Get the latest gossip
‘Ravens’ Review: ‘Shogun’ Star Tadanobu Asano Plays Celebrated Photographer Masahisa Fukase in a Fascinating Biopic
Starring 'Shogun' actor Tadanobu Asano, Mark Gill’s depiction of Fukuse’s turbulent life and brilliant work is inventively told and lovingly packaged.
An entity no one but Fukase can see and whom he sometimes talks to when others are present, the Raven (played by Jose Luis Ferrer under a stunning creature suit and speaking in husky English) is the conduit that brings viewers into the mind of an artist who is not always likable but is never less than interesting. By delightful contrast, Fukase’s innovative work in commercial photography causes a stir with his old-fashioned clients when he asks the female model in a vacuum cleaner sales shoot to “play” the appliance like a guitar and strike a rock star pose. Whether playing Yoko bopping around as a kind-of Edie Sedgwick “it” girl in Tokyo’s 1960s underground scene, demanding her rights as a woman and an artist in the 1970s or remaining part of Fukase’s life during his terribly sad final years, Takiuchi is simply wonderful.
Or read this on Variety