Takita DVDs / Jun Ichikawa / End of Summer VCD

[Stephen Cremin]

THE EXAM is fun, but HIMITSU is the real must-see.  It was the talking point
of Udine's Far East Film Festival last year where it almost went off with
the audience award for Takita.  You can argue that Takita didn't take the
right direction with the film in that it could have been much darker and is
ripe for a remake.  But even so, the psychological consequences of whether
the daughter really is the mother and whether this relationship can last
without sex and whether she has really regained her memory and whether...
Just mindblowing.  And even if I love Mark Schilling's thesis about Hirosue
Ryoko (that she avoids being stained by sexuality by playing aliens, ghosts
and hosts in her films so far), I still think this was an incredibly daring
film for an idol to make.

Stephen Cremin

----------
>From: "Michael E. Kerpan" <kerpan at attglobal.net>
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Takita DVDs / Jun Ichikawa / End of Summer VCD
>Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 23:34:55 -0500
>

>I see that two recent films by Yojiro Takita are available on DVDs from Hong
>Kong -- the Exam and Himitsu.  Are these worth getting?  (They sound a bit
>Hollywoodesque from their descriptions).
>
>Are any films by Jun Ichikawa (reasonably) available in any home format (video,
>VCD, DVD).  I haven't been able to find any web source (that lists titles in
>English).  If this is answered by Aaron's recent list, sorry, but I didn't get
>many recognizable names in my copy of his letter, just stuff like
>"$BK4Nn2xG-20I_(B"
>
>BTW, I did find a Chinese subtitled VCD version of Ozu's _End of Summer_ listed
>at www.yesasia.com.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Michael Kerpan