MidnightEye Updated Today. Nice Stuff, Here’s My Highlights.

Posted by logboy at 11:17am.

Posted in Film News .

Great site, Midnighteye.com. Anyhow, some noteable stuff in relation to what has generally been obviously going on in Japanese cinema from most fans points of view, and some surprises to be found (as always). Firstly, their review of Izo by Takashi Miike is up here

Secondly, a nice interview with Japans master of the nasty film, Teruo Ishii is here, as is a review of his 1969 film “The Horror of Malformed Men” here.

Thirdly, the writers have put up their best and worst of 2004’s films. Vital, Doppelganger, Nobody Knows, Izo, Innocence, Mind Game, Howls Moving Castle, Appleseed, Memories of Murder, Last Life In The Universe, Running on Karma, Breaking News, Paranoia Agent, and Blood & Bones are many of the top selections most will be familiar with, with some surprising nominations for films like Casshern and Steamboy amongst the worst. See the fill list here and find some new films we’ve all completely missed it seems.

I am so glad there are a couple of really high-ranking mentions for Mind Game, which some people have begun to pick up on now (still selling well at Yesasia.com) - for me not only one of THE best films of 2004, but one of the best blind-buys I’ve ever had, and they’re 95% of what i go for. Jasper Sharp says, “...the relative disappointments of Steamboy and Howl’s Moving Castle were more than offset by the astounding Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, and Studio 4C’s flabbergasting Mind Game, a magical work that appeared as if from nowhere.”.

For the top of Midnighteye ...

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Reader Comments

Todd 01/30/2005 @ 12:16pm

The shocking thing to me is how many of them just ripped into Zebraman - one of them even saying that Zebraman was out done by One Missed Call.

A couple of them really tear into Casshern as well, which is surprising considering the site gave it a positive review ...
logboy 01/30/2005 @ 12:19pm

different people, different opinions… theres some stuff in there to look into though, one film called “the new tetsuo the iron man” which has to be a good sign!
Fabool 01/30/2005 @ 2:55pm

I love midnighteye.com! Such great content that the slow, ~once per month update rate doesn’t bother me too much - been wanting to get their book but haven’t found the time to pick it up yet, will get it eventually though.

Excellent to see that at least one people thought ‘Josee to tora to sakanatachi’ was one of the best films last year! I personally gave it a 8/10 which is a pretty high score from me (only gave it to Oldboy and Josee last year). Great film.. everyone should check it out - I’m just in the process of hunting down the R2JPN LE disc which is proving to be a bit difficult to find now.

I still haven’t watched Casshern! The nice looking R2JPN disc is still sitting on my shelf untouched. After all the negative reviews I’m a bit scared to see if it was worth the money I paid for it
Also a bit interesting how everyone is really bashing Steamboy - I’m looking forward to seeing it as it was hyped quite a bit at one point and then it just fell of the Earth for a while and now it’s getting bad reviews everywhere - can’t see how someone can screwup an anime film really badly these days. Actually, one of them rated Appleseed as one of the best movies last year which I find VERY surprising and I’m having difficulty believing it could beat Steamboy, or Steamboy must be *really* messed up to lose.
Also, they seem to be a bit dissapointed with Howl.. interesting. Can’t wait to compare my opinions with theirs when I see the films
Dan 01/30/2005 @ 5:29pm

I didn’t find it surprising that Casshern was considered one of the worst films of 2004. I found it to be bloated and quite boring. The action sequences were spectacular though and are the only things I remember from the film. At 140 minutes, it just went on for too long. Kiriya should have cut 40 minutes because many scenes seemed redunant and its message (WAR IS BAD!) seemed to drag on.
Todd 01/30/2005 @ 5:35pm

I loved Steamboy ... review’s in the archive. And don’t spend your money on the Japanese edition of Josee ... there’s a much cheaper Korean edition available now ...
Darnell 01/30/2005 @ 8:05pm

Midnighteye is decent but they tend to be bias on alot of really good flicks.

oh yeah...am I the only person who really enjoyed Casshern. I think alot of people expected way too much and were let down, I on the other hand, enjoyed it.
Fabool 01/31/2005 @ 12:19am

I was going to get the korean release of Josee but the picture comparison over at the asiandvdguide.com forums got me considering the Japan LE. Quite interesting how the bitrate graph is identical, indicating that it’s a port, but it is about 1 mb/s lower and the image is quite a bit softer, not to mention the absence of LCPM audio. Don’t mind to pay a little more if I can find the LE (not too much more though..) since I really liked the movie.
Graeme 01/31/2005 @ 5:12am

Anyone seen Nobody Knows? I’m a huge Kore-eda fan, and I’ve been looking forward to seeing it for ages.

When, oh when, will someone offer me a programming job? My local sucks.
Todd 01/31/2005 @ 5:19am

Darnell: I liked Casshern a lot. My review is in the archive. Mark Schilling at The Japan Times included it in his 10 Best list, as well.
logboy 01/31/2005 @ 7:16am

where is shilllings 10 best : can i have a linky please?…
Todd 01/31/2005 @ 7:28am

Et voila.