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The title of the latest film by the director of In The Realm Of The Senses translates as "taboo", so you'd expect something shockingly controversial. Instead Gohatto is a confusing and often boring examination of forbidden love among 19th century samurai.
New recruit Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda) has a pure, androgynous beauty that has a disruptive effect on his fellow trainees. Soon sexual tension is running high and blood is running freely. But although homosexuality was tolerated - - promoted even - - within the world of the samurai, Oshima sees it as a destructive, negative force.
The lyrical mood is reinforced by a strong score from Ryuichi Sakamoto, but the director's approach is too detached and abstract to engage viewers on an emotional level. His heavy-handed methods - - wordy intertitles and voiceovers - - fail to clarify problems of story, character and time-frame.
Despite its perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, Arcane season 2 has been toppled in the Netflix streaming charts by an unlikely drama
Square Enix finally removes its ban on sharing Final Fantasy 7's biggest spoiler, 27 years after it first happened in the original JRPG
The Asus ROG Ally X just got Black Friday'd, and I'd pick it up if you're tormented by handheld battery life
