Bright Future
dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
2003

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) has made a name for himself as a director of horror/suspense/thrillers, but he departed from his previous work to create Bright Future, an enigmatic exploration of slacker youths.

Most reviews that I've read (see links below) have been quite unfavorable, but there is something about this film that really resonates with me. Maybe it's because I myself am a huge slacker searching for that "pet" project to spark my motivation, or maybe it's cuz I'm a huge a Tadanobu Asano fan.

Reviews:
Midnight Eye
Onion A.V.

Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu
dir. Takashi Miike
2003

Takashi Miike has directed some of the weirdest films I have ever seen, and Gozu is his most surreal film to date. The film is very reminiscent of David Lynch's work, particularly Lost Highway, and after watching the special features on the DVD, I now know Miike was intentially eliciting such allusions.

Reviews:
Midnight Eye
Onion A.V. Club

All About Lily Chou-Chou
dir. Shunji Iwai
2001

All About Lily Chou-Chou is yet another one of those films about which I could write a book, and so, I will probably spend so much time trying to collect my thoughts that I will never getting around to finishing this post.

In the mean time, I will say this: I consider myself lucky to be among the "handful of highly evolved film watchers," as Roger Ebert puts it in his unfavorable review. While I agree with Ebert that the film is very "enigmatic, oblique and meandering," I think All About Lily Chou-Chou and it's exploration of adolescence and bullies will still resonate with anyone who gets to experience the film. Part of me wants so badly to share this film with everyone I know, to make them love it as much as I love it, and yet the selfish part of me takes comfort in the notion that I am one of the few people who will ever really appreciate such a beautiful a film as this.

Link: http://www.dieselsweeties.com/archive.php?s=833

I canceled my cable so now the only TV i get is "snow" on the "weather" channel. Good thing i have a kick ass dvd collection.

Speaking of DVDs, I was inspired to do this whole dreamblog idea by watching the Michel Gondry DVD (part of the Director's Series) cuz many of Gondry's mind-blowing music videos were inspired by his own personal dreams (especially "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters)