Japan
Hiroshima Mon Amour deals with the aftermath of a war, but primarily focuses on two peoples’ romance, which inspired future French New Wave directors.
Mirai may feel more like a series of vignettes thrown together rather than a cohesive whole, but Hosoda’s wondrous animation style, coupled with a personal look at family dynamics, makes it hard to resist.
The Manga Master takes a potentially interesting subject, and transforms his life into the stuff of biopic cliche.
One Cut for the Dead is an inventive zombie comedy that encourages the feel good celebration of the hard work that goes into making any film.
From start to finish, Ramen Teh is a joy, telling a powerful story about how our shared love of food can transcend cultural barriers.
After spending his entire career finding the profundity in the mundane, Kore-eda has produced his finest example of this yet in Shoplifters.
In the Japanese films Your Name and My Tomorrow Your Yesterday, a similar theme can be formed, that of the Time Travel Dream Girl. We discuss what that means in the context of each film.
Caniba is a disturbing film about human loneliness that feels rare in documentary’s contemporary canon.
In anticipation of its induction into the Criterion Collection, we look back on A Story From Chikamatsu, a film with with a sharp focus on the social phenomenons of 18th century Japan.
We were able to talk what Megumi Sasaki, director of the upcoming documentary about whaling called A Whale of a Tale.
You don’t have to be Japanese or a country and western music aficionado to cheer on Tomiko Fujiyama, the subject of documentary Made in Japan.
Liz and the Blue Bird is an indepth and stylistic chracter study that explores the details and hidden emotional gravity of seemingly unremarkable situations.
Fireworks is both stunningly animated, and stunningly disappointing, hampered by a predictable love story that is neither compelling or insightful.
In our latest entry of Anarchic Cinema, we discuss the birth of Japanese V-Cinema and the contributions of Takashi Miike.
Boys For Sale dives into the world of the urisen (also known as “boys”) that are paid to have sex with other men. Brought in by the allure of a high paying part-time job, urisens have to learn to navigate the industry as they go.