Given the scope of their history, one would expect a consortium of powerful prog, but will those high expectations be met by an equally towering record? Pale Season will stand as the second LP served by the Swedish quartet, acting as another example of prowling progressive metal that is sure to challenge the listener, and cover new sonic territory on a quest to breathe new life into the project. A supergroup of sorts – comprised of members associated with KATATONIA and LETTERS FROM THE COLONY – their collective experience promises an exciting listen, one that we would hope continues the proven success of these two genre defining bands. The one sour note to mention is the painfully obvious product placement that crosses the line into blatant advertising.As far as preconceptions go, that of THENIGHTTIMEPROJECT ranks pretty highly. The soundtrack adds its own dose of ironic freedom with Lou Reed’s Femme Fatale. When the day of reckoning finally comes, however, more surprises lay in store in Kaeko Hayafune’s liberating closing scenes, all based on a novel by the award-winning woman author Mitsuyo Kakuta.įrom the sterile, spotless bank to the chaos of Rika’s topsy-turvy apartment, everything is pleasantly shot in an elegantly subdued palette by cinematographer Makoto Shiguma. The more she goes against society’s mores and becomes a free and independent woman, the more the noose of coming retribution tightens around her neck. When her husband is transferred to China, she turns their apartment into a messy counterfeiter’s den. With amusement and trepidation, the audience watches the heroine burn more and more bridges as she throws herself into a life of luxury hotels, restaurants, clothes and expensive gifts for her young lover. Read more ‘River of Exploding Durians’: Tokyo Review It’s the first of a very long series of switcheroos she performs at the bank, thanks to her impeccable reputation and the assistant manager’s less than impeccable shortcuts, all under the disapproving eye of her suspicious supervisor Mrs. She simply makes out a fake cashier’s check for Grandpa and gives $20,000 in cash to Kota as a “loan”. His rich grandfather won’t budge and Rika seizes an opportunity to help. Kota is a nice boy but is on the verge of dropping out of school because he doesn’t have the money for tuition. Though mousily attired, Rika really is lovely, but when after being stalked by the lovesick lad she lets him take her to a cheap motel, the film hits its first dizzy turning point. At the home of one rich man, she meets his grandson, the college student Kota (up-and-coming young actor Sosuke Ikematsu in a convincing perf), who can’t take his eyes off her. The idealist in her is still there under cover when we meet her as a demurely uniformed bank employee, selling bonds and retirement funds door-to-door to her elderly, well-off clientele. Read more ‘Garm Wars: The Last Druid’: Tokyo Review When caught, her self-righteous defense is that the ends justify the means. The nuns want the kids to donate half their allowances to help needy children, but Rika is so convinced that she steals big money from her Dad’s wallet. Her fall from grace is emphasized in flashbacks to her girlhood in a Catholic school and a key episode when she is smitten by a charity drive. Yoshida’s talent for light comedy, seen in his Cannes Critics Week entry Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!, is kept under wraps here, and there will be viewers who follow the story as a straight immorality play, watching housewife Rika Umezawa (Miyazawa) slip away from her boring, inattentive husband and into a life of daily crime. Venice Flashback: Gina Lollobrigida Always Made Waves at the Festival One of the strongest competition entries in this year’s Tokyo festival, it should shoot straight to the festival circuit and would make a fine candidate for exotic art house pick-ups. The fun - and anxiety - lies in watching the delightfully proper heroine overturn the conventions of a highly regimented country, and stage and screen actress Rie Miyazawa is fully up to delivering outrageous behavior in a subtle, almost deadpan performance. Though seemingly played for straight drama, there are mischievous clues throughout the film that other readings are possible, confirmed in the surprise ending. Going from strength to strength, director Yoshida Daihachi ( The Kirishima Thing) returns to the themes of conformity and rebellion in Japanese society in Pale Moon ( Kami no Tsuki), the story of an obedient housewife who becomes an embezzler to live it up with a young lover.
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