Japan

A collection of 62 posts

Anno Hideaki

Shin Godzilla: Orthochromatic (Anno Hideaki & Higuchi Shinji, 2016)

It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years since Shin Godzilla. I guess a lot of things have happened in the world since 2016, but it doesn’t really seem all that long ago. Anno Hideaki and Higuchi Shinji have since proceeded to reinvent the sci-fi films of

Strange Tales

2023 Fall Festival Compilation

As I put together in 2022 and again for last Spring, here is a collection of the reviews I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of various film festivals from around the world. For publication here, the reviews have been re-edited and occasionally expanded. Check out the rest of

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Obayashi Nobuhiko

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1983)

Anno Hideaki

Hideaki Anno Capsule Reviews

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) - August 13, 2021 “Our plot unfolds and Shinji unravels.” Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) - August 13, 2021 Getting into parts of the series I don’t remember well at all (it’s been 20 years since I

Devils on the Doorstep

Matsui Daigo

Reviews: Just Remembering (2021) – July 25, 2022 Hand (2022) – August 4, 2023 Rewrite (2025) – August 15, 2025 List: Matsui Daigo Movies

Japan

Japan Cuts 2023 - Part Two

One of the fun things about a smaller festival like Japan Cuts is that most of the movies playing there are ones I haven’t heard anything about before hand. I’ve got to pick and choose what I watch based on a brief synopsis and a list of filmmakers.

Devils on the Doorstep

Slices of Life - Japan Cuts 2023

Every year these midsummer weeks of late July and early August see the best showcases for East Asian film in North America arrive in New York City and, by the miracle of online screeners, in my inbox. While the New York Asian Film Festival (follow the link to see my

Strange Tales

2023 Spring Festival Compilation

As I put together last year, here is a collection of the reviews I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of various film festivals from around the world so far this year. Check out the rest of the festival coverage at the site, they've got a lot

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Sakamoto Yugo

A Janitor and Yellow Dragon's Village (Sakamoto Yugo, 2021)

Devils on the Doorstep

Kitano Takeshi

Reviews: Kubi (2023) – July 23, 2024 Broken Rage (2024) – February 19, 2025 Capsule Reviews: Violent Cop (1989) - April 13, 2016 Sonatine (1993) - April 14, 2016 List: Kitano Takeshi Movies

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Obayashi Nobuhiko

School in the Crosshairs (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1981)

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Obayashi Nobuhiko

House (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1977)

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A Better Tomorrow

Wolf Pack and Baby Assassins (Michael Chiang, 2022 and Sakamoto Yugo, 2021)

Devils on the Doorstep

Yamashita Nobuhiro

Reviews: Linda Linda Linda (2005) – September 4, 2025 Capsule Reviews: Linda Linda Linda (2005) — May 13, 2015 La La La at Rock Bottom (2015) — January 10, 2016 Over the Fence (2016) — July 25, 2017 Hard-Core (2018) — June 28, 2019 List: Yamashita Nobuhiro Movies

Devils on the Doorstep

Sakamoto Yugo

Reviews: A Janitor (2021) – June 15, 2023 Baby Assassins (2021) – October 6, 2022 Yellow Dragon's Village (2021) – June 15, 2023 Baby Assassins 2 Babies (2023) – November 8, 2023 Baby Assassins Everyday! (2024) – October 28, 2025 Baby Assassins: Nice Days (2024) – July 18, 2024 Ghost Killer (Sonomura Kensuke, 2025)

Matsui Daigo

Just Remembering (Matsui Daigo, 2021)

Matsui Daigo’s Just Remembering features two characters who love Jim Jarmsuch’s Night on Earth. At least, they love the first section and specifically, Winona Ryder’s cab driver who wants to be a mechanic and not a movie star. It also features Nagase Masatoshi, who starred in Jarmusch’

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Ohku Akiko

My Sweet Grappa Remedies (Ohku Akiko, 2019)

Hamguchi Ryûsuke

Hamaguchi Ryūsuke Capsule Reviews

Happy Hour (2015) — March 12, 2017 Would have been better to be able to see it all at once, in a theatre, but as it was, on my TV and spread out over five days, it’s pretty remarkable. All the performances are great, but I’ll go with Kikuchi

Ohku Akiko

Ohku Akiko Capsule Reviews

Tremble All You Want (2017) — July 19, 2018 Tremble All You Want features yet another unrequited school crush[1], this one seen in flashback as 24 year old Yoshika is still obsessed with a boy she had a couple of fleeting interactions with a decade before. Now working as an

Hamguchi Ryûsuke

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, 2021)

The similarities I found to Hong Sangsoo in Hamaguchi Ryūsuke’s last feature, Asako I & II, were surface level, based on the inexplicable doubling of (at least) one main character in a romance (as in Yourself and Yours), while the bulk of the movie’s greatness was to be

Obayashi Nobuhiko

Obayashi Nobuhiko Capsule Reviews

His Motorbike, Her Island (1986)— January 14, 2021 Extremely beautiful film probably made even more romantic by the fact that it’s impossible for me to see someone ride a motorcycle and not imagine them crashing into a fiery death at any moment. Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and

Shimomura Yûji

Crazy Samurai Musashi (Shimomura Yûji, 2020)

Legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi has defeated the champion of the Yoshioka clan in a duel. In retaliation, the clan gathers 100 samurai and 300 mercenaries to ambush him and exact their revenge. But then things go terribly, terribly wrong as that crazy samurai kills them all, one after another in

Miike Takashi

First Love (Miike Takashi, 2019)

Every time I watch a Miike Takashi movie, I end up asking myself why I ever watch movies that aren’t Miike Takashi movies. That’s certainly the case with First Love, his latest, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year and opens next week at the Uptown. It’s

Iwai Shunji

The Case of Hana and Alice (Iwai Shunji, 2015)

What do you do if you want to make a prequel to one of your best movies, one built as much around the performances of two terrific young actresses more than anything else, but a decade has passed and the actresses are now much too old to be playing the

Iwai Shunji

Iwai Shunji Capsule Reviews

Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom? (1993) — November 7, 2018 Iwai Shunji, with no budget and only a couple of ideas, making all the other TV movies look terrible. Love Letter (1995) — November 7, 2018 Maybe the most accomplished feature debut of his contemporaries, probably