Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Japan Cuts Capsule Reviews: SPECIAL ACTORS, ROAR and SACRIFICE

Here is brief word on three Japan Cuts titles


SPECIAL ACTORS
Shinichiro Ueda’s follow up to ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is about an acting wannabe who gets hired by the Special Actors, a group specializing in helping people in various situations where they need to look strong or get out of trouble. He gets sucked into the group helping a woman save her family inn from a cult.

It is a sweetly charming little film that will delight pretty much everyone willing to go on its quirky ride.

ROAR
Two parallel tales of violence has a young man following a mysterious man who is hired to beat people up and the tale of a young woman who is put under more and more pressure to have an affair with a co-worker. A visceral gut punch of a film that is trip on the dark side.

SACRIFICE
Dark brooding film that moves at a break neck speed concerns a young woman who had predicted the 3/11 disaster while she was in a cult. She now is still having visions. Meanwhile a classmate begins to suspect begins to realize that another classmate maybe a killer. Full of conspiracy theories and characters with an off kilter way of viewing the world director Taku Tsuboi goes against the urge to go big and keeps it small and realistic. This forces us to engage and lean into all that is happening. It’s a bold move that engages us on a deeper level since everything plays out more like real life getting under our skin instead of being something easily dismissed.

For information on these or any other Japan Cuts film go here.

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