Japan

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Mariko Miyagi is back documenting the activities of disabled children from her own school, Nemunoki. This time, the whole documentary focuses itself on the powers of creativity and drawing.Read More »

Synopsis
“I have to play hide and seek by myself to escape my loneliness.” So starts a blog on a mysterious website which quickly spreads like wildfire, starting a dangerous online game. At 3:00 in the afternoon, a teddy bear stuffed with rice and nails is sunk into a bathtub. The lights go out and the player is required to stab the bear with the knife, then write their experiences in the blog. But lately the comments have taken a dark, demented turn, as if the players are being possessed.Read More »

Shogo (Ryuta Sato) is the host of “Love Lines,” a late night radio call-in show where he offers advice and/or sarcastic remarks to the lovelorn. On this night, the station is in the process of relocating, forcing Shogo and his staff to use the antiquated Studio 6. Not only is all the equipment outdated, but there are stories about the studio being haunted. Rumor has it that an on-air talent committed suicide in the DJ’s booth decades ago. Shogo doesn’t want to hear any ghost stories, though; he just wants to do his show.Read More »

Saddled with a slavish, boring laundry job and no social life whatsoever, Kikuchi rarely leaves his bare apartment except to follow home and spy on a supermarket check-out girl. But there’s no one he can tell about his secret passion, least of all his gawping, work-shy colleague. Even a stray kitten can’t alleviate Kikuchi’s frustration; clearly, something’s got to give…Read More »

Completing Toshiaki Toyoda’s politically urgent Resurrection Trilogy following Wolf’s Calling (2019) and The Day of Destruction (2020), this electrifying short follows a man tasked with assisting in the ritual suicide of a samurai who won’t die without condemning the corrupt powers that be.Read More »

Toshiaki Toyoda takes on the true story of Shogi (Japanese chess) player Shoji “Shottan” Segawa. Despite consistent dedication, Shottan (Ryuhei Matsuda) fails to go professional by the time he’s 26, permanently forfeiting his chance according to the game’s strict rules. When he makes a name for himself as an amateur years later, however, he makes an unprecedented bid to go professional at 35 and forever changes the game. Informed by Toyoda’s personal Shogi experience (he trained to go professional as an adolescent), this star-studded biopic of late-blooming self-realization is an inspirational study of perseverance against all odds.Read More »

A disgraced yakuza member, framed for the murder of his boss, emerges from prison eight years later with revenge on his mind.Read More »

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Isao Takahata‘s Hotaru no Haka (The Grave of the Fireflies, 1988) is a brilliant piece of cinema. Set in Kobe, Japan, in 1945, the film focuses on a brother and sister who are left orphaned and homeless by the American firebombing of the city. It is unflinching in its portrayal of the realities of the war, a harrowing account of what such attacks meant for the ordinary people living in the target area. The children’s innocence and love for each other is no defence against the trials they face: their suffering is very real, their story a classic tragedy. That The Grave of the Fireflies is animated rather than live-action does not distract from its power to move, to provoke thought, to draw tears from the eyes. It is a masterpiece.Read More »

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Based on the classic novel by Murasaki Shikibu, written over 1000 years ago. Genji, the son of the emperor, has gained renown among the nobility of Kyoto for his charm and good looks, yet he cannot stop himself from pursuing the one object of desire he must never obtain: his father’s young and beautiful bride. Following the tragic consequences of his obsession, Genji wanders from one affair to another, always seeking some sort of completion to his life.Read More »