As the men wait it out at the secluded beach house, they play Frisbee, dress up as geishas, practice sumo wrestling and engage in a bizarre version of rock-paper-scissors in which the winner gets to shoot a beer can off the loser’s head. The point, as far as we can see it, is to show the banality of passing time. But Kitano’s directing style—which verges on slapstick at times—becomes campy and occasionally downright silly. As Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote, “The picture ricochets from random urban mob hits to horseplay in the sand that wouldn’t have looked out of place on The Monkees.”
Japan
100 Greatest Gangster Films: Sonatine, #82
by George Anastasia, Glen Macnow
April 5th, 2012
Blu-Ray Review – Battle Royale: The Complete Collection
by Dan Fields
March 26th, 2012
Quentin Tarantino proclaims ”My favorite movie of the last 20 years! I wish I had made this movie.” That is as perfect an endorsement as a film distributor could hope to have, especially when selling a film like Battle Royale to a hungry cult audience.
The Weekly Listicle: Worlds Of Fancy And Other Wondrous Places
by Dan Fields
November 19th, 2010
A cleverly rendered fantasy world has the power to make us believe astounding things, and to transport us to places we may never have imagined ourselves. In the history of film there have been countless attempts to take real-world places and performers outside the realm of what has been seen before, and into far-off lands where the amazing, the terrifying, and the marvelous lurk around every corner.
The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley
by Elinor Teele
December 8th, 2009
James Bradley doesn’t like Theodore Roosevelt. Let’s get that clear from the get-go. Nor does he have much time for William Howard Taft, the gargantuan gourmand, Roosevelt’s right-hand man and his successor as president. And after reading The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War, I have the sneaky suspicion that there’s not much love lost for George Bush, either.
Einstein in Japan
by Sari Kawana
June 9th, 2008
The cult of Einstein reached the point where university officials in Fukuoka preserved the blackboard on which Einstein had scribbled during a lecture and forgot to erase. Shikanogi Masanobu, a professor in the humanities who sat in on Einstein’s lectures for six days, recalled: “I heard the quiet, serene sounds of his spirit. His thinking progresses steadily, quietly, like the melting of spring snow, without running, while sprinkling the meadow of knowledge with his jewels of mathematical equations.”
Parag Khanna Discusses The Second World
by Paul Comstock
March 4th, 2008
“Around the entire world what I see is Europe and China investing into and buying greater shares of foreign economies—and thus gaining significant political and even military leverage over them—at our expense. Power has to be a fair balance among a range of tools, including the military, in order to be used effectively. We’re not doing that now, and I don’t see a good strategy coming out of Washington as to how to do it better.”
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
by M. Kellner
June 25th, 2007
This relationship — Mari, plain and studious; Eri, “gorgeous” and shallow — is our first intimation of where After Dark is really looking. Takahashi addresses the question to Mari this way: “I wonder how it turns out that we all lead such different lives. Take you and your sister, for example. You’re both born to the same parents, you grow up in the same household, you’re both girls. How do you end up with such wildly different personalities?” Here is After Dark‘s central preoccupation: different lives and different states of being, this side and the other side, within ourselves and between ourselves and other people.
A Grand Tour of Asia – by Hania Tallmadge and Beverley Jackson
by John Holt
May 27th, 2007
I’m not sure what category A Grand Tour of Asia by Hania Tallmadge and Beverley Jackson should be put in. It’s certainly not a novel or narrative non-fiction or even a coffee table book (unless a downsized model). Other than the fact that it has a hardcover and pages inside, I’m not all that sure this one is really a book.

Latest CLR Blog Entries
The Fourth Wall: A Film and Television Blog
100 Greatest Gangster Films: The Godfather: Part III, #75
When You See Sparks: A CLR Music Blog
Album Review: Iggy Pop’s Après
After Image: Art, Architecture and Design
The Forgotten Sculpture of John B. Flannagan
Alone Together: A CLR Theater Blog
Less Than Kind by Terence Rattigan: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, England.
Dance Vine
Smuin Ballet and Diablo Ballet: Two Praiseworthy Bay Area Dance Companies
The Dialogue Tree: A Video Game Blog
Overachievers: In Pursuit Of 1000G
CLR's most popular articles
- The Killing Recap: Openings (Season 2, Episode 6) (4,421 views)
- House Recap: ‘Everybody Dies’ (Season 8, Episode 22 – Series Finale) (3,690 views)
- The Massive Effect a Boss Makes (3,283 views)
- Kick-Ass and the Hit-Girl debacle (2,687 views)
- The Killing Recap: Keylela (Season 2, Episode 7) (2,495 views)
- House Recap: ‘Holding On’ (Season 8, Episode 21) (2,461 views)
- House Recap: ‘The C-Word’ (Season 8, Episode 19) (2,256 views)
- Sherlock Recap: 'The Reichenbach Fall' (2,200 views)
- House Recap: ‘Post Mortem’ (Season 8, Episode 20) (2,166 views)
- Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters (2,123 views)
- Photo Essay: North Korean Propaganda Posters (184,844 views)
- The Help by Kathryn Stockett (171,933 views)
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (75,512 views)
- Kick-Ass and the Hit-Girl debacle (74,676 views)
- Erotic Art of Ancient Pompeii (56,454 views)
- Video Game Review: Mass Effect 3 (51,193 views)
- Images from How To Photograph an Atomic Bomb (45,618 views)
- Frida Kahlo at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (44,469 views)
- The Strange World of Quantum Entanglement (37,084 views)
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy (34,691 views)
Get The Latest California Literary Review Updates Delivered Free To Your Inbox!
Powered by FeedBlitz
Recent Comments:
- The Killing Recap: Sayonara, Hiawatha (Season 2, Episode 9): Jen notes: If they pull the plug, can we campaign to get Holder his own show?
- House Recap: ‘Everybody Dies’ (Season 8, Episode 22 – Series Finale): Debs notes: Brilliant and insightful summary. Def agree with the Edelstein theory (that Stacy’s scene was written for...
- The Killing Recap: Sayonara, Hiawatha (Season 2, Episode 9): Victor notes: As usual Brett, your review is right on the money. This was a surprisingly decent episode, as it went back to what it did...
- Mad Men Recap: “The Christmas Waltz” (Season 5, Episode 10) : Benson notes: Though I thought this episode was much stronger than others this season, I still am looking for characters...
- The 2012-2013 Television Season: An Overall Look: Brett Harrison Davinger notes: @Ivey West So there’s one thing in the world of television that I can’t blame on NBC. Thanks for the...
Follow the California Literary Review on Twitter: @calitreview
