“Just in time for the holidays, here’s a slice of existential parental terror: The World of Kanako, Japanese filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima’s follow-up to his 2010 film, Confessions. That picture made the AMPAS shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film back in 2011. By contrast, it’s hard to imagine the pundits who comprise the Academy’s voting body watching The World of Kanako without losing their lunches. The hectic, sprawling story is bookended with two separate Christmas seasons that act as the bread to a blood-caked sandwich. Nakashima’s made a brutal movie that’s as exploitative as it is chaotic, but chiefly it’s a multifaceted tale wrapped around an emotionally tangible experience: the grown-up fear of not truly knowing your children.” (Via Movie Mezzanine.)
A Constant Visual Feast 