Tag Archives: Hiroyuki Sanada

Shogun. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Cosmo Jarvis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Nestor Carbonell, Tadanobu Asano, Takehiro Hira, Tommy Bastow, Fumi Nikaido, Tokuma Nishioka, Hiroto Kanai, Yasunari Takeshima, Moeka Hoshi, Yuki Kura, Ako, Ned Dennehy, Hiromoto Ida, Toshi Toa, Takeshi Kurkawa.

James Clavell’s seminal novel Shogun is arguably one of the reasons that the West became more than enamoured with Japan’s almost secret history, that the role played by the country in World War Two could be, if not forgiven, then explained in a deeper context of a period of time in which its present was heavily dictated to, and inspired by its honour, as well as what could be seen as its brutality.

Shogun. Television Drama Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

John Wick: Chapter 4. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Bill Skarsgård, Clancey Brown, Donnie Yen, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rina Sawayama, George Georgiou, Marko Zaror, Aimée Kwan, Iryna Fedorova, Marie Pierre Kakoma, Natalia Tena, Sven Marquardt.

It may not be the last we hear of John Wick, but if the series was to end on Chapter 4 then the final instalment of the lone assassin’s revenge/redemption tale is by far and without argument, its masterpiece.

John Wick: Chapter 4. Film Review. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Bullet Train. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Brad Pitt, Joey King, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Michael Shannon, Benito A. Martinez, Sandra Bullock, Zazie Beetz, Logan Lerman, Masi Oka, Karen Fukuhara, Kevin Akiyoshi Ching, Minchi Murakami, Kaori Takentani, Toshitaka Katsumi, Jim Garrity, Emalina Adams, Jenson Cheng, Nobuaki Shimamoto, Yoshi Sudarso, Johanna Watts, Ian Gabriel Martinez, Tania Verafield, Pancho Cardena, Julio Gbaey, Andrea Munoz, Nancy Daly, Arnold Chum, Naomi Matsuda, Benmio McCrea, Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Primus Johnson, Miles Marz, Michelle Lee, Parker Lin, Garland Scott, Jason Matthew Smith, Zooey Miyoshi, Kamil Aydin, David Leitch.

Bullet Train. Film Review. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Life, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Olga Dihovichnaya, Ariyon Bakare, Hiroyuki Sanada, Naoko Mori, Alexandre Nguyen, Camiel Warren-Taylor, Hiu Woong-Sin.

It has been mooted, suggested beyond all possible doubt in some quarters, that there simply are no new ideas out there, that everything is basically a re-hash, a do-over, a chance for art to keep repeating itself over and over again. Whilst this may be in some cases a false premise, that the world will always find an interesting new angle in which to demonstrate the greatest of humanity’s crowning glory, imagination, in many ways the doom laden soothers are right, there is nothing new under the sun and by poking at the impossible creature, we are not exactly creating new Life, we are sucking the soul out of it.

Life, Film Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Minions, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Pierre Coffin, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Steve Coogan, Jennifer Saunders, Geoffrey Rush, Steve Carell, Katy Mixon, Michael Beattie, Hiroyuki Sanada, Dave Rosenbaum.

They seem to be everywhere and perhaps with good reason, for in amongst all the merchandising, the paraphernalia, the produce and products making the type of money on the side that would help towards a small nation’s debt, there is no doubt that the Minions, the real stars of the Despicable Me films, are big, bigger in some child’s and possibly some adult’s mine too than John Lennon.

Minions, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(463 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Frances de la Tour, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam, Philip Davis, Nicholas Rowe, Madeleine Worrall, Sarah Crowden, Takako Akashi, Zak Shukor, Michael Culkin, Sam Coulson, Frances Barber, John Sessions, Colin Starkey.

There is perhaps a question of whether age diminishes the achievements that have been made in youth or whether to be seen as fallible, to be seen as mortal actually enhances the great strides made when life was to be moulded, when Time was not feared and the weakness that must come to us all as frailty and memory forsake the owner.

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Railway Man, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Sam Reid, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tanroh Ishida, Marta Dusseldorp, Masa Yamaguchi, Keiichi Enomoto, James Fraser, Shoota Tanahashi, Akos Armont.

 

The Railway Man might face strong competition for the title of Best British film in 2014 but it won’t for the want of being an absolutely brilliant film with a cast that shines throughout and with the horrors of war not glossed over and forgotten. It is not a film to be taken lightly; it should be approached, just like the other film out this weekend, 12 Years A Slave, as not just a piece of cinema, to be sat through and then left discarded at the foot of the mind as other films get shown throughout the year, but as a piece of history, cinematic or otherwise.

The Railway Man, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

The Wolverine, Film Review. Crosby Plaza Cinema.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tao Okamato, Rila Fukushima, Ken Yamamura, Famke Janssen, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Haruhiko Yamanouchi, Brian Tee.

The Wolverine has barely got going when perhaps one of the most explosive and thought provoking starts to a film ever hits the screen. From that point on, the film is exactly what you want from a motion picture depicting one of Marvel’s most loved characters, it is also exactly what you expect to get with just a few fine touches to separate it from the X-Men origins film which now seems lacklustre and filmed in a fairly half-hearted and to set up the next instalment of Marvel’s mutant team.

The Wolverine, Film Review. Crosby Plaza Cinema. full post

(664 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)