Review: ABDUCTEE Sees Yamaguchi Thinking Outside the Box

Japanese director Yamaguchi Yudai shows signs of creative growth and maturity in this taut, well-directed chamber piece that takes place entirely within the confines of a shipping container. When middle-aged security guard Chiba awakes to find himself bound and gagged... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2013 Awards Round-Up

This weekend saw Japan's hardened genre fans head north to the wintry climes of Hokkaido for the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, an always-excellent parade of established and emerging talent from the country and surrounding region. Just moments ago, the... More »

By James Marsh

YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME Gets a Flashy New Trailer!

Oh Young-doo's (Invasion of Alien Bikini) brand new time-traveling private eye flick got itself a new poster a few days ago and hot on its heels is the first full-length trailer. Young Gun in the Time will be opening in... More »

By Pierce Conran

Review: LET'S-MAKE-THE-TEACHER-HAVE-A-MISCARRIAGE CLUB

My personal selection to win the "Best Film Title" award (had there been one) at this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, Eisuke Naito's feature debut is an unflinching examination of frustrated teen angst and misplaced aggression that leads to... More »

By James Marsh

UPDATED! Check out the trailer for Yubari 2012 runner-up THE BRAT!

Now with an English-friendly version of the trailer!In my opinion, the greatest discovery at this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival was first-time feature director Taichi Suzuki's film THE BRAT! An anarchic anti-romantic comedy starring comedian Hiroki "King of Comedy"... More »

By James Marsh

Talking Shit: Discussing ZOMBIE ASS with director Noboru Iguchi & stars Arisa Nakamura & Demo Tanaka

Among the special programmes at this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival was a celebration of the work of Noboru Iguchi, the director of such low budget splatter classics as THE MACHINE GIRL, ROBOGEISHA and ZOMBIE ASS, which enjoyed its... More »

By James Marsh

EXCLUSIVE: Great stash of stills from Oh Young Doo's YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME

We are big fans of Korean filmmaker Oh Young Doo round these parts and his micro-budgeted screwball science fiction flick INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI. After the film picked up the Grand Prix at last year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival,... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Review: YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME

Last year's Yubari Grand Prix winner - and the only non-Japanese filmmaker to win the award - South Korean director Oh Young Doo returns to the wintry city with his follow-up to INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI, the time-travel detective thriller... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Review: THE BRAT!

We all harbour certain insecurities about our appearance, upon which some spend hours of agonising yet ultimtely pointless procrastination. Whether it be crooked teeth or a receding hairline, we obsess over these imperfections and on occasion even attribute failures within... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Review: OSAKA VIOLENCE

Takahiro Ishihara, writer-director-cinematographer-editor of this year's Yubari Grand Prix winner OSAKA VIOLENCE builds effectively on the critical acclaim that was awarded him last year with his feature debut, VIOLENCE PM. His sophomore effort follows a young adolescent, who moves in... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012: Awards Round-Up

What better place to start our round-up of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2012 than at the end, with a look at the results of the Fantastic Off Theater Competition. While the festival's Official Selection programme is curated to... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Preview: Special Programs & Other Highlights

For a festival that only runs for four days, YIFFF certainly knows how to spread itself as wide as possible and pack in as much quality programming as the city can accommodate. In addition to everything I have alrerady covered... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Preview: Yubari Choice - Horror Hiho Label and Noboru Iguchi Selection

There are only a few days to go until the Northern City of Yubari, Japan opens its gates to fans of weird and wonderful cinema for this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, and it's time to look a little... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Preview: Yubari Choice - Japanese Independent Film

Continuing our preview coverage of the forthcoming Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, which takes place in Yubari, Japan from 23-27 February, we now begin combing through the vast and rich category - Yubari Choice. First up is the fairly self-explanatory... More »

By James Marsh

Yubari 2012 Preview: Official Selection and Fantastic Off-Theatre Competition

We like to cover the broadest possible range of films and film festivals here at Twitch, which means not only tackling the high-profile attention-grabbing bull pens like Sundance and the Berlinale, but also the smaller, more independently-spirited affairs in the... More »

By James Marsh

Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

Destroy All Monsters: Retire Superman

While the internet is tearing itself apart in its efforts to empirically determine whether Man of Steel "sucks" or "is awesome" - because such things are now apparently possible, given Superman Returns' near-unilateral, and intellectually disturbing, dismissal - I'd like to pause to make a gentler request: may we please... More »

Fifteen Unfilmable Novels And The Directors Who Should Try Anyway

Ah, the 'unfilmable' novel. Go back ten or fifteen years and it seems everyone had some sort of list of great novels that could never be brought to the screen. The limitations at the time were largely technical and in recent years those lists have dwindled with titles such as... More »

Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: On MAN OF STEEL, SuperJesus, and THIS IS THE END's Jewpocalypse

Back in 1933, while Hitler was ascending into power in Germany and diasporic Jews throughout the world looked on with concern, two high school students created one of the most indelible mythical heroes of the last century. Borrowing from the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, Joe Shuster and Jerry... More »

Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END

This is the big week of Superman's return, with Zack Snyder's take on the caped saviour hitting our screens. While my opinion's kind of mixed on the film, there's still plenty to admire about it. I also discuss the overt Jesus imagery throughout, as expanded in a full cineruminations column... More »

70s Rewind: Bridges, Barbra, Bogdanovich, Brynner

Amazon's Prime Instant streaming service is not as well-established as Netflix and has far more modest offerings in off-beat and strange cinema. Still, since I temporarily dropped Netflix, I've been diving deeper into Amazon's catalog, and discovered a good number of films from my favorite movie decade. Here's a selection... More »