This set of 7 short films, all by notable Japanese film directors, made for a very involving hour and fifty minutes. I noticed that one of the production companies was Sega, and the collection had a rather amazing computer generated intro. Here is the run down of them:
- The Messenger: This darkly shot horror – a quiet woman visits a gangster in a morgue-like building – made great use of sound, with minimal dialogue to keep the tension flowing. It reminded me of a comic strip as the characters did not tend to move very much at all and when there was action it was so rapid almost becoming picture like.
- Kendama: By contrast to the first short this farcical story was very amusing. The story was about a cup-and-ball game that, by a series of misadventures, ends up in the hands of three different owners – changing their lives.
- Cold Sleep: Somewhere in outer space the survival of the human race depends upon six hand-picked people. This was another funny, stylish, film with a wry look at father-daughter relationships. It was also was the most surreal of all the films.
- Pandora-Hong Kong Leg: What is in the box that can cure athletes foot? That is the premise of this slightly erotic tale about a woman’s investigations into alternative medicine.
- Hijiki: A man holds three women hostage in a flat, this play-like film had very interesting dialogue and kept the tension rising whilst simultaneously bringing humour into an odd situation. Sadly I thought the ending was slightly obvious and anti-climatical especially considering the build-up beforhand.
- Justice: This was my favourite film of the bunch, although it had a slightly dodgy voyeuristic shots at many points. During a boring English lesson in a Japanese high-school (during which the teacher is getting the class to translate the Potsdam Declaration), a boy becomes obsessed with the sports class outside in the school. The film was simple but stylish and very fun to watch.
- Arita: Whilst some reviews rave about this film I personally felt it would have been better placed towards the beginning of the collection. The tale of a young girl’s doodle taking on a life of its own was quite interesting, but for me the film’s premise did not carry the length of the story. However, I will be checking the internet for the website they seem to plug in the film!
Hi, I found an article in a japanese gaming magazine about these Jam Films and I was wondering how you were able to view them whilst the dvd is still in japan and not available in america (if thats where your from). I would really like to get a hold of this dvd (preferably english subtitled if i could) but do not know where to find it. Do you happen to know any place I could purchase it? Please email me at nuanceoftoast@yahoo.com. Thanks
You can currently get "Jam Films" from http://www.amazon.co.jp/ ! It's about 5,000 yen, so that's quite cheap, as for shipping, or English subtitles; well, that's a different matter!