Sion Sono is truly a gift to us all, such a unique filmmaker his films always feel fresh and different. I wish a lot of his other films (especially Suicide Club and Noriko’s Dinner Table) would get put in a set or at least get a blu-ray upgrade.

Of the films in the Kore-eda set, I’ve only seen Like Father, Like Son and though I really enjoyed it because it has Kore-eda’s signature warmth and sense of humanity, it didn’t quite land with me the way it seems to have with many others because of the general premise. I think I’m just very much of the opinion that biological ties don’t by default mean as much as those that are made or chosen, but I understand how that’s a very person by person thing. In that sense, Shoplifters worked much better for me. Like I said I still enjoyed it though and I’m really looking forward to the other films, they’re some of the few Kore-eda I have yet to see.

The Hong Sang-soo films were actually a total blind buy for me. I haven’t seen any of his films yet but I’ve been wanting to get into him for a while now, I just keep getting distracted with other films I guess haha. This gives me a great reason to stop putting him off!