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Atsushi Funahashi has blossomed into one of the filmmakers to watch in Japan. His lauded 2005 film Big River was shot in the US and 2009’s Deep in the Valley garnered praise as well. Sakura Namiki...
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Japan continues to test the boundaries between live action and animation, and this flick serves both as a pop-culture touchstone and a new attempt to push the genre forward. The Garo franchise has been a...
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Director Tatsuya Omori specializes in harsh depictions of an uncaring world, usually with a protagonist who brutalizes those around him. The formula worked well in his debut piece, The Whispering of the Gods, but it...
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This funny ditty was first screened as the opening film for the Old Town Taito International Comedy Film Festival last year and is based on the successful stage play Kanashimi ni Teyandei by Toshiroichiza Uwanosora....
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This work, which re-interprets Shakespeare’s The Tempest by mixing in Japanese legend, folklore, Buddhist parable and a good dose of Papillon, is the latest frothy brew from director John Williams. For those who don’t know, Williams...
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As with many Japanese blockbusters, this thriller has had a long gestation period in other formats. Originally a novel of the same name by Tetsuya Honda, this tale is part of his series based on...
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French-Canadian director-producer Claude Gagnon has made something of a cottage industry for films about internationals in Japan, the country he lived in for much of the 1970s. His previous work Kamataki (2005) starred the legendary...
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There are many manga franchises in Japan that have been going strong on the printed page for years and Hunter x Hunter is one of them. Now in its 15th year, this saga is serialized...
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Premiering at the Tokyo International Film Fest in 2011, this is a quintessential Japanese indie film—which is to say it falls into all of the traps of poor filmmaking. Shot in black and white with...
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This documentary by French avant-garde filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux is an homage to radical Japanese auteur and Red Army member Masao Adachi, whose story is well-known in Japan though less so overseas. In the 1960s Adachi collaborated...
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Director Yoshimasa Ishibashi’s second feature film is a sumptuous spoof/love story/farce/action pic. If that seems odd and unique—it is. Winner of Best Fantastic Feature at the Fantastic Fest 2011, the film is actually a trilogy...
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Korean-Japanese director and assistant director Masaharu Take has been involved in some excellent work in the past (particularly Pacchigi!; 2005). He has been active in pushing forward the zainichi nipponjin (Korean-Japanese) identity in the field...
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Featured at the recently prestigious Karlovy International Film Fest, this work has a depressive subject and atmosphere. Yet there is something compelling about the sparse storytelling which matches the rough landscape of Shimane prefecture. Chiyo (Keiko...
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Every now and again a Japanese director pops up who seems to hold real promise. This starts with not making any compromises to the overpowering commercial interests that dominate the Japanese film industry. We can...
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There have been plenty of films about people switching bodies (and in the process genders) but I can’t think of a flick where the principles just switch genitalia. Now we have one. This first feature by...
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Enfant terrible director Sono Sion is known for his gory, violent, torturous and anything-to-shock features since he broke through from the fringes with Jisatsu Club (Suicide Club) in 2002. Sono’s previous two efforts, Tsumetai Nettaigyo...
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Following the theme of the supernatural we have this cute comedy with Muga Tsukaji, who won a Japan Academy Award as Best New Actor for his role in the delightful 2006 Yoshimitsu Morita film Mamiya...
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Based on the Naoki Award-winning novel of the same name by author Shingetsu Tsujimura, this tale delves into the otherworldly in a matter-of-fact way that Japan films are adept at doing. Ayumu (Toori Matsuzaka) seems like...
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Just when I think Japanese film has relapsed into simply churning out Hollywood imitations, pathetic tearjerkers, or ultra-violent tripe, along comes a film like Petal Dance and renews my faith. Wonderfully shot, poetic, thoughtful and finely...