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Kairo (2001)
Yet Another Great Film By Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Unlike many other modern filmmakers, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is able to put the sense of dread up on the movie screen like no one I've ever seen before. Like some of his other films, most noticeably Kyua (Cure) and Karisuma (Charisma) Kurosawa is able to convey a sense that the apocalypse is near. And his latest film, Kairo, he does just the same and even moves beyond us the end.
Kairo is a film like no other. It's almost a reflection of our modern society in which we, as a society, have too much reliance on technology. Similar in vein to the anime series, Serial Experiments: Lain, Kairo tells the story of a group of young people and what befalls them as beings from the other side of existence (ghosts, maybe?) connect to them via the computer, cell phones, and television. Young people commit suicide leaving behind an ashen shadow where they killed themselves; strange images appear on computer screens, a dark figure roams the university library, and many more strange things happen in the course of the film. All of them adding up to a surprisingly good movie that starts out like a typical ghost thriller and evolving into something else that transcends any genre before it.
This film couldn't be done anyway other then the way Kurosawa has done it. Kurosawa has a style all his own: he's able to take a normal genre of film and turn it on its side and make something totally unique out of it. Each film both thought provoking and entertaining at the same time.
Pulse is equal parts brilliant filmmaking, atmosphere, and the end of the world all wrapped into one. If this film is playing anywhere near you, please see it, it was the best film of 2001, that nobody saw.
The Name of This Film Is Dogme95 (2000)
CLIFF NOTES ON THE DOGME95 MANIFESTO
The Name of This Film Is Dogme95 is a great introduction to those who are not familiar with the work of this Danish collective and their "manifesto" for simple and more thought provoking movie-making. This documentary traces the history of the first few Dogme films and the emergence of newer Dogme films from around the world.
Interviews in the documentary include Lars von Trier, Harmony Korine, Thomas Vintenberg, and others who helped contributed to the first Dogme productions along with clips from all of the Dogme films so far, including The Idiots, The Celebration, Mifune, and julien-donkey boy.
So if you're in the mood for the makings of bold new cinema as some have called it or simply a label for an already built in audience as others see it. Watch this documentary and make up your own decision as to what Dogme95 really is.