Lollipop Magazine

Onibi – The Fire Within – Review

June 23, 2006

Kunihiro is damn near inscrutable, and since the film never truly lets us in on his mind, he’s an icon, a towering, silent ball of repressed bad-ass.

An Obsession – Review

June 6, 2006

A cop loses his gun to a mentally-unbalanced criminal, and his search for it becomes a search for meaning in his life. Yes, it’s one of THOSE movies.

Wild Life – Review

April 28, 2006

Shinji Aoyama’s Wild Life revolves around Hiroki (Kosuke Toyohara) a retired boxer who seems kind of, uh, slow. Turns out he’s just not particularly excitable.

Bird People of China – Review

June 13, 2005

Most directors can’t manage ten good films in their lifespan. Takashi Miike did that last year. The shock is that it’s great in a way you didn’t expect.

Young Thugs: Nostalgia – Review

March 7, 2005

One of Takashi Miike’s best works. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of Riichi, a poor kid with a jerkoff for a dad and a future that seems doomed.

Young Thugs: Innocent Blood – Review

March 7, 2005

A perceptive and even-handed study of how one boy’s troubled youth makes his inevitable maturation more complicated. Riichi returns from Young Thugs: Nostalgia.

The Black Society Trilogy – Review

March 7, 2005

Individually or as a three-DVD set, Takeshi Miike’s Black Society Trilogy is as good a cross-section of Miike’s signature Yakuza films as you’re going to find.

Shinjiku Triad Society – Review

March 7, 2005

Precisely what Takishi Miike fans expect: Blood, guts, depraved sex, overblown misogyny, Yakuza, more blood, tough guys, more guts…

Rainy Dog – Review

March 7, 2005

A subtle tale of almost accidental redemption and warped integrity, Rainy Dog is not the place to get your sex and violence fix. Thoughtful and almost sad.

Malice@Doll- Review

March 7, 2005

All sorts of lesbian robot sex, saucer-eyed heroines, penis-looking animal things, cleavage, bad voice acting, and machines beating the shit out of each other.