Author: Ben Dimagmaliw

Aristocrats feature image

Aristocrats

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Hanako and Miki come from different walks of life. While Hanako has enjoyed a privileged upbringing and a luxurious lifestyle, filled with social functions among Tokyo’s wealthy elite, Miki has had to blaze her own path, coming to the capital from a small town and building a career in event planning. Yet, neither woman can be said to be completely free from troubles; Hanako’s familial pressures to marry and follow standards of behaviour are equalled by Miki’s financial problems which force her to drop out of a prestigious university. When their paths are set on a collision course over the affections of aristocratic lawyer Koichiro, both realise that there may be another path available to them. (Institute of Contemporary Arts) Sode Yukiko Screenwriter and director Sode Yukiko has made three features since 2008. Her debut Mime-Mime premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival. She directed her second feature in 2015, Good Stripes, which examined Japan’s modern practice of couples committing to marriage only after there’s a pregnancy. In 2020 she made her third feature, Aristocrats. Drawing on Yamauchi Mariko’s novel …

Secret Breaths feature image

Secret Breaths

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Yuriko had been violently hurt by love and has given up on everything. She ends up wandering around an island where she meets a strange man, Iwai, who is renting out a room at his house for 500 yen a day. Deciding to stay at Iwai’s house that night, Yuriko peeks in on Iwai and spies his closet actions that comes across as if he’s clinging on to a past love. Despite ridiculing Iwai, she is intrigued and continues to live with him as if nothing happened. She passes the day peacefully with Iwai, but at night peeks in on his intense acts. Why does he do what he does? Ultimately, Yuriko’s desires spur her to surprising actions of her own and their lives take an unexpected turn.  Murata Yui Given the Hokkaido-born actress’ early filmography, appearing in such J-cult classics as Helldriver and Yakuza Weapon, Murata Yui might have become one of Japan’s cult movie queens. But she diversified and also appeared in indie fare such as Imaizumi Rikiya’s ensemble Same Old, Same Old. Recently she was one …

2021 Year-In-Review Main Image

2021 Year-in-Review

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Instead of publishing a year-in-review article at the outset of 2021, I wrote an article compiling together information which had gone neglected over the previous year, but were still worthy of attention. My workload in 2020 necessitated putting Indievisual on the back burner so often the article was warranted. The only interview published then was for Nakano Ryota which has now graced the “Latest Interview” splash at the top of the site for two years! Unfortunately, with 2021 being similarly busy (a little less than 2020) no new interviews were published last year though one had been scheduled before the director had to cancel for personal reasons. I still do hope to interview this director sometime in the future. I did, however, manage speak with director Nakanishi Mai and write a feature about her experience shooting her latest horror short movie, Swallow. Ms. Nakanishi’s ability to speak English negated the necessity to translate our dialogue thus allowing for a quick production of the article which went live in October. 2021 was also the year I broke …