A freak accident in a bathhouse destabilises the lives of an ordinary family in Shen Lianlian’s indie drama.
Jun 18, 2022 • Subscribe
More like this
Drifting (濁水漂流, Jun Li, 2021)
Hong Kong’s homeless find themselves pushed ever further into the margins by an increasingly unequal society in Jun Li’s gritty drama
Lost Love (流水落花, Ka Sing Fung, 2022)
A grieving mother attempts to redefine her life by caring for the children of others in Ka Sing Fung’s poignant maternal drama.
Chang’e (常娥, Shen Lianlian, 2021)
An embittered factory worker’s stultifying life in rural China is enlivened by a man who organises ceremonies for the dead in Shen Lianlian’s indie drama.
#85 Nano Hazard (Ft. Shen from Shen Comix)
Manga by Kurihara, Shoushou (Story), Kazaana (Art) Is this manga bad? Even we haven’t made up our mind until the end of the episode! We and…
A Summer Trip (川流不“熄”, Feng Keyu, 2021)
A wayward young man comes to understand more about himself and his family on a summer road trip with grandpa in Feng’s warmhearted drama
Blog Check-in: Where Life Led Me in 2021
Hey guys, it’s Rand. I wanted to let you know what I’ve been doing while having an unprecedented hiatus. I know it’s needed to take breaks when it…
Hidden Blade (无名, Cheng Er, 2023)
Ideologically victorious but emotionally ruined, sleeper agents of a coming revolution find themselves lonely exiles in Cheng Er’s melancholy espionage drama.
Episode 641: Nu Wu Shen de Craft
We got old men in politics who don't get anime, solving crimes with a legal loli, and making our own spinoffs. First up comes the IRL news as…
Warm Current (暖流, Yasuzo Masumura, 1957)
A trio of youngsters tussle for the post-war future through the medium of a love triangle in Masumura’s ironic melodrama
INTERVIEW: SHEN of BLUE CHAIR talks Try Guys
K-Comics Beat interviews Shen about Webcomics, Webtoons, The Try Guys, and so much more. Read all about it!
The Funeral (頭七, Shen Dan-Quei, 2022)
A haunted single mother is plagued by supernatural dread on returning to her family for a funeral in Shen Dan-Quei,s eerie gothic horror.
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (春江水暖, Gu Xiaogang, 2019)
Intergenerational conflict and familial strife unfold in the manner of a scroll painting in Gu Xiaogang’s beautifully lensed social drama.
Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers (流浪北京, Wu Wenguang, 1990)
Wu Wenguang’s seminal indie documentary follows a group of bohemian artists eventually scattered by the events of 1989
No Call No Life (2021) review
”While not perfect by any means, Igashi still delivers an enjoyable romance narrative.”
August in the Water (水の中の八月, Sogo Ishii, 1995)
How does the world, or perhaps the cosmos, attempt to communicate with us? As Douglas Adams once did, August in the Water (水の中の八月, Mizu no naka no Hachigatsu)…
Swimming in a Sand Pool (水深ゼロメートルから, Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2024)
A group of high school girls ponder the role of gender in their lives while shovelling the sand in Nobuhiro Yamashita’s charming teen comedy.
The Dry Spell (渇水, Masaya Takahashi, 2023)
A literal drought becomes a metaphor for bureaucratic heartlessness in Masaya Takahashi’s empathetic social drama.
My Life in Versailles
My Life in Versailles follows 8-year-old Violette as she moves in with her Uncle Regis after her parents are killed in a terrorist attack.
Summer 2021 First Impressions – Remake Our Life!
Streaming: Crunchyroll Episodes: 12 Source: Light Novel Episode Summary: Please note – the first episode of this series is an hour-long special. I will endeavor to keep the…
No More Bets (孤注一掷, Shen Ao, 2023)
An ambitious programmer finds himself trafficked by scammers after hastily accepting a job abroad in Shen Ao’s tense cyber thriller.
2021 in Review
The world continues to go to hell in a handbasket. The pandemic continues to rage. The world supply chain is borked. Inflation is rampant. W...
Rain Boy, Yawara!, Bakumatsu no Spasibo, Super Cub, Horimiya
Tokyo Drifter (東京流れ者, Seijun Suzuki, 1966)
A recently released yakuza attempts to join the new society by going straight but finds his efforts frustrated by upstart gangsters in Seijun Suzuki’s postmodern noir.
Velvet Hustler (紅の流れ星, Toshio Masuda, 1967)
A gangster laying low realises there is no escape from his sense of ennui in Toshio Masuda’s post-modern re-imagining of his earlier Red Pier
Remake Our Life - A Film About Regrets in Life
We all make mistakes. It's just a profound factor in life. But one unfortunate thing about life is that once a decision is made, reverting back to its…
Life For Sale (售命, Tom Teng, 2021)
A nihilistic insurance broker decides to sell his life but is drawn into a dark web of crime and conspiracy in Tom Teng’s stylish thriller.
![Featured image for The Umbrella Fairy (伞少女, Shen Jie, 2024) [Fantasia 2024]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240803/1722644994.88176.128371.jpg)
The Umbrella Fairy (伞少女, Shen Jie, 2024) [Fantasia 2024]
Should you be bound by the past or try to forge your own destiny? It might be an odd question seeing as the central thesis of Shen Jie’s…
The Old Town Girls (兔子暴力, Shen Yu, 2020)
The left behind children of decaying industrial China find themselves at the mercy of a corrupted parental legacy in Shen Yu’s gritty neo-noir
A Weekend in my Life (in Japan)
While the vast majority of my uploads these days are my diary entries instead of travel posts, I recently realised that I could make things even more personal.…
Evolution in A Centaur’s Life
Evolution in A Centaur’s Life As I have said before, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is a major underpinning of modern biology and A Centaur’s Life is unique in…
Farming Life In Another World
Episodes: 12 Summary: Hiraku dies purely by accident due to a God not giving him good luck, so he reincarnates him in another world as an apology; even…
Life in an Anime Fandom
This was originally a response to Scott, but I ended up weaving my own post about a topic I wanted to write about anyway, so…here we are.
Loner Life in Another World
Information for the light novel series Loner Life in Another World. The official English release is from Seven Seas.
Thoughts on Life in Tokyo
Takeshita-dôri in Harajuku. Back to a manageable, pleasant level of crowds. This is more like what it was when I came to Tokyo the first time in 2003;…
Loner Life in Another World
Information for the light novel series Loner Life in Another World. The official English release is from Seven Seas.
The Easy Life in Kamusari
Japanese Title: 神去なあなあ日常 (Kamusari naa naa nichijō)Author: Shion Miura (三浦 しをん)Translator: Juliet Winters CarpenterPublication Year: 2012 (Japan); 2021 (United States)Press: Amazon CrossingPages: 1…
Contemporary Japanese Literature
Juliet, Nichijou - My Ordinary Life: Episode 0, Nichijou - My Ordinary Life
Eye for an Eye: The Blind Swordsman (目中无人, Yang Bingjia, 2022)
A blind swordsman takes revenge against the evils of feudal society in Yang Bingjia’s impressively helmed action drama,
![Featured image for Episode #89 (S11E9) – Tokyo Drifter [東京流れ者] (1966)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240911/1726042794.89884.130564.jpg)
Episode #89 (S11E9) – Tokyo Drifter [東京流れ者] (1966)
Director Seijun Suzuki is a really unique figure in the world of Japanese cinema, with a style all his own. In this episode, Japanese film scholar Jennifer Upton…
Minamata Mandala (水俣曼荼羅, Kazuo Hara, 2020)
Kazuo Hara’s empathetic documentary follows suffers and researchers of Minamata Disease as they battle continued governmental indifference
River of Salvation (一江春水, Gao Qisheng, 2020)
The seemingly boring life of a dejected young woman is disrupted by a series of revelations and reversals in Gao Qisheng’s indie drama
Winter 2021 Check-in
I haven't had occasion to say it for a long time, but Winter 2021 is starting to resemble a pretty good anime season. Read more
Watching Anime in 2021
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 2021’s one of the strongest recent years for anime I can think of. We saw some…
Summer 2021 Check-in
I've gotten about what I expected out of the season so far, but I wasn't expecting much. Read more
Spring 2021 Check-in
Both anime and I have changed a lot since we last had a season like this. Read more
2021 in retrospect: introduction
Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to what is hopefully something you’ve come to look forward to reading as much as I look forward to posting them — my…
Spring 2021 in Review
This past anime season, counting holdovers from the Winter 2021 season, I watched 26 anime. Of those, I completed 22. Normally, we at the Backloggers would do an…
Year in review 2021
As I sit at my desk typing up this long overdue post, I’m reflecting on all that has changed over these last 6 months. Normally this post would…
Summer in Japan 2021
Last year in the summer I went on a good road trip with a few friends through Nagano Prefecture. This year, I didn’t get up to as much,…
Fall 2021 Check-in
We're at the point with anime where a lack of big surprises is itself unsurprising. Read more
Life in Japan Episode 1: Christmas in Kyoto
The start of a new KFC holiday tradition - Kyoto For Christmas. Read more