. The cockroaches are depicted through animation, and the humans are depicted through live-action footage.
Review: I wanted to watch this movie because of the visual concept like in Roger Rabbit to mix real characters with animated characters. And also because of the plot: a story of cockroaches. I have not been disappointed. Even if the live-action footage lacks of image quality, it is well done to shoot the environment of cockroaches. We always look with their eyes and the change of perspective is very original and very interesting to experience.  The story itself has not many surprises. It might be symbolic about people confronted to weapons of massive destruction. Most of the creativity and surprises for me came from the way the live-action footage is mixed. The way the cockroaches are using all what they can find in the house. This gives many funny scenes.
Rating: 6 /10

Love and Peace (2015)

	Also Known As: Rabu & Pisu
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Sion Sono
	Actors: Hiroki Hasegawa, Kumiko Aso, Toshiyuki Nishida
	Country: J
	Genre: SF, Drama, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Mousonturm Saal, Japanese version with German subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: In the summer of 2015 in Tokyo, Japan. Ryoichi (Hasegawa) dreamed of becoming a punk rocker when he was younger, but became a timid salaryman at a musical instrument parts company. He has feelings for Yuko (Aso) but he can't tell her how he feels. One day, he has a fateful meeting with a turtle on the rooftop of a department store. He names the turtle Pikadon and he adores it, but his co-workers laugh at him. Ryoichi throws Pikadon into the toilet already eaten by his regrets. The turtle though goes through sewerage and meets an old man (Nishida) who lives in the underground. Something then happens.
Review: The originality of many Japanese movies and this one as well is to bring something completely strange but funny in a normal story. Giving life to this turtlethe way it is done could sound ridiculous for Western eyes but it is exactly what I like in Japan. Firework of creativity! And it is not ridiculous. The scenes with the turtle become sometimes hilarious, sometimes kitsch-wise dramatic. And the main story remains the social life of two electronic nerds Ryoichi and Yuko. Ok, some scenes might be ridiculous, but I am pretty sure it is done on purpose for the fun and the comedy. The reactions of the two nerds are relatively realistic even if sometimes it appears to me a bit exaggerated. It is then again for the sake of the comedy.  The creative work behind this movie is amazing! The characters gathered and cared by the old man, the underground scenery, the Godzilla-like run in the city, the source of successfull songs. All this was freely thought and I love the result. There are many things that only Japanese artists can dare and do. Western productions would never dare it. Then the movie in general might not be mine, but Hats off to Sion Sono who once again shows that he is a master of creativity (a long time) after the amazing Love Exposure.
Rating: 6 /10

Three stories of love (2015)

	Also Known As: Koibito Tachi
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi
	Actors: Atsushi Shinohara, Toko Narushima, Ryo Ikeda
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Mousonturm Saal, Japanese with German subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: Since his wife was killed in cruel random murder, bridge inspector Atsushi (Shinohara) lives sadly and lonely. Toko (Narushima) lives with her husband and is longing to escape this loveless relationship. Elite gay lawyer Takashi (Ikeda) does not manage to be successful in love.
Review: All these love stories are lonely, sad, get the character focus on oneself and are full of authenticity. Step by step each of them open up. Even if the love stories do not get better, at least the satisfaction of life is seen at the end of the tunnel. This way each story is touching.  The actors fit to their roles and manage to transmit a lot of authenticity. The direction is done with a lot of care for realism in relationships.Some views on the Japanese society are original such as the work environment that is presented here. Really the common worker in common jobs.
Rating: 5 /10

Kung Fury (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: David Sandberg
	Actors:  David Sandberg, Jorma Taccone, Steven Chew
	Country: S
	Genre: Action, SF, Fantasy, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.07.2016, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Kung Fury (Sandberg) is a cop using his powers to kick ass in the 80's until an old super-villain re-appears.
Review: This ultra fan movie emerged from the mind of the Swedish David Sandberg who got it funded on Internet (to a level even higher than his expectations) after showing a very promising trailer he made for 5000 dollars only. Kung Fury lasts 31 minutes and the best way for me to describe what it is about is to show it here as the movie is freely available for streaming, an advantage of crowd-funding in that case! I have already watched it twice and find it hilarious every time, finding new details to laugh at. It is an extreme example of parodic Fan movies referencing to a past era and/or a specific genre, a bit like Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Black Dynamite or Iron Sky. And it contains everything to please amateurs of such Genre movies like me. It is set in the 80's (well, the beginning at least) and its visual quality was deteriorated to look like you are playing an old VHS of that period. The colors, dialogs and music are also very dated on purpose. I find it very impressive that it was all done with only a few actors in a front of a green screen. I can try to list some of the references I found in this movie but there are probably many more: you get dinosaurs, Conan-style barbarian ages (with machine gun-equipped amazons riding giant wolves), an ancient God, a bit of Tron and The Terminator, a super-geek (named Hackermann...), time-travel, evil Nazis and Hitler a.k.a. the Kung-Führer, a cameo by David Hasselhoff, an animated sequence including reference to the M.A.S.K. animated series (for those of you old enough to remember) and of course awesome Kung Fu practiced by a super-cool hero who gets all the chicks. Sometimes the movie also has a video-game look (reminding me of SEGA's Streets of Rage), and in fact there exists a derived video game called Kung Fury: Street Rage. I love the disclaimer at the end of the game trailer: "Don't try Kung Fury moves on innocent bystanders. Being awesome in-game doesn't make you awesome in real life. Unless you get hit by lightning and bitten by a cobra [NB: this is how Kung Fury got his powers]. Then you're OK", which summarizes pretty well the spirit of the whole enterprise. A must see for a good time. A sequel Kung Fury II is in production.
Rating: 8 /10

The Mohican comes home (2016)

	Also Known As: Mohican Kokyo ni Kaeru
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Shuichi Okita
	Actors: Ryuhei Matsuda, Akira Emoto, Atsuko Maeda
	Country: J
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Mousonturm Saal, Japanese version with German subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: Eikichi (Ryuhei) left his hometown in Hiroshima prefecture for Tokyo. He tried to find success with his music band, but failed. Several years later, Eikichi goes home to tell his father, Osamu (Emoto) that his girlfriend Yuka (Maeda) is pregnant. His father curses him out, but he is also excited to have a grandchild. Osamu has a party to celebrate the news, but, at the party, he collapses and goes to the hospital. Eikichi struggles to make his father happy.
Review: The originality of the movie is to bring bored young Tokyo couple to one small island full of life and rythm given by the Big Band music teacher. The story is full of surprises. And these surprises make the fun of the movie. The acting is driven by the contrasting roles of Eikichi and his father Osamu. Both seem really to have had fun. In addition, the music that is played is not necessarily that great but contrasts every time with the expectations. And this makes it funny again.  Akira Emoto is definitely charismatic and this actor did everything, Japan sinks, Journey to the shore, Memories of Matsuko.
Rating: 7 /10

Be the world for her (2004)

	Also Known As: Sekai wa kanojo no tame ni aru
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Daisuke Hosaka
	Actors: Kei Horie, Maiko Asano
	Country: J
	Genre: SF, Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 27.05.2016, Naxoshalle, Japanese version with English subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: Hiroki (Horie) and Kaori (Asano) seem like two normal Japanese high school teenagers. When Hiroki mysteriously disappears, Karoi discovers a conspiracy.
Review: From a beginning romance, the movie turns into a quest mixing military conspiracy, aliens and superpowers. For a Japanese movie nothing abnormal. The movie is built really like a pot-pourri of all genres. It is finally quite funny but at the end, you do not know what you looked at. And later you forget the story very fast.  By luck the viewing was rescued by Thank you, Mom, a recent short movie of the same director. There you can see much more maturity in the story and in the story telling. The weird mom-robot becomes both friendly and strange at the same time. Some ideas of Robot & Frank are seen again, but in a different cultural context making the situations even more funny. This short cut is not rated here, but it would have been at a 7-8/10 level.
Rating: 3 /10

Nagasaki - Memories of my son (2015)

	Also Known As: Haha to Kuraseba
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Yoji Yamada
	Actors: Sayuri Yoshinaga, Kazunari Ninomiya, Haru Kuroki,
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama, War
	Conditions of visioning: 28.05.2016, Mousonturm Saal, Japanese with German subtitles, NCF2016
Synopsis: Nobuko (Yoshinaga) works in Nagasaki, Japan as a midwife. Her son died 3 years earlier from the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1948, her son appears in front of her again. Since that time, Koji (Ninomiya) appears in front of her and they reminiscence about pleasant times. These happy, but bizarre moments seem eternal.
Review: After the second world war the atmosphere depicted in the streets of Nagasaki are very similar to the visual impression of Always - Sunset on third street. The story does not deal only with the struggle for life of destroyed families in Nagasaki. And not only by the Atomic bomb dropped by the US Army. A mother who lost her complete family. A man having lost his family.  The sadness of a mother for her dead son.  Unfortunately the whole worries of the dead son deal with her promised wife, Machiko (Kuroki), who is taking care of the mother. Nothing about the death of the blossoming medicine student. Nothing about the injustice of the atomic bomb.  The acting of the mother, so kind with everyone, so respectful, so sad also, so lost in her memories, is very very touching. Even if sometimes I would have preferred her reacting more vehemently. But so are Japanese people. The roles of the other characters are well written with authenticity and the acting confirmed this. Once again Japanese show a huge endurance, while they could have blamed the US army. There are just a few images of war, bombing and Pikabon (nickname given to the bomb).  One month after having been in the Peace memorial of Hiroshima, in the museum as well as in the park, my head was still full of pictures of these disasters, full of pictures of the life before and the ruins after.
Rating: 6 /10

London has Fallen (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Babak Najafi
	Actors: Gerard Butler (300, Gamer), Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight), Morgan Freeman (Deep Impact, Oblivion), Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 27.07.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: When the British Prime Minister dies, many World leaders gather in London for the funeral, including the American President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart) and his friend Mike Banning (Butler) also head of his Security.
Review: About two and a half years ago I made the mistake of watching back to back the two almost identical movies White House Down by Roland Emmerich and Olympus has Fallen by Antoine Fuqua, and I preferred the latter. Again looking for something easy to watch I selected London has Fallen, and made the assumed choice of watching again Olympus has Fallen just before. It was not such a mistake because it confirmed the opinion I had of that first movie (I even raised its rating from 5/10 to 6/10), and it allowed me remembering who the main characters were (and which past they have in common) which would have confused me a little otherwise. So this sequel uses the same elements that worked in the first: POTUS and his buddy bodyguard, massive and actually successfully destructive terrorist attacks, decision-making process in the hands of the Chairman of the House (Freeman) this time rather useless, and my favorite part: bloody violence unlike in White House Down. Could it be the reason why that other movie did not deserve a sequel? Talking about violence, I even found that it was sometimes too much this time (of course some things have to be bigger in a sequel): the character played by Butler doesn't just kill the bad guys with two bullets that create a nice splatter, he does it more and more creatively (also with knives) and apparently with pleasure, or at least a satisfied feeling of revenge (reminding me of Jack Bauer in the 24 TV-series). At some point I thought this would lead to an interesting reflexion later in the movie but it does not. Instead the man just keeps on going, against all odds, until the Action and the way to show it reminds of a video game. But I mean that in good, the single-handed attack he does towards the end of the movie is visually very original and exciting. Other new idea: this time around the bodyguard sticks much more with the president while in the first movie not. In the end apart from the blood and the very pessimistic starting point, there is not much interest in London has Fallen. Better watch again The Sum of All Fears.
Rating: 4 /10

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2 (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Creators:  Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly)
	Actors: Clark Gregg (Iron Man 1-3, The Avengers), Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Blair Underwood (Gattaca, Deep Impact), Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica TV-series), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks TV-series, Dune, Hidden)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 22-25.07.2016, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Life and work must go on in the team led by Phil Coulson (Gregg) in spite of the formal dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. and of what happened to some team members. They keep on trying to stop the Hydra organization while recruiting new members.
Review: We meet again the agents that we discovered in the first season, some months after we left them. As I mentioned in the review of that first season, some characters did undergo a radical change and this continues in the second season. In particular the one of Skye (Chloe Bennet), the strong woman of the series that undoubtedly carries the mark of its creator Joss Wheadon, like in the past Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or River Tam (Summer Glau) in Firefly. The evolution of the characters and the introduction of new ones (special mention to a brilliant Kyle MacLachlan) is a positive point for this season. But as often the case, it is difficult to maintain the same level once the surprise of a new series has passed, and I found myself less immersed in the story as I did in the first season, although it successfully unites the same elements. Also I made the mistake of watching the whole season too fast (in just 4 days!) which leaves me with a weird feeling (already encountered in the past) that it was rushed while it is in fact not the case. I'll try to remember not to do that anymore in the future. The season still evolves in the Marvel Cinematic Universe consolidated in The Avengers, and I found that in fact it reinforces the importance of the Captain America franchise thanks to a constant conflict against the Hydra terrorist organisation. In particular the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier are often mentioned or even shown in background. I loved that the season delivers a mini-climax at the end of Episode 10 What They Become, then giving the audience a chance to breathe a little before ramping up the action again until the revelations in Episode 17 Melinda and the excellent Episode 19 The Dirty Half Dozen introductory to Avengers: Age of Ultron. I am expecting the release of the third season on Netflix soon, although the last three Episodes of this season (20-22) don't really let me anticipate new ideas.
Rating: 5 /10

Eye in the Sky (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ender's Game)
	Actors:  Helen Mirren (2010, Hitchcock, R.E.D 1-2), Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman (Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, Dogma, Harry Potter 1-7), Iain Glenn (Game of Thrones TV-series)
	Country: GB, ZA
	Genre: War, Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 21.07.2016, onflight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: A military operation is led by the British with support of the American Forces to capture some of the terrorists on their most-wanted list as they meet in Ethiopia.
Review: I hadn't heard about this movie and watched it during a long flight because of its cast: Mirren, Glenn and the regretted Alan Rickman. Thus I didn't expect such a tension to increase and hold through the 1h40 of the movie, but it is indeed the main strength of this movie. I does not display modern warfare in the ultra-realism style of movies like The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty or American Sniper (all of them American movies about American wars) but rather reminded me of Black Hawk Down, the country of setting of the action probably helping in that. In Eye in the Sky we don't follow a military troop in the action, but rather two pilots of a drone that flies high above the action (themselves located in the USA), and the many people taking decisions based on the transmitted images: the head of operations (Mirren), her boss (Rickman) together with political advisors, the British minister of foreign affairs (Glenn), an image analysists in Hawaii and two local Somalis in support. We are in the era of communications and the use of a drone is very actual (I have recently seen some on TV displayed during the French Bastille Day parade). The movie even goes beyond that by showing a mini-drone of the size of an insect. I have seen a documentary and read an article about this technology, not as far in the future as you may think. The events quickly don't go as planned and it gets even worse when (spoiler, highlight to read) a 9 year-old girl comes near the planned point of impact of a missile. The decision-making process of all the characters is very well told in the movie, and the tension rises to the point of being almost unbearable for the audience. And I found the ending perfectly uncompromising. Highly recommended.
Rating: 8 /10