Country: Japan

If you manage to remain interested while the film establishes a story and can tolerate the odd sense of the macabre, then ‘Gonin’ does provide a few flashes of excellence.

This is a beautifully told story that is wonderfully presented and extremely touching, making it hugely accessible to any audience.

There is some pontificating about evil and society and love but ‘Grotesque’ is essentially one long torture set piece.

‘Gun Woman’ is unlikely to appeal to everyone, simply because it’s fairly lightweight entertainment that contains quite a bit of twisted violence and nudity.

A few bone dry moments of humour are blended into the forced wackiness and these are the redeeming points for an overstuffed cacophony of empty spectacle.

Strange, gross, manic and bonkers are all good terms to help describe ‘GYO’ but the film is also curiously gripping.

‘Hana And Alice’ is an interesting film rather than a fully involving one. At over two hours long, it is in desperate need of more judicious editing as too many minor scenes carry on beyond their logical conclusion.

‘Happy Flight’ benefits from the versatility of Haruka Ayase – as good in a comedy as she has been in action flicks like ‘Ichi’ – and a variety of low-key characters who give the story a charm of its own.

This version of ‘Hara-Kiri’ just simply pales in comparison to Kobayashi’s version and while it’s certainly good for a majority of its run time, you still may be wondering what’s the point of it.

An incredible samurai film and a classic piece of Japanese filmmaking this is old school filmmaking and storytelling at its best.

‘Hard Revenge, Milly’ is a short burst of blood-soaked fun that is likely to please fans of this ever-expanding genre.

Packed with exciting fight sequences, huge helpings of blood and some solid leading performances, it is clearly one of the more enjoyable examples of Japanese VCinema.