Blade of the Immortal Review

Blade of the Immortal is out now in UK cinemas and I was lucky enough to catch it earlier this year at the London Film Festival. It seems to be getting a pretty wide release so you should not have any problems finding the film at a cinema near you. My full review of Blade of the Immortal is at Starburst Magazine here. But for the time being, here's a taster of what you can expect...

Takashi Miike's 100th film Blade of the Immortal reveals a director in no danger of slowing down, and certainly not easing off on the bloodshed. Based on the manga series by Hiroaki Samura, this is even bigger, bloodier and better than Miike's recent 13 Assassins.
 

The body count in the opening five minutes is enough to make Tarantino blush as samurai Manji fails to save his little sister from being sliced to death at the hands of a gaggle of wrong'uns. That's not to say Manji doesn't make them all pay for their crimes, leaving the ground strewn with corpses not for the last time in the film. However, Manji is mortally wounded and saved by a witch with sacred bloodworms that render Manji immortal and unable to die even after decapitations....

Read the rest of my review here. And while you're here, how good is that poster above?

Here's the trailer:



More reviews from London Film Festival

Happy End review

Happy End, the latest film from Michael Haneke (Funny Games, Hidden, Amour) is out now in UK cinemas. My full review of Happy End is at Starburst Magazine here.

And here's a little taster of what you can expect from the film, and my review:

Happy End follows three generations of a successful construction dynasty, but Haneke’s characters are frustrated, bitter and broken right from the first frames of the film.
 
Anne (Isabelle Huppert) oversees the business and deals with the fallout from a construction site accident. Her doctor brother Thomas (Mathieu Kassovitz) is reconnecting with his teenage daughter, who has come to live with the family after Thomas’ ex-wife overdoses. Anne’s aging father Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) has stepped away from the business as his health is starting to fail. Anne’s son is drinking too much and appears to be crying out for attention.

It’s a plot full of major events that mostly happen off screen. A car crash, an overdose, a suicide attempt and more are involved but Haneke’s focus is on the quieter moments of relationship drama, including some surprisingly tender moments of inter-generational mutual understanding as well as inevitable conflict.



Read more here. 

Read more reviews from London Film Festival 2017 here.