That was 2004, Soon will be 2005. Logboy : I Enjoyed These This year…

Kiyoshi Kurosawas odd “comedy” film with mixed reviews ‘Doppelganger’ hit in May in Japan, and it was every bit as sohpisticated as his other works : here’s to more Kurosawa on DVD and at the cinema in 2005. I loved watching the stunningly shot ‘Lone Wolf and Cub’ movies, which i hadn’t realised has begun to be issued so well by AnimEigo in the USA : six films that are infinitely rewatcheable. ‘Stand Alone Complex’ began too, with the first three volumes all presenting a richly written and superbly animated continuing narrative as well as individual nuggets. ‘Old Boy’ was simply superb, so i watched ‘Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance’ and may have even enjoyed that more. There was more Takashi Miike than you can shake a stick at, thanks to companies like Artsmagic : ‘Bird People in China’ is probably my favourite Miike, as it seems to be for so many. Satoshi Kon films galore for me also as i caught up with ‘Perfect Blue’ and ‘Millenium Actress’ as well as seeing ‘Tokyo Godfathers’, which i think is my favourite apart from the TV series ‘Paranoia Agent’. I absolutely loved ‘Street Mobster’ thanks to Homevisions numerous and faultless discs of Kinji Fukusakus movies, with loads more coming in 2005. ‘Last Exile’ is another high quality anime (more of that please) from the makers of ‘Blue Submarine No.6’ which i thought was superb; caught that too. Dario Argentos’ film ‘Il Cartaio’ was pretty poor, but worth a look. ‘Kill Bill’ grew on me when watching the gorey-as-hell uncut Japanese DVD; liked Vol 2 at the cinema, but was less impressed when i rewatched that on disc. ‘Lady Snowblood’ and “Female Convict Scorpion’ gave Meiko Kaji a brief reappearance in the USA : i prefered the second Snowblood for its mood, and was blown away by how surreal these films all were. ‘Dawn of The Dead’ finally got a superb 4-disc set : I have waited years to see Darion Argentos’ european cut of the film. Unearthed Films finally managed to get ‘Black Sun’ from T F Mous out there, as well as two superbly wacked-out japanese cyberpunk films ‘Pinocchio 964’ and ‘Rubbers Lover’. I enjoyed some noteable Giallo movies too, with ‘What Have You Done To Solange?’ probably my favourite, and Blue Undergrounds superbly done disc of “Night Train Murders” well worth a look too. Other great Anime came in the form of ‘Voices From A Distant Star’ with its rich narrative and superbly vibrant animation, ‘Neo Tokyo’ and ‘Memories’ for (mainly) their Katsuhiro Otomo segments, and ‘Dead Leaves’ for its over the top style (and little substance) which i also loved. Oh, and i personally enjoyed ‘Casshern’ no matter what many say about it : stunning stuff.

Biggest ‘odd thing that happened’ this year was buying so many films and being unable to totally manage to see everything yet, so lots still waiting : 2LDK, Aragami, Spider Forest, R-Point, Taegukgi, Alive etc. Some on their wat that are due out in 2005 : Ghost in the Shell (Special Edition), and Paranoia Agent : Volume 2, as well as a couple of late 04 releases like ‘SS Hell Camp’ and the final Miike disc of the year ‘KiKoKu’ (aka ‘Yakuza Demon’).

Great things already announced for 2005 i have down to buy are : more Artsmagic goodness in the form of ‘9 Souls’ and ‘Bullet Ballet’, Unearthed Films boxset for the infamous ‘Guinea Pig’ series, the entire ‘MPD Psycho’ TV series from Miike (out soon in USA and UK), ‘Samurai Assasin’ and ‘Incident at Blood Pass’ from AnimEigo, ‘Hellovator’ (aka ‘Gusha No Bindsu Me’), ‘A Snake of June’ in a cheaper USA disc from Tartan, and Paul Naschys ‘Rojo Sangre’.... and yet to get firms dates, discs of ‘Howls Moving Castle’, ‘Steamboy’, ‘Appleseed’ shoud all be there with subtitles soon enough, as will ‘Ong Bak’, ‘Gemini’, ‘Aftermath’ (see the awesome trailer at the Unearthed Films site), and japanese oddnes with ‘Marronnier’, plus (fingers crossed) ‘Agitator’ in its full 200 minute form, and maybe even ‘Shangri La’ and ‘Men In White’ from Takashi Miike...and i should catch up with the new subbed japanese disc for ‘Mind Game’, get all 3 volumes of ‘FLCL’, and also the boxset for ‘Now Then Here There’ (as i call it)...though in the end i am sure the year 2005 will be the busiest buying / seeing year i experience if i can find the money.