Category Archives: Movies

Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Posted on September 28, 2018 by philipbrasor

As some of my colleagues have noted, the Japanese arm of Warner Bros. has dropped “Asians” from the title of this surprise box office hit, and while we can probably surmise the reason for the elision, the Japanese socio-historical relationship … Continue reading →

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Review: Skyscraper

Posted on September 22, 2018 by philipbrasor

It’s no scoop to say that the IMAX format dictates the production of certain movies, since it’s difficult to imagine a Hollywood conference call where, after a movie has been greenlighted and cast, someone thinks out loud, “Hey, maybe this … Continue reading →

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Review: Faces Places

Posted on September 17, 2018 by philipbrasor

Collaboration is more than just the theme of Agnes Varda’s latest curiosity. Teaming up with the tall-glass-of-water visual artist JR both on camera and behind it, the veteran nouvelle vague director expands her late career discussion of the French polity … Continue reading →

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“The Fog of War,” Sept. 2004

Posted on September 14, 2018 by philipbrasor

I recently realized that almost all of the movie reviews I wrote for the Asahi Shimbun in the 90s and early 00s are not available on the Internet, so I will remedy that by slowly, methodically posting them here on … Continue reading →

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Review: Asako I & II

Posted on September 8, 2018 by philipbrasor

I have yet to see Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s previous film, the internationally lauded 5-hour domestic drama Happy Hour, which, probably due to its length, hasn’t been picked up by WOWOW. But having read about its charms for almost a year I … Continue reading →

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Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp

Posted on September 3, 2018 by philipbrasor

It’s a good thing the second Ant-Man movie is above average, because it’s becoming quite a chore to fit all these Marvel superhero movies into the Marvel universe, at least as it applies to the Avengers movies, which seem to … Continue reading →

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Review: Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

Posted on September 1, 2018 by philipbrasor

Thanks to Japan’s complicated publicity machine, the sequel to the successful movie version of the very successful ABBA-inspired jukebox musical Mamma Mia! arrives well after most of the rest of the world has decided it’s a better movie than the … Continue reading →

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Review: Pop Aye

Posted on August 25, 2018 by philipbrasor

The titular elephant in this Thai film is named after the iconic cartoon sailor, though I can’t really fathom the title’s unconventional spelling. In a way, the linguistic disconnect expands on the movie’s sometimes jarring juxtaposition of universal themes and … Continue reading →

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Review: The Girl Without Hands

Posted on August 22, 2018 by philipbrasor

The Brothers Grimm story from which this French animated film has been adapted is not one of their more famous ones, but it has all the non-Disney hallmarks that have made the fairy tale-meisters the darlings of comparative lit majors. … Continue reading →

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Review: Tully

Posted on August 18, 2018 by philipbrasor

Charlize Theron’s second feature with director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody is more sentimental than Young Adult but every bit as irreverent, which may sound like a contradiction in terms. Theron plays Marlo, the pregnant mother of an autistic … Continue reading →

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