However he asserts that one film in particular led the field with the boundaries it dared to push. "They were something we'd never seen before," Adam Torel, managing director of the UK's leading Japanese film distribution label, Third Window Films, tells BBC Culture. Whereas these titles favoured subtle psychological tension, drawing upon Noh and Kabuki theatre and Japanese folk mythologies for their visuals and themes, films like the aforementioned Audition, Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (2000) and Sion Sono's Suicide Circle (2001) did away with long-haired ghosts and subtle psychological tension, instead emphasising ultra-violent set-pieces and taboo subject matter such as torture, child murder and mass suicide. Twenty years after debuting in the UK, it returns to the big screen this month as the final feature in the BFI's six-film "J-horror Weekender" – part of its wider Japan 2021 film season.īut there was a faction beneath the umbrella of J-horror – a term that perhaps better describes the influx of evocative Japanese films in the West during that period rather than a uniform style or genre – that arguably left an even greater impact than these more traditional horror films, like Ring and Dark Water. The film's distinct Japanese identity stoked its cult popularity in the West, and along with the whole "Asia Extreme" genre of the time, created a new era of shocking cinema that foreshadowed the emergence of ultra-violent films in the mainstream today. Ichi the Killer typified the output of an intense faction of the East Asian cinema boom of the late-1990s and early-'00s. Kakihara was the deranged yakuza enforcer hot on his trail, determined to use whatever torture methods necessary to track down the man responsible for killing his gang's boss. It told the story of two deranged killers caught in a twisted cat-and-mouse chase across Tokyo's red-light district of Kabukicho the "Ichi" of the title was a mentally disturbed man, manipulated to kill by a master hypnotist.
Ichi the Killer was directed by the now-infamous Takashi Miike – whose 1999 film Audition had already built him a reputation in the UK (after arriving on VHS via distribution label Tartan Video). Is Tokyo Olympiad the greatest sport film ever made? The sci-fi director of the 21st Century
#The cat returns 2002 full#
Later described by Empire magazine as "a masterpiece of extreme cinema, crammed full of images that push back the boundaries of what's possible – and allowable – on screen", it would be duly chopped into shreds by censors in the UK and further afield, and banned outright in several countries around the world. My favourite scene has got to be the magical cat procession in the middle of the night-the kind of stuff that Ghibli is so good at.In November 2001, one of the most violent and notorious films to emerge from Japan premiered in the UK, at the London Film Festival.
The film covers themes of courage, teamwork and the desire to stand for oneself even when the odds aren’t favourable.Īs far as the animation is concerned, it is in the typical Ghibli style-beautiful when it needs to be, and unassuming when narrative and characterisation kick in. The Cat Returns has a bit of everything-comedy, action, a race against time and sarcastic banter-and should please undemanding anime fans or kids looking for a short and sweet escapade. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.” Hidden agendas ensue when the king invites her to his palace to thank her. Unbeknownst to her, the cat is actually a prince in some kind of alternate reality, a Europeanised Cat World as it were.
#The cat returns 2002 movie#
I’m a dog lover, so I don’t quite understand why some people like cats, but this could be the movie that might just finally make non-feline lovers realise why these creatures are to be fussed about.įantasy encroaches into reality as the protagonist, a teenage girl, saves a cat from onrushing traffic. The Cat Returns is one of the animation studio’s shortest features-despite its slight runtime, it’s a charming little piece of work, directed by Hiroyuki Morita who hasn’t made any other feature except this. A shoutout to Netflix for helping me to plug my gaps outside of Hayao Miyazaki. With this, I’ve finally completed all the Studio Ghibli films.
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