1000-nen kizami no hidokei (1987)

1000-nen kizami no hidokei: Directed by Shinsuke Ogawa. With Tatsumi Hijikata, Junko Miyashita, Takahiro Tamura, Chôichirô Kawarasaki. The movie compiles footage taken by Ogawa Production for a period of more than ten years after the collective moved to Magino village. Unique to this film are fictional reenactments of the history of the village in the sections titled “The Tale of Horikiri Goddess” and “The Origins of Itsutsudomoe Shrine”. Ogawa combines all the techniques that were developed in his previous films to simultaneously express multiple layers of time–the temporally of rice growing and of human life, personal life histories, the history of the village, the time of the Gods, and new time created through theatrical reenactment–bring them into a unified whole. The faces of the Magino villagers appear in numerous roles–sometimes as individuals, sometimes as people who carry the history of the village in their memories, sometimes as storytellers reciting myths, and even as members of the crowd in the fictional sequences–transcending time and space.

“Sweet Girl consists of several core film ideas that have been executed better in the past (namely the Jason Bourne series, however the dark aesthetic to the film was underpinned well by the understandable emotion felt by the two main characters. Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced performed well throughout despite a slightly under-written script. Did I enjoy this film? Yes, I believe so. Do I walk away from it with a lasting memory? Not so much. If you are keen on action, try Sweet Girl. But if you are seeking a highly advanced, memorable thriller film, come back to it later.”