Author Archives: Lewis Packwood

About Lewis Packwood

The first game that Lewis ever played was "Horace Goes Skiing" on the ZX Spectrum. Yes, he's that old.

Seven Samurai and a momentous year for Japanese cinema

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Thanks to John Oleszkiewicz for recommending our film this time around – the wonderful Seven Samurai from director Akira Kurosawa. We were initially alarmed by the film’s weighty 207-minute running time, but I can safely say that I enjoyed every goddamn minute – and in fact I wanted to watch it again as soon as it finished. Great recommendation.

As we discuss in the podcast, 1954 was a pretty special year for Japanese cinema, with the release of both Seven Samurai and the influential Godzilla, both from the studios of Toho. The two couldn’t be more different, but both went on to receive numerous remakes and had a huge impact on popular culture. Yet just four years earlier, neither film could have been made under the strict censorship rules of the American occupation force in Japan.

The podcast is mostly spoiler-free, but we do spend the last couple of minutes talking about the ending – listen out for the awooga warning if you want to avoid spoilers.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy the Seven Samurai DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon by clicking here (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance).

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 085 – Seven Samurai

We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director:  Akira Kurosawa Year of release: 1954 Studio/Distributor: Toho Country: Japan

Redline is an anime roller-coaster ride

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After a now-customary lengthy hiatus, here we are with another piping hot cup ‘o podcast, our mellifluous voices poised to sluice through your ears and soak your thirsty brain with ill-informed opinions about a film we’ve only just watched. And Redline is an absolute cracker of a film that may have snuck beneath most people’s noses.

But this podcast very nearly didn’t make it off Ian’s computer and into your aural cavities. In fact, this was our second attempt at it, after the first, finished podcast unceremoniously disappeared from Ian’s aforementioned laptop, a victim of the gremlins that of late have plagued Ian’s cursed machine. A New Year podcast we recorded at the start of 2017 disappeared in a similar fashion, dampening our spirits and partially explaining why we didn’t have the heart/couldn’t be bothered to record any podcasts this year.

But at least we have ONE podcast for 2017. And hopefully more to follow very soon. At this rate we’ll definitely reach 101 by the time our kids have left home. Enjoy.

If our review has piqued your interest in the film, you can buy the Redline DVD from Amazon by clicking here (and we get a little bit of cash if you do – thanks in advance).

Anyway, without further ado, let us present our feature presentation:

Click here to download and listen on your MP3 player of choice:

101 Films Podcast 084 – Redline

We’d love to hear your own film recommendations – please get in touch at 101filmsyoushouldhaveseen@gmail.com or leave a comment on the blog. Feel free to say nice things about us on iTunes!

Director:  Takeshi Koike Year of release: 2009 Studio/Distributor: Madhouse/Tohokushinsha Film Country: Japan

Mulholland Drive

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A great review of 101 Films favourite, Mulholland Drive.

MARKED MOVIES


Director: David Lynch.
Screenplay: David Lynch.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Ann Miller, Robert Forster, Brent Briscoe, Dan Hedaya, Patrick Fischler, Michael Cooke, Michael J. Anderson, Melissa George, Jeanne Bates, Angelo Badalamenti, Mark Pellegrino, Lori Heuring, Billy Ray Cyrus, Missy Crider, Chad Everett, Monty Montgomery, Scott Coffey, Bonnie Aarons, Rebekah Del Rio.

“It’ll be just like in the movies. Pretending to be somebody else.”

A recent poll by BBC Culture surveyed the opinion of film critics, academics, and curators from 36 countries across every continent which consisted of 177 of the worlds foremost movie experts. They were tasked to compile an international list of the top 100 films released since the year 2000 and come up with the best film of this century so far. It’s no easy task but when all was said and done, the film that topped the list was David Lynch’s…

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