Wakatasuki, a young employee at an insurance firm, receives a telephone call from a woman asking if her life insurance policy covers her committing suicide. Concerned for her welfare, he rushes to her house only to stumble upon the dead … Continue reading REVIEW: Black House (1999)
Kai lives a sullen life in the coastal Hinashi Town with his umbrella-making grandfather and recently divorced father. Kai plays in a teen band with his friends Kunio and Yuho, though he is thinking of quitting. When a trip to … Continue reading REVIEW: Lu Over the Wall (2017)
Within Japan a number of directors are widely noted as the masters of the screen arts: Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse, and so on. Internationally there has only ever really been one name: Kurosawa. In a career spanning 57 years Akira Kurosawa … Continue reading “We continue on without rest” | The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)
A group of four animals – a puppy, a pheasant, a monkey, and a bear – leave their families to help with the Japanese war effort. After basic training, they are dispatched as paratoopers to invade Suwawesi and wrest control … Continue reading REVIEW: Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (1945)
Riko Rinda (Haruka Ayase) is a professional appraiser, working out of her own small business All-Round Appraiser Q. Upon the invitation of the Louvre art museum, Riko travels to Paris – a dogged young journalist (Tori Matsuzaka) in tow – … Continue reading REVIEW: All-Round Appraiser Q: The Eyes of Mona Lisa (2014)
Yamakawa (Frankie Sakai) and Nakai (Tadao Takashima) are salesmen working for Tokyo firm Towa Tours, which is seeking to secure lucrative American travel contracts over rival Kyokuto Tours. When the president’s daughter Yoko (Izumi Yukimura) takes over their department, she … Continue reading REVIEW: You Can Succeed, Too! (1964)
Nasa (Eri Tokunaga), a Japanese online columnist, ponders the question of whether men and women can be platonic friends, without romance or sexual attraction getting in the way. To that end, she books a series of sessions with a ‘friend-for-rent’ … Continue reading REVIEW: Rent a Friend (2018)
Tsubame Hiyakawa (Long Mizuma) is summoned to his father’s home to satisfy his dying wish. Deep in debt, and terminally ill, his father needs him to deliver legal documents to Tsubame’s estranged brother Ryushin (Takashi Yamanaka) – who Tsubame has … Continue reading REVIEW: Yan (2019)
A trio of blue-collar workers operate a rescue and repair spacecraft for the interplanetary corporation Cosmic Rescue. Each joined imagining a glamorous life rescuing civilians from dangerous accidents and crises, but instead find themselves collecting debris from around the moon’s … Continue reading REVIEW: Cosmic Rescue: The Moonlight Generations (2003)
Office worker Shizuka Suzuki (Ayaka Miyoshi) aspires to climb the corporate ladder in her city firm, but when she takes her niece to a street carnival hypnotist she finds herself to hypnotised. Whenever Shizuka hears music, her life transforms into … Continue reading REVIEW: Dance With Me (2019)
