Kenji Onishi

Hypnotic shaky bluish sunlight.Read More »

letterboxd:
Blue Max (1997) shows a woman looking out of a window, but also working with extreme close-ups: The street, her neck, the window, her knees, the floor and her toes, brought together by the sound of a passing train. Her ears, her mouth, the wall and the door. The sparkling glass of a window and the young woman on top of a naked young man and later the shadows on the wall of both of them. A telephone is ringing and the clouds in the blue sky are travelling by while it all turns into a rape. And the calmness of both of them is quite irritating when they later watch TV together. Read More »

An 8mm film drama. Written by Fusako Kumagai and directed by Kenji Onishi.Read More »

Sex games turn violent.

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Out of Frame (1996) plays with your expectations and the way how we are used to “read” pictures and their framing. A woman is rubbing herself against a white wall, making the typical noises of having sex from the back, and Onishi takes his time to open the framing and then showing them in explicit positions. You don’t see the penetration but watch the rhythm of two bodies, listening to it, too. The framing by windows will allow you some rest. The man is putting on his clothes and closing the door while the woman is looking out oft he window. Read More »

letterboxd:
The Air-Conditioning System (1997) introduces us to a young man in his flat, and the ways of communication with his girlfriend. The sky is blue and skirts are put on the balcony for drying. The wind will carry everything away, just like the noise and music or the porn we watch with him later on TV (he prefers to look at western blonde women). What will happen when the young woman in her flat will have found out soon that he is looking at her (and listening to her) via the air-conditioning system?Read More »

The clouds are rushing by, and the architecture of men fit so well in that movement. The bricks. The light is harsh and blue. But in the night it is different, you walk down the street and the sun turns into a light bulb again, the houses are asleep. It feels like thunder and the houses seemed to be dipped into blue and turquoise colours. And then it all turns blue again.Read More »

A higher form of love.Read More »

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95mins, 16mm, Sound (no dialogue), Colour
A Burning Star depicts the physicality of destruction and disappearance through images of the Japanese filmmaker’s father who dies and is cremated. Maintaining a solid rhythm and perspective, this film highlights the meaning and importance of “viewing” and “filming” in documentary. (Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Asian Currents Programme)Read More »

letterboxd:
STOP SHOOTING VIDEO, HIT THE STREETS.
An attempt to let one’s identity emerge by piercing fragments of 8mm film shot over some 20 years. The filmmaker’s muttering and breathing reverberate over a series of visual images that invoke the primitive pleasure of an image coming into focus. This is a tribute to the culture of 8mm film, which is nearing its end, and a personal film directed with an approach that sets it apart from other films.Read More »