This film, an international collaboration with director Korean John H. Lee, serves as the comeback vehicle for talented actress Miho Nakayama. Unfortunately, the script is so weak and the tear-jerking so ham-fisted that the project...
This wacky animated flick is high on novelty value. Like South Park, it's a crudely put-together cartoon that started out as an underground hit, then moved to TV and film. Creator Frogman (a.k.a. Ryo Ono),...
The idea of making a film comprised of a single continuous shot has been tried numerous times, perhaps most impressively in Aleksandr Sokurov’s highly praised Russian Ark (2003). But director Tetsuaki Matsue and musician Kenta...
1. Dare mo Shiranai (2004) Hirokazu Koreeda has never been more in control of his craft than with this thoroughly compelling drama of children who must fend for themselves after being deserted by their mother. The...
Toshiaki Toyoda is one of the most interesting and talented directors to emerge from Japan in the last ten years. His fresh and vibrant Pornostar (1998) announced the arrival of a new talent, and many...
This omnibus work attempts to capture the zeitgeist of the oughts by presenting three self-contained films from a trio of directors. Kumiko Hoshizaki’s “Akane Sasu Heya” is the story of Maki, a 20-something temp who...
For his fourth film, director Takayuki Suzui (Angel in the Box) adapts a short story by popular writer Jiro Asada (Poppoya). Despite problems with the setup, Gin Iro no Ame offers an interesting plot. Kazuya...
The direct translation of Nakinagara Ikite is “living while crying,” and at times it seems this film’s raison d’etre is to make everyone in it, and the audience, break down in tears. That said, the...
Director Katsuyuki Motohiro is best known for the phenomenally successful action series Odaru Daisosasen (“Bayside Shakedown”), but he also does pretty well with comedy. Although Summer Time Machine Blues (2005) was a dud, Motohiro has...
During the past 25 years, writer-director Yoshimitsu Morita has been one of the stalwarts of Japanese cinema. In 1983, he burst out of his “pink” (soft-core porn) past and into the mainstream with the deliciously...
Sometimes you run across a movie that makes you scratch your head and wonder how the director failed to realize he or she was making something nearly unwatchable. That’s the case with Setsuro Wakamatsu’s three-hour...
The original US version of Sideways (2004) was a charming film with a tour-de-force performance by the inimitable Paul Giamatti. This begs the question: why redo it? Although that query hangs in the air with...
Osamu Dazai was one of the postwar Japanese authors who set the stage for the country to emerge as a major force in contemporary fiction. This year, the centenary of his birth, sees three of...
Despite the fact that this film is full of laughable overacting and weighted down with an overwrought scenario (the main character spends a full 30 minutes on a beam between two skyscrapers), there is a...
This new work by hyper-tacky director Noboru Iguchi is more of the same lewd comedy-splatter that we’ve come to expect. (In terms of taste, all you need to know about Iguchi is that he once...
Vying for the title of Best Living Japanese Filmmaker are Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Both of their most recent works, Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata and Kore-eda’s Aruitemo, Aruitemo (“Still Walking”), were near-masterpieces. Now Kore-eda unveils...
Talented writer/directors like Satoshi Miki (Tenten) and Kankuro Kudo (The Shonen Merikensack) have ushered in an era of Japanese comedy where surreal visuals, a frenetic pace and all manner of pop references prevail. But unless...
Much like Naomi Kawase’s 2008 film Nanayomachi, Pool is a slow, contemplative effort that pays more attention to mood than plot or character development. This kind of movie can be engaging if done well, but...
Co-directed by acclaimed Japanese auteur Nobuhiro Suwa and French actor/director Hippolyte Girardot, this finely crafted film is one of the few recent international collaborations to bring out the best in everyone involved. Yuki (Noë Sampy)...