Best Kiss (aka a list of my favourite kissing scenes)

I’ve been looking through lots of best kiss movie lists and once again have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with me :] I think I’m even more out of touch with other human beings in my kissing scene preferences than in nude scene preferences…
The Criteria:

Two or more beings of some sort [...]

Rare earth elements, how they’re used and why China has a monopoly on them

Sunday, 28 November 2010, 19:31 | Category : Crumbs, Politics, Human Rights & Other Serious Stuff
Tags : , ,

The world depends on China in a multitude of ways (which I, personally, find a bit unsettling), but this angle is not often mentioned and it’s rather major.
If you own any sort of electronic device, the substances in it were probably mined in China. This is especially true for Japanese brands, apparently, as 100% of [...]

FILM SPOTTING: January 2010 in Polish cinemas

Tuesday, 5 January 2010, 12:22 | Category : Hollywood & the American film industry, In Cinemas This Month, J-drama & the Japanese film industry, Loaves, Other European film industries, Other film industries, The British film industry, The French film industry
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{FILM SPOTTING}
Every year, my January is busy and every year Polish film distributors sadistically release loads of movies I really want to see during this time ;-P Hope I get to see at least some of these *sigh*
Hunger (2008, UK/Ireland)
Release Date (Poland): 8th January 2010
Release Date (worldwide): 15th May 2008
Runtime: 96′
Director: Steve McQueen
Cast: Michael Fassbender
Production [...]

An alternative way of looking at death - the two Tibetan Book of the Dead films

{FILM DIARY}
The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life (Canada/Japan, 1994)
Seen: Saturday, 14th November 2009 (cinema)
Runtime: 46′
Director: Barrie McLean
Production House: Mistral Films, NHK, National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Plot: A documentary on death in the Buddhist tradition and how it differs from Western perceptions of death.
Scene From the Film

Impressions In Short
I found the [...]

Japanese film banned by the BBFC

Monday, 24 August 2009, 1:07 | Category : Crumbs, J-drama & the Japanese film industry
Tags : , , , ,

The BBFC very rarely outright rejects films nowadays, but it’s made an exception for Grotesque - a Japanese horror movie:
BBFC director David Cooke has stated: ??Unlike other recent ?torture?-themed horror works, such as the Saw and Hostel series, Grotesque features minimal narrative or character development and presents the audience with little more than an unrelenting [...]

Big Japanese clans and all the weird stuff that goes on in them (Gishiki reviewed)

{FILM DIARY}
Gishiki (Japan, 1971)
Seen: Saturday, 11th July 2009 (cinema, Lato Filmów festival)
Runtime: 123′
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Cast: Kenzô Kawarasaki, Atsuko Kaku, Nobuko Otowa
Production House: Art Theatre Guild, Sozosha
Plot: The story of a powerful Japanese clan and of their gradual demise.
Trailer
This must be one of the longest trailers ever ;)

Impressions In Short
Yet another weird Nagisa Oshima film with [...]

Sexual Fantasy versus Reality (Nihon shunka-kô reviewed)

{FILM DIARY}
Nihon shunka-kô (Japan, 1967)
Seen: Thursday, 9th July 2009 (cinema, Lato Filmów festival)
Runtime: 103′
Director: Nagisa Oshima
Production House: Sozosha
Plot: Four male university students have just finished with exams and they’re bored and horny. A teacher gets drunk and starts singing vulgar erotic songs to his students, which fuels the erotic imagination of the four students even [...]

Crazy cinematography (Kûchû teien reviewed)

{FILM DIARY}
Kûchû teien (Japan, 2005)
Seen: Wednesday, 8th July 2009 (cinema, Lato Filmów festival)
Runtime: 114′
Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
Cast: Kyôko Koizumi, Anne Suzuki, Itsuji Itao, Masahiro Hirota, Eita, Sonim
Production House: Asahi National Broadcasting Company, Asmik Ace Entertainment, Culture Publishers (CP), Eisei Gekijo, Film Makers, Little More Co., Pony Canyon
Plot: The story of a family that claims to have [...]

Hitsuji No Uta - a vampire movie without any vampires

{FILM DIARY}
Hitsuji no uta (Japan, 2002)
Seen: Saturday, 4th July 2009
Director: Junji Hanada
Cast: Shun Oguri, Natsuki Kato
Plot: Kazuna is a 15 year old boy who has not lived with his family since the age of 2. He has never been told why his parents gave him away, yet kept his sister. As strange dreams and feelings [...]

Hagetaka: Road to Rebirth review aka my first business J-drama

{FILM DIARY}
Hagetaka: Road to Rebirth (Japan, 2007)
Finished Watching: Thursday, 25th June 2009
Runtime: 6 episodes (60min. each)
Director: Kentaro Horikirizono, Tsuyoshi Inoue, Keishi Ohtomo
Cast: Nao Omori, Kyohei Shibata, Ryuhei Matsuda, Chiaki Kuriyama
TV Network: NHK
Plot: A story about the mid-90s recession in Japan when Japanese companies were going bankrupt and were being bought out dirt cheap by foreign [...]