Caniba

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1:53

Caniba

Released Oct 19, 2018

1h 30m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

58%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

36%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Interviews with famous Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa.

Critics Consensus

In terms of form as well as content, Caniba is decidedly not for everyone, but its story - and the questions it poses - are hard to ignore.

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A.A. Dowd

AV Club

"I can't stomach this anymore," Jun eventually remarks, as his brother pages through his illustrated confession. That makes all of us.

Rated: C+

Oct 21, 2018

Full Review

Michael Nordine

indieWire

Caniba features no explanatory text or outside voices of any kind.

Rated: C+

Oct 19, 2018

Full Review

Glenn Kenny

New York Times

I consider Sagawa repellent, and the movie an exercise in intellectualized scab-picking.

Oct 18, 2018

Full Review

Panos Kotzathanasis

Asian Movie Pulse

Evidently, "Caniba" is not a movie for everyone, both for its theme and its presentation. However, it is also a unique experience, a truly original movie that manages to shed light into the lowest depths of human nature

Dec 2, 2019

Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

Rather than sensationalizing their gruesome subject, they use it to hold a mirror up to the audience, and the disarming act of introspection should make us all a little nauseous.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 3, 2019

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Marshall Shaffer

Vague Visages

It's puzzling to reconcile how Castaing-Taylor and Paravel simultaneously operate on such a high level ... while also strapping themselves into an aesthetic chastity belt.

Jan 24, 2019

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Froostii B

Quite honestly the most boring, pointless movie I've ever seen. If you wanna watch people talk EXTREMELY slowly about basically nothing interesting, this is it.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/28/23

Full Review

desmond b

Canniba is made by two artists/anthropologists, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor from Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab. Unlike the more standard documentaries which deal in psychoanalytic speculations and dramatic narration, this one is an extreme close-up of the cannibal himself, in his declining years. The film seems to ask us to consider our own fetishes and asks whether we are repulsed by Sagawa's acts, or by the abjection in ourselves which he forces us to confront. My full review is at https://thecannibalguy.com/2022/05/15/issei-sagawa-caniba/

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Verena Paravel

Director

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Director

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Producer

Verena Paravel

Producer

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Cinematographer

Verena Paravel

Cinematographer

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Caniba: Trailer 1

1:53

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Synopsis

Interviews with famous Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa.

Director: Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Producer: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel
Distributor: Grasshopper Film
Production Co: Norte Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 19, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 12, 2020
Runtime: 1h 30m

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