The 66th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 24, 2024. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2023. The trifecta wins for “Godzilla Minus One” come as no surprise, sweeping the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Yuya Ishii picks up the Best Director award for both his movies “The Moon” and “Masked Hearts”.
Best Film
Masked Hearts
Ichiko
Egoist
Monster
The Dry Spell
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
(Ab)normal Desire
The Moon
One Last Bloom
Perfect Days
Bad Lands
September 1923
Do Unto Others
As Long as We Both Shall Live
Best Director
Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts
Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster
Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist
Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One
Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!
Best Actor
Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire
Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!
Best Film
Masked Hearts
Ichiko
Egoist
Monster
The Dry Spell
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
(Ab)normal Desire
The Moon
One Last Bloom
Perfect Days
Bad Lands
September 1923
Do Unto Others
As Long as We Both Shall Live
Best Director
Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts
Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster
Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist
Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One
Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!
Best Actor
Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire
Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!
- 1/25/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
After shooting a number of excellent documentaries, Tatsuya Mori decided to shoot a feature film, about a little known incident that took place just after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. The movie left Busan with the New Currents Award.
September 1923 screened at Busan International Film Festival
From the film’s production notes: On September 1, 1923, at 11:58 Am, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck Tokyo, the capital of Japan. On September 6, just five days after the disaster, nine peddlers, including a pregnant woman and small children, were slain near Tone River by more than 100 villagers, vigilantes among them, in Fukuda Village, Higashi-Katsushika in Chiba Prefecture. The victims were part of a group of 15 people, itinerant medicine vendors from Kagawa Prefecture. The villagers killed them, mistaking them for Koreans when they heard them speaking in their dialect. Eight vigilantes were arrested and sentenced to prison. However, they were granted an amnesty concerning the...
September 1923 screened at Busan International Film Festival
From the film’s production notes: On September 1, 1923, at 11:58 Am, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck Tokyo, the capital of Japan. On September 6, just five days after the disaster, nine peddlers, including a pregnant woman and small children, were slain near Tone River by more than 100 villagers, vigilantes among them, in Fukuda Village, Higashi-Katsushika in Chiba Prefecture. The victims were part of a group of 15 people, itinerant medicine vendors from Kagawa Prefecture. The villagers killed them, mistaking them for Koreans when they heard them speaking in their dialect. Eight vigilantes were arrested and sentenced to prison. However, they were granted an amnesty concerning the...
- 10/15/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Following the success of “Noise”, Yusaku Matsumoto had some trouble coming up with his next movie, instead opting to deal in shorts and TV. This changed in 2022, with “All My Fault”, which was, though, definitely on a lower level than his aforementioned debut. As such, it is with great pleasure to see that he is back in form with “Winny”, a court drama focusing on the homonymous copyright infringement criminal case, the first in which a computer program developer faced a criminal charge for assisting in the copyright infringement of the program's users.
Winny is screening at Japan Cuts
The film follows the actual events quite closely, starting with the two arrests of Winny users, which eventually led to the apprehension of the actual developer of the program, Isamu Kaneko, a 33-year-old assistant professor at the University of Tokyo who is also the main protagonist of the movie. At the same time,...
Winny is screening at Japan Cuts
The film follows the actual events quite closely, starting with the two arrests of Winny users, which eventually led to the apprehension of the actual developer of the program, Isamu Kaneko, a 33-year-old assistant professor at the University of Tokyo who is also the main protagonist of the movie. At the same time,...
- 7/28/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
On the occasion of his film “Winny” screening at Japan Cuts, we speak about his career after “Noise” and until now, the actual case the movie is based on, his opinion on copyright and the web, the research he did for the movie and his interactions with the actual team of lawyers, shooting the court scenes, working with Masahiro Higashide (particularly after the scandal involving him), Takahiro Miura and Mitsuru Fukikoshi, the editing of the movie, the Japanese movie industry and his plans moving forward.
彼の映画「Winny」がJapan Cutsで上映されることを記念して、「Noise」以降から現在までのキャリア、映画の実際の事件に基づく興味、著作権とウェブに対する彼の意見、映画のためのリサーチと実際の弁護士チームとの交流、裁判場面の撮影、東出昌大(特にスキャンダル後)、三浦貴大、吹越満との仕事、映画の編集、日本映画産業、そして今後の計画について話し合います。...
彼の映画「Winny」がJapan Cutsで上映されることを記念して、「Noise」以降から現在までのキャリア、映画の実際の事件に基づく興味、著作権とウェブに対する彼の意見、映画のためのリサーチと実際の弁護士チームとの交流、裁判場面の撮影、東出昌大(特にスキャンダル後)、三浦貴大、吹越満との仕事、映画の編集、日本映画産業、そして今後の計画について話し合います。...
- 7/22/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Stars: Go Ayano, Koen Kondo, Masahiro Higashide, Jun Kunimura, Etsushi Toyokawa, Masatoshi Nagase | Written by Kankurô Kudô | Directed by Gakuryû Ishii
”It was a somewhat gloomy day”. Thus begins Punk Samurai, director Gakuryû, formerly Sogo, Ishii and writer Kankurô Kudô’s adaptation of Kou Machida’s supposedly unfilmable novel.
Junoshin Kake wanders into the domain of the Kurokaze clan and promptly kills a beggar who approaches him. He tells Shume Nagaoka a low-level official in the clan, that the man was a member of a dangerous religious cult that only he can save them from. That’s enough to create the opening he needs to find a permanent position in Lord Kuroae’s employ.
Kake plans to exploit the rivalry between two of the clan’s top retainers Shuzen Oura and Tatewaki Naito to rise through the ranks. The only problem is, the cult, The Bellyshaker Party no longer exists and Naito knows it.
”It was a somewhat gloomy day”. Thus begins Punk Samurai, director Gakuryû, formerly Sogo, Ishii and writer Kankurô Kudô’s adaptation of Kou Machida’s supposedly unfilmable novel.
Junoshin Kake wanders into the domain of the Kurokaze clan and promptly kills a beggar who approaches him. He tells Shume Nagaoka a low-level official in the clan, that the man was a member of a dangerous religious cult that only he can save them from. That’s enough to create the opening he needs to find a permanent position in Lord Kuroae’s employ.
Kake plans to exploit the rivalry between two of the clan’s top retainers Shuzen Oura and Tatewaki Naito to rise through the ranks. The only problem is, the cult, The Bellyshaker Party no longer exists and Naito knows it.
- 3/22/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
As we have mentioned many times before, the end of the Edo period in 1867, which essentially signaled the end of the samurai era in Japan, is one of the most interesting in Japanese history, and probably the one that has inspired the most films. Takashi Koizumi, whose credits include one as assistant director on Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran”, focuses on a series of events that took place in Nagaoka domain in Echigo, revolving around chief retainer Tsuginosuke Kawai, a senior military commander of the Nagaoka forces during the Boshin War of 1868–1869.
“The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The film begins with a rather imposing monologue by the Tokugawa shogun (presented impressively by Masahiro Higashide) and an analysis, through narration, of the situation in Japan at the time, which eventually led to the Boshin War. Literally in the midst of the military preparations...
“The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The film begins with a rather imposing monologue by the Tokugawa shogun (presented impressively by Masahiro Higashide) and an analysis, through narration, of the situation in Japan at the time, which eventually led to the Boshin War. Literally in the midst of the military preparations...
- 6/11/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
by Earl Jackson
In 1969, Masahiro Shinoda released “Double Suicide”, his version of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s bunraku (puppet) play, “The Love Suicides Amajima” [心中天網島]. The film was striking in its use of the black-hooded puppeteers, the kuroko, to move the actors and change the deliberately artificial sets. The film was a hit with the international art film crowd in that it proved that Japanese avant-garde narrative cinema was not limited to Hiroshi Teshigahara’s adaptations of Kobo Abe novels. In later years, it would serve as a viewer-friendly introduction to the New Wave because, unlike the more difficult works of Kiju Yoshida or Nagisa Oshima, “Double Suicide” -to repurpose Gertrude Stein’s judgment of James Joyce – was the experimental film that anyone could understand.
In 2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi takes up the challenge of integrating classical theater with contemporary cinema again, in his use of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya” in his film “Drive My Car”. At first glance,...
In 1969, Masahiro Shinoda released “Double Suicide”, his version of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s bunraku (puppet) play, “The Love Suicides Amajima” [心中天網島]. The film was striking in its use of the black-hooded puppeteers, the kuroko, to move the actors and change the deliberately artificial sets. The film was a hit with the international art film crowd in that it proved that Japanese avant-garde narrative cinema was not limited to Hiroshi Teshigahara’s adaptations of Kobo Abe novels. In later years, it would serve as a viewer-friendly introduction to the New Wave because, unlike the more difficult works of Kiju Yoshida or Nagisa Oshima, “Double Suicide” -to repurpose Gertrude Stein’s judgment of James Joyce – was the experimental film that anyone could understand.
In 2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi takes up the challenge of integrating classical theater with contemporary cinema again, in his use of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya” in his film “Drive My Car”. At first glance,...
- 2/26/2022
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” will be screening at Aca Cinema Project: New Films from Japan
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter...
“Blue” will be screening at Aca Cinema Project: New Films from Japan
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter...
- 2/25/2022
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Aca) will present the third Aca Cinema Project series: New Films from Japan organized as part of a “Japan Film Overseas Expansion Enhancement Project”, in collaboration with the IFC Center and Visual Industry Promotion Organization (Vipo) with theatrical engagements of Yujiro Harumoto’s A Balance and Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, March 11-17, 2022.
Aca Cinema Project is proud to introduce US audiences to the best of recent Japanese cinema including Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, a gripping boxing drama starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Masahiro Higashide and Fumino Kimura, the former two actors appearing on-screen together for the first time since Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow. Earning the title of “The Master of Psychological Drama” Yoshida was honored with a special Director in Focus program at 2021’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Winner of the New Current Award at the Busan International Film Festival and an official selection at Berlinale,...
Aca Cinema Project is proud to introduce US audiences to the best of recent Japanese cinema including Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, a gripping boxing drama starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Masahiro Higashide and Fumino Kimura, the former two actors appearing on-screen together for the first time since Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow. Earning the title of “The Master of Psychological Drama” Yoshida was honored with a special Director in Focus program at 2021’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Winner of the New Current Award at the Busan International Film Festival and an official selection at Berlinale,...
- 2/19/2022
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
There is no denying the appeal of “The Confidence Man Jp” to its domestic audience. A successful TV series, in addition to three films, have all been undeniable hits, leading the box office and entering homes since 2018. The first of these big-screen showings, “The Confidence Man Jp: The Movie” shows why, but also allowed room for future instalments, ones which subsequently came.
“The Confidence Man Jp: The Movie” is screening as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
At its core, there are a group of con-artists, both ambitious and reckless, yet at the same time somewhat grounded and tactful. They are Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro Higashide), Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata), Igarashi (Shinya Kote), and newcomer Monako (Lisa Oda), who team up to try and take down “Ice Princess,” a Hong-Kong based triad boss and prominent corporate figure who possesses an item the gang are desperate to get their hands on.
“The Confidence Man Jp: The Movie” is screening as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
At its core, there are a group of con-artists, both ambitious and reckless, yet at the same time somewhat grounded and tactful. They are Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro Higashide), Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata), Igarashi (Shinya Kote), and newcomer Monako (Lisa Oda), who team up to try and take down “Ice Princess,” a Hong-Kong based triad boss and prominent corporate figure who possesses an item the gang are desperate to get their hands on.
- 2/11/2022
- by Nathan Sartain
- AsianMoviePulse
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Wife of a Spy is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries.Late in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a gripping espionage thriller set in Kobe on the eve of World War II, the film’s titular heroine Satoko Fukuhara (Yu Aoi) and her well-to-do merchant husband Yusaku (Issey Takahashi)—whose clandestine activities have aroused the suspicion of the Kempeitai, Japan’s feared military police—go on an outing to a local cinema, as if to evade their surveillance and to keep up a veneer of normalcy. There, at the downtown movie house, the couple catches a screening of Sadao Yamanaka’s historical drama, Kochiyama Soshun (1936).This minor, seemingly inconsequential detail in Kurosawa’s latest conceals a hidden subtext that hints at the ominous shadow of a grinding military campaign Japan was engaged in at the time in China.
- 12/15/2021
- MUBI
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more...
“Blue” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more...
- 11/21/2021
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
This review was largely shaped by a discussion with Goh Ming Siu and Earl Jackson regarding the film.
Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.
“Wife of a Spy” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting...
Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.
“Wife of a Spy” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting...
- 11/19/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Central to any spy story worth its salt is the tension built around whom the audience should believe. But the memorable ones make just as powerful the theme of what the characters really do believe — as in, why they do what they do, whether they’re handler, agent, target or pawn. And to make matters even more fascinating, when some of those questions are left unanswered, that’s when some spy yarns achieve something profound about the battlefield on which they’re played.
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of Japan’s established masters when it comes to a knotty premise wracked with tension and secrets, whether working in horror or contemporary drama (“Tokyo Sonata”). It seems fitting, then, that for his first period film, he’d choose a World War II–era espionage tale, where identity and motive are always in play, and horror is real. The result is “Wife of a Spy,...
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of Japan’s established masters when it comes to a knotty premise wracked with tension and secrets, whether working in horror or contemporary drama (“Tokyo Sonata”). It seems fitting, then, that for his first period film, he’d choose a World War II–era espionage tale, where identity and motive are always in play, and horror is real. The result is “Wife of a Spy,...
- 9/16/2021
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s old-fashioned drama delivers big performances and intriguing plot twists
Kiyoshi Kurosawa has probably long since got used to seeing the words “no relation” after his name; and this Japanese film-maker has in any case established his own distinctive, valuable presence in Asian cinema. Just two years ago, he released his complex drama To the Ends of the Earth, and now, working with Ryû Hamaguchi as co-writer, he has created this excellent wartime mystery thriller, which won the Silver Lion at last year’s Venice film festival: an old-fashioned drama replete with big performances and plot twists, double-cross and triple-cross. It’s like a three-quarter scale version of a Lean epic, a mid-level Zhivago or English Patient, but all the more intriguing for being relatively modest in scope.
Yû Aoi is outstanding as Satoko, a movie actor in 1940 Kobe in Japan, married to Yûsaku (Issey Takahashi), a prosperous...
Kiyoshi Kurosawa has probably long since got used to seeing the words “no relation” after his name; and this Japanese film-maker has in any case established his own distinctive, valuable presence in Asian cinema. Just two years ago, he released his complex drama To the Ends of the Earth, and now, working with Ryû Hamaguchi as co-writer, he has created this excellent wartime mystery thriller, which won the Silver Lion at last year’s Venice film festival: an old-fashioned drama replete with big performances and plot twists, double-cross and triple-cross. It’s like a three-quarter scale version of a Lean epic, a mid-level Zhivago or English Patient, but all the more intriguing for being relatively modest in scope.
Yû Aoi is outstanding as Satoko, a movie actor in 1940 Kobe in Japan, married to Yûsaku (Issey Takahashi), a prosperous...
- 9/6/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
As we have mentioned many times before, the end of the Edo period in 1867, which essentially signaled the end of the samurai era in Japan, is one of the most interesting in Japanese history, and probably the one that has inspired the most films. Takashi Koizumi, whose credits include one as assistant director on Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran”, focuses on a series of events that took place in Nagaoka domain in Echigo, revolving around chief retainer Tsuginosuke Kawai, a senior military commander of the Nagaoka forces during the Boshin War of 1868–1869.
“The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai” is screening at Japan Cuts
The film begins with a rather imposing monologue by the Tokugawa shogun (presented impressively by Masahiro Higashide) and an analysis, through narration, of the situation in Japan at the time, which eventually led to the Boshin War. Literally in the midst of the military preparations of the West and East forces,...
“The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai” is screening at Japan Cuts
The film begins with a rather imposing monologue by the Tokugawa shogun (presented impressively by Masahiro Higashide) and an analysis, through narration, of the situation in Japan at the time, which eventually led to the Boshin War. Literally in the midst of the military preparations of the West and East forces,...
- 8/22/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Asian cinema is not exactly known for its sport movies, which, maybe with the exception of boxing lately, are quite scarce. This however, does not mean that they do not exist at all, since, particularly during the last decade, a number of excellent movies in the category have come to the fore. On the occasion of the Olympic Games taking place in Japan, we decided to present 20 of the greatest Asian films focusing on sports in alphabetical order, with a focus on diversity regarding countries, directors and style of presentation.
1. As One
Titled simply “Korea” in Korean, Moon Hyun-sung’s film told a historically important story of a key moment in history of Korean sport and politics, a unified Korean women’s team consisting players from the North and South which competing in and winning the gold medal at the World Table Tennis Championship. It features two superstars Ha Ji-won and Bae Doona,...
1. As One
Titled simply “Korea” in Korean, Moon Hyun-sung’s film told a historically important story of a key moment in history of Korean sport and politics, a unified Korean women’s team consisting players from the North and South which competing in and winning the gold medal at the World Table Tennis Championship. It features two superstars Ha Ji-won and Bae Doona,...
- 8/1/2021
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more difficult...
“Blue” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more difficult...
- 6/9/2021
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
After focusing on the lives of elderly people in “Ecotherapy Getaway Holiday” and “Mori, The Artist’s Habitat”, not to talk about some of the wonderful secondary characters in his films, director Shuichi Okita is at it again with “Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone” a lengthy exploration of the life and mind of a lovely (and lonely) widow. The film is based on an incredibly popular 2017 novel by Chisako Wakatake titled (like the film) Ora ora de hitori igu mo, that secured its writer the prestigious Akutagawa Prize and Bungei Prize.
“Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Momoko (Yuko Tanaka) is a seventy-five-year-old lady, not dissimilar from many women we know and see all the time; mums, aunties, grannies. She is a recent widow and is adapting and adjusting to a life on her own. Loneliness is sweet at times and bitter at others...
“Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Momoko (Yuko Tanaka) is a seventy-five-year-old lady, not dissimilar from many women we know and see all the time; mums, aunties, grannies. She is a recent widow and is adapting and adjusting to a life on her own. Loneliness is sweet at times and bitter at others...
- 6/8/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
This review was largely shaped by a discussion with Goh Ming Siu and Earl Jackson regarding the film.
Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.
The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting in a film Yusaku produced and directed, mainly for her and his friends’ amusement.
Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, “Wife of a Spy” is actually a TV-movie produced by and for Nhk, which was screened in theaters, however, with a different aspect ratio and color grading. This review is based on the TV version.
The script is set in 1940, after Japan had invaded China and joined Germany and Italy as a member of the Axis. Up to this point, successful silk merchant Yusaku Fukuhara has been a man who seemed to have it all: a successful business, the respect of both employees, collaborators and friends, and a trophy wife in the face of beautiful and equally popular Satoko, who has just finished acting in a film Yusaku produced and directed, mainly for her and his friends’ amusement.
- 3/18/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Nominated for the Palme D’or in 2018, and based on the novel “Netemo Sametemo” by Tomoka Shibasaki, “Asako I&ii” is an intriguing drama whose narrative shares many similarities with the style of Haruki Murakami novels.
Asako, a 21-year-old woman living in Osaka, meets a strange young man named Baku, and the two fall immediately in-love, essentially becoming a couple from the beginning. Haruyo, Asako’s friend, is against the relationship because she thinks Baku will hurt Asako, and is quite vocal about it, but to no avail. After Asako spends the night in Baku’s house, however, the young man first goes missing for a long time, and after he reappears, he promises his newfound girlfriend, that he will always come back. After that, though, he disappears completely, leaving Asako shattered.
Two years later, Asako lives in Tokyo, working at a cafe, and hanging out with another female friend,...
Asako, a 21-year-old woman living in Osaka, meets a strange young man named Baku, and the two fall immediately in-love, essentially becoming a couple from the beginning. Haruyo, Asako’s friend, is against the relationship because she thinks Baku will hurt Asako, and is quite vocal about it, but to no avail. After Asako spends the night in Baku’s house, however, the young man first goes missing for a long time, and after he reappears, he promises his newfound girlfriend, that he will always come back. After that, though, he disappears completely, leaving Asako shattered.
Two years later, Asako lives in Tokyo, working at a cafe, and hanging out with another female friend,...
- 1/25/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Kiyoshi Kurosawa has always been a director for hire. He came up in the film industry during Nikkatsu’s 17 year regression into “Roman Porno” and pinku eiga, a style of soft-core filmmaking, before they filed bankruptcy in the ‘90s. In its golden age, the Japanese movie studio promoted young assistant directors, like Seijun Suzuki and Shohei Imamura, to direct genre films on break-neck shooting schedules and stingy budgets. Working under contract, the directors possibly saw something of themselves in the chain-smoking contract killers they so often portrayed in their Yakuza films. To them, making movies was just a job. But many saw art, fetishized it, or noted patterns and symbols the directors proudly wrote off in interviews. Any creativity in style and form was merely a way of differentiating one film from the others Nikkatsu produced en masse. In the “Roman Porno” days, Kurosawa was directing softcore films for the...
- 9/14/2020
- MUBI
Variety spoke with Kiyoshi Kurosawa the day after the world premiere of his World War II suspense drama “Wife of a Spy” in competition at the Venice Film Festival. A frequent invitee to Venice, Cannes and other major festivals, Kurosawa did the interview via Zoom from the Tokyo office of his Japanese distributor. “This is the first time I haven’t been able to go to a big festival like that,” says Kurosawa. “I would have liked the three main cast members see the film with the audience. It’s really regrettable that they couldn’t go.”
“Wife of a Spy” may be your first-ever period film, but certain scenes are as disturbing as anything in the horror films that first made your name internationally. Is that one reason why you were attracted to the material?
Yes, I wanted to make the scary parts scary, but this film was not my idea from the start.
“Wife of a Spy” may be your first-ever period film, but certain scenes are as disturbing as anything in the horror films that first made your name internationally. Is that one reason why you were attracted to the material?
Yes, I wanted to make the scary parts scary, but this film was not my idea from the start.
- 9/11/2020
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
“Wife of a Spy” is a debatable title on two fronts. The man in question may or may not be a spy, and while the female protagonist is certainly his wife, that passive, possessive phrasing undersells the degree to which she commands Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s thoroughly involving, old-school slice of wartime cloak and dagger. Powered by Yu Aoi’s bravura performance as a glamorous Kobe starlet thrown into uncertain moral and marital torment by her husband’s covert operations at the outset of the Second World War, the film is a relatively unfamiliar fit for its prolific helmer, given its sharply evoked period milieu and restrained, classical storytelling. He wears it well: After a slowish start, “Wife of a Spy” unmasks itself as one of his most purely enjoyable, internationally accessible entertainments.
Kurosawa’s latest may be his first period piece, but if its tone and outlook feel additionally fresh...
Kurosawa’s latest may be his first period piece, but if its tone and outlook feel additionally fresh...
- 9/9/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Japanese author, playwright and director Yukio Mishima took part in a debate with Tokyo University students just one year before his death.
Japan’s Gaga Corp will handle international sales on documentary, Mishima: The Last Debate, featuring restored footage of a famous debate between Yukio Mishima and students at Tokyo University in 1969, just one year before the filmmaker’s death.
Footage of the debate, which took place during the mass political uprisings of the late 1960s, has only recently been discovered and given a 4K restoration.
Mishima was an internationally acclaimed author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, whose novels...
Japan’s Gaga Corp will handle international sales on documentary, Mishima: The Last Debate, featuring restored footage of a famous debate between Yukio Mishima and students at Tokyo University in 1969, just one year before the filmmaker’s death.
Footage of the debate, which took place during the mass political uprisings of the late 1960s, has only recently been discovered and given a 4K restoration.
Mishima was an internationally acclaimed author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, whose novels...
- 1/8/2020
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Our year-end coverage continues with a look at the best performances of the year. Rather than divide categories into supporting or lead, we’ve written about our thirty favorite performances from 2019, period. Check out our countdown below and start watching the ones you’ve missed here.
30. Masahiro Higashide (Asako I & II)
Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi followed up his five-hour drama Happy Hour with Asako I & II, an endlessly imaginative and playful riff on Vertigo as well as an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasak’s 2010 novel. Setting our perspective with Erika Karata as Asako Izumiya–a woman who gets entangled with a man who looks the same in two different periods of her life–the actress is excellent in the lead role. However, it’s Masahiro Higashide as the men in question, playing both Ryohei Maruko and Baku Torii, that vibes perfectly with the mysterious, enigmatic vibe the director is exploring here.
30. Masahiro Higashide (Asako I & II)
Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi followed up his five-hour drama Happy Hour with Asako I & II, an endlessly imaginative and playful riff on Vertigo as well as an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasak’s 2010 novel. Setting our perspective with Erika Karata as Asako Izumiya–a woman who gets entangled with a man who looks the same in two different periods of her life–the actress is excellent in the lead role. However, it’s Masahiro Higashide as the men in question, playing both Ryohei Maruko and Baku Torii, that vibes perfectly with the mysterious, enigmatic vibe the director is exploring here.
- 12/18/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
(Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday.
This week’s question: With 2019 almost half-over, what is the best movie performance of the year so far?
Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart”)
Deany Cheng (@dennynotdeeny), Freelance
I’ve turned over Kaitlyn Dever’s performance in “Booksmart” in my head again and again over the past month or so, and every time I consider it, I find myself impressed even more. It isn’t the showiest turn–hell, it isn’t even the most immediately memorable performance in its own movie–but Dever’s subtly funny, eternally awkward Amy is the connective tissue that keeps a film that occasionally feels like a series of stitched-together music videos from spiraling too far off the deep end. From drug trips to heartbreaks to cringe-inducing romantic encounters, Dever switches gears with a subtle finesse that feels both natural and hilariously unexpected.
This week’s question: With 2019 almost half-over, what is the best movie performance of the year so far?
Kaitlyn Dever (“Booksmart”)
Deany Cheng (@dennynotdeeny), Freelance
I’ve turned over Kaitlyn Dever’s performance in “Booksmart” in my head again and again over the past month or so, and every time I consider it, I find myself impressed even more. It isn’t the showiest turn–hell, it isn’t even the most immediately memorable performance in its own movie–but Dever’s subtly funny, eternally awkward Amy is the connective tissue that keeps a film that occasionally feels like a series of stitched-together music videos from spiraling too far off the deep end. From drug trips to heartbreaks to cringe-inducing romantic encounters, Dever switches gears with a subtle finesse that feels both natural and hilariously unexpected.
- 6/24/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
"You're wasting your time! Go away" Grasshopper Films has debuted the official Us trailer for a Japanese romantic drama titled Asako I & II, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. This is actually just one 119 minute film, despite the title including what references to what looks like Part I & Part II. The title is actually a reference to the plot - where a woman from Osaka (named Asako) meets a man, falls in love with him, then he disappears. Two years later, she meets his perfect double. Erika Karata stars as Asako, along with Masahiro Higashide as both Baku & Ryôhei (of course), plus Sairi Itô, Kôji Nakamoto, Kôji Seto, Misako Tanaka, and Daichi Watanabe. This played to quite a bit of acclaim at Cannes, and stopped by a number of other prestigious festivals last fall. Everyone always talks about the cat. If you're in the mood for...
- 2/15/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Grasshopper Film is celebrating Valentine’s Day by releasing the trailer for “Asako I & II,” Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s mysterious romantic drama that first premiered at Cannes last year. A follow-up to 2015’s “Happy Hour,” which has been likened to “Sex and the City” despite being a five-hour Japanese film, Hamaguchi’s latest clocks in at just two hours but contains much strangeness therein. Watch the trailer below.
Read More: ‘Asako I & II’ Review: An Inventive New Take on Relationship Problems — Cannes 2018
A brief synopsis — “One day Asako’s first love suddenly disappears. Two years later, she meets his perfect double” — only partially conveys the film’s central oddity, as well as its playfulness. “Asako I & II” oscillates between darker and lighter tones throughout, funny in one scene and tense in the next.
In his Cannes review of the film, IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote, that “Asako I & II” “sometimes feels listless,...
Read More: ‘Asako I & II’ Review: An Inventive New Take on Relationship Problems — Cannes 2018
A brief synopsis — “One day Asako’s first love suddenly disappears. Two years later, she meets his perfect double” — only partially conveys the film’s central oddity, as well as its playfulness. “Asako I & II” oscillates between darker and lighter tones throughout, funny in one scene and tense in the next.
In his Cannes review of the film, IndieWire’s Eric Kohn wrote, that “Asako I & II” “sometimes feels listless,...
- 2/14/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The second film from Takahisa Zeze for 2018, after “My Friend A” is a humongous production of 189 minutes, based on two actual “stories” and a rather unusual film for the Japanese veteran, who, in the latest years, seems to indulge in a diversity he was not able to explore during his youth. At times, I thought that his effort was similar to the one of another great director who started his career in pinku films and eventually shot a 3-hour political film, Koji Wakamatsu, whose “The Red Army” shares some similarities in style with the present film, although his approach was much more documentary-like.
The story uses the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake as its base, before it extends into two arcs, which eventually overlap.
The first one deals with women’s sumo, a sport which was initiated in the early 18th century and was popular in rural areas until the 1960’s. The...
The story uses the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake as its base, before it extends into two arcs, which eventually overlap.
The first one deals with women’s sumo, a sport which was initiated in the early 18th century and was popular in rural areas until the 1960’s. The...
- 12/12/2018
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The Tiffcom market, a sales event adjacent to the Tokyo International Film Festival, always includes the latest film launches from Japan. This year the selection is especially varied and rich. Arranged by sales company, highlights include:
Kadokawa
“Chiwawa”
Scripted and directed by Ken Ninomiya, this mystery about a 20-year-old Instagram star who ends up dead in Tokyo Bay, is based on a popular comic. It features a cast that includes the internationally known Chiaki Kuriyama (“Kill Bill”) and Tadanobu Asano (“The Third Murder”).
“Hard-Core”
Festival favorite, Nobuhiro Yamashita has adapted a cult hit comic about a pair of misfits who are inseparable friends. They encounter a retro-looking robot with astonishing powers, and together embark on a bizarre hunt for long-buried treasure.
“The Antique: Secret of the Old Books”
Yukiko Mishima, director of the acclaimed 2017 drama “Dear Etranger,” has returned with a literary mystery, based on En Mikami’s best-selling novel.
Kadokawa
“Chiwawa”
Scripted and directed by Ken Ninomiya, this mystery about a 20-year-old Instagram star who ends up dead in Tokyo Bay, is based on a popular comic. It features a cast that includes the internationally known Chiaki Kuriyama (“Kill Bill”) and Tadanobu Asano (“The Third Murder”).
“Hard-Core”
Festival favorite, Nobuhiro Yamashita has adapted a cult hit comic about a pair of misfits who are inseparable friends. They encounter a retro-looking robot with astonishing powers, and together embark on a bizarre hunt for long-buried treasure.
“The Antique: Secret of the Old Books”
Yukiko Mishima, director of the acclaimed 2017 drama “Dear Etranger,” has returned with a literary mystery, based on En Mikami’s best-selling novel.
- 10/23/2018
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
Festival poster by Ed Lachman and Jr.Below you will find an index of our coverage of films—and posters!—at the 2018 New York Film Festival:Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of the 56th New York Film FestivalOf all the photographic designs the official festival poster, created by Faces, Places co-director Jr and ace cinematographer—and Nyff regular—Ed Lachman, is the most interesting—and one of the best Nyff posters in recent years—with its Manhattan alleyway filled with oversized monochrome prints of famous filmmakers’ eyes (held aloft by Nyff staff). —Annual round-up of main slate posters by Adrian CurryThe Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)The Favourite, whose ‘family’ unit to be (self-)destroyed is of an aristocratic or rather royal kind, comprising the inner circle of the queen, is Lanthimos’ first attempt in directing only; the script was written by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. Nevertheless, the Greek philosopher’s-a.
- 10/3/2018
- MUBI
Interview: Daniel Kasman | Video: Kurt WalkerDistinctly anomalous in the competition of the Cannes Film Festival this year was Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II: in the red carpet sheen of that gala world, its modest production and unshowy demeanor suggested a more appropriate venue in the city might be the Directors’ Fortnight, where the pretense towards grandiosity is less a requirement and subtlety is given the patience to be discovered. Hamaguchi’s film, the director’s follow-up to the much acclaimed but still little seen Happy Hour (2015), feels distinctly independent and off-kilter, made in a world alternative to the festival’s Japanese arthouse staple, Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose new film Shoplifters premiered the same day in the same section and went on to win the Palme d'Or. Kore-eda’s textures of warm colorwork and values of gentle humanism stalwart against sinister social contexts seemed more appropriate to what Cannes desires to...
- 5/24/2018
- MUBI
At its start, the 2018 Cannes Film Festival wasn’t perceived as a big market for buyers, but many U.S. distributors came home happy: A24 acquired Gaspar Noé’s psychedelic dance thriller “Climax,” and Neon scored fantastical Un Certain Regard winner “Border.” Sony Pictures Classics picked up Lebanese crowdpleaser “Capernaum,” while Magnolia Pictures landed Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters.” Even Jean-Luc Godard’s unclassifiable experimental essay film “The Image Book” found a home, with Kino Lorber, and the festival closed out with Netflix picking up prize winners “Happy as Lazzaro” and “Girl.”
Still, there were plenty of Cannes highlights that ended the festival with their futures uncertain. Here are some of our favorites that deserve to get out there. So long as buyers are still keen on acquiring foreign language films, they might want to consider these options.
“Asako I + II”
Smart indie distributors should be celebrating the fact that...
Still, there were plenty of Cannes highlights that ended the festival with their futures uncertain. Here are some of our favorites that deserve to get out there. So long as buyers are still keen on acquiring foreign language films, they might want to consider these options.
“Asako I + II”
Smart indie distributors should be celebrating the fact that...
- 5/22/2018
- by Eric Kohn and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critics Lawrence Garcia and Daniel Kasman.Dear Danny,In Cate Blanchett’s remarks as Jury President during the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, she exhorted her fellow artists to leave their preconceptions behind and focus on the stories being told, a statement that inevitably favors narrative cinema, movies whose pleasures are largely rooted in plot developments, shadings of performance and character, clever turns of dialogue, et cetera. That's understandable, given the awards that the jury is tasked to hand out and especially given that Cannes—like most international festivals—is, in practice, dedicated to furthering such cinematic modes. In competition, Godard’s The Image Book remains the sole aberration—a thrilling rebuke to the shapelessness of the competition you mention.It would be too much to call Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Bi Gan’s sophomore feature,...
- 5/18/2018
- MUBI
I have unfortunately not seen any of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s earlier work, and am therefore lacking a basis for comparison. Still, after the lavish praise that was heaped upon Hamaguchi’s last feature, Happy Hour, I was left disappointed by Asako I & II, whose portrait of a relationship spanning almost a decade struck me as slight and emotionally inert, all the more so given that it takes amour fou as its focus.
The film, co-written by Hamaguchi and Sachiko Tanaka, is an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasaki’s novel Netemo Sametemo. It starts very promisingly, depicting the first sparks of young love between Asako (Erika Karata) and Baku (Masahiro Higashide) in a tender opening chapter that is over much too soon. Dreamily handsome and with a perpetually stoned demeanor, Baku is an unconventional type whose impulsiveness has Asako instantly smitten. Upon their first encounter, after they catch each other’s eye in the streets of Osaka,...
The film, co-written by Hamaguchi and Sachiko Tanaka, is an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasaki’s novel Netemo Sametemo. It starts very promisingly, depicting the first sparks of young love between Asako (Erika Karata) and Baku (Masahiro Higashide) in a tender opening chapter that is over much too soon. Dreamily handsome and with a perpetually stoned demeanor, Baku is an unconventional type whose impulsiveness has Asako instantly smitten. Upon their first encounter, after they catch each other’s eye in the streets of Osaka,...
- 5/16/2018
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Film Stage
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s earnest romance switches things up by having a woman obsessed with a man’s beauty and then falling for his double
Here is a quibblingly titled movie from Japan that turns out to be an odd doppelganger romance of Ya earnestness, directed and co-written by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, adapted from the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. It has a kind of counter-Vertigo theme, a tale of mirror-image obsession, but where this kind of thing is usually about the possessive male gaze and passively enigmatic female beauty, here things are reversed. Asako is about the female gaze, and male beauty.
Erika Karata plays Asako, a college student in Kyoto, demure, hardworking, self-effacing and possessed of a doll-like beauty. One day she attends a photographic exhibition and outside chances across Baku (Masahiro Higashide), a fellow student who is hardly less pretty than she is: cool, careless, like the solo breakout star of a boyband.
Here is a quibblingly titled movie from Japan that turns out to be an odd doppelganger romance of Ya earnestness, directed and co-written by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, adapted from the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. It has a kind of counter-Vertigo theme, a tale of mirror-image obsession, but where this kind of thing is usually about the possessive male gaze and passively enigmatic female beauty, here things are reversed. Asako is about the female gaze, and male beauty.
Erika Karata plays Asako, a college student in Kyoto, demure, hardworking, self-effacing and possessed of a doll-like beauty. One day she attends a photographic exhibition and outside chances across Baku (Masahiro Higashide), a fellow student who is hardly less pretty than she is: cool, careless, like the solo breakout star of a boyband.
- 5/15/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In enigmatic romance “Asako I & II,” the willful heroine can’t choose between two lovers who look exactly the same. Japanese independent director Ryusuke Hamaguchi uses this rather unlikely premise to explore the mysteries of the heart. Catapulted straight to the main competition in Cannes without prior participation at other sections, the helmer’s ninth work boasts a momentous leap in his career. Yet, compared to his previous five-hour epic relationship drama “Happy Hour,” this is less ambitious and lacks the raw honesty or spellbinding intensity of that film.
Adapting a novel of the same title by Tomoka Shibasaki, Hamaguchi extols his source for a compelling representation of love as a mystic experience. However, what gets transferred to the screen becomes more like banal indecision.
When Asako (Erika Karata) encounters her first love Baku Torii (Masahiro Higashide) in her hometown Osaka, it’s staged like a fantasy sequence in...
Adapting a novel of the same title by Tomoka Shibasaki, Hamaguchi extols his source for a compelling representation of love as a mystic experience. However, what gets transferred to the screen becomes more like banal indecision.
When Asako (Erika Karata) encounters her first love Baku Torii (Masahiro Higashide) in her hometown Osaka, it’s staged like a fantasy sequence in...
- 5/15/2018
- by Maggie Lee
- Variety Film + TV
On a day that saw the return of Lars von Trier to the festival that had declared him persona non grata seven years ago, the first screenings of Spike Lee’s incendiary “BlacKkKlansman” and the press unveiling of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s instant Palme d’Or contender “Shoplifters,” it was easy for Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s “Asako I & II” to get lost.
But maybe that’s appropriate, because the gentle, leisurely story that the Japanese director tells deals with a lost love, a lost cat and other things that can disappear if we don’t hold on.
As a director, Hamaguchi has never been in a hurry; his 2015 festival favorite “Happy Hour” in fact stretched on for a full five hours. At just over two hours, “Asako” is less than half that — but it’s a small story, based on Tomoka Shibasaki’s 2010 novel, and the film lingers over ever detail.
But maybe that’s appropriate, because the gentle, leisurely story that the Japanese director tells deals with a lost love, a lost cat and other things that can disappear if we don’t hold on.
As a director, Hamaguchi has never been in a hurry; his 2015 festival favorite “Happy Hour” in fact stretched on for a full five hours. At just over two hours, “Asako” is less than half that — but it’s a small story, based on Tomoka Shibasaki’s 2010 novel, and the film lingers over ever detail.
- 5/14/2018
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Last year, Kiyoshi Kurosawa made one of his most purely fun pictures, Before We Vanish, adapted a play by Tomohiro Maekawa into a genuinely zany science fiction film, a chance at a bigger budget the Japanese filmmaker relished through a clever homage to 1980s blockbusters, an elastic tone of silly graveness, and vibrant dashes of special effects. Kurosawa has unexpectedly returned to this same material (another play by Maekawa, who co-wrote the script) with a new film set in the same world: Foreboding, a 5-part miniseries shown in Japanese TV last September and trimmed by an hour into a straightforward but terrific and phantasmal thriller that premiered at the Berlinale. The premise is the same across the films: in advance of an invasion, aliens are quietly inhabiting the bodies of normal people, finding human guides to escort them around, and harvest “concepts” (work, love, death) from the minds of those...
- 2/23/2018
- MUBI
It’s the first fiction feature for Gera after her well-received 2013 documentary What’s Love Got To Do With It?.
Paris-based mk2 films has boarded world sales on Indian director Rohena Gera’s star-crossed romance Sir, exploring love across the classes in Mumbai, ahead of the European Film Market this week.
The picture, which was first announced at Goa’s Film Bazaar in 2016, revolves around the impossible relationship between a middle-class man and his maid. It is currently in post-production.
“Sir is a love story that attempts to break through the class barriers in India, but it’s definitely not a straightforward Cinderella story, the ending is quite the opposite to what we might suspect as is the discovery that even the most privileged individuals are victims of the class divide,” said mk2 films managing director Juliette Schrameck.
Schrameck notes that it joins a number of other new titles either by female directors or looking at the status...
Paris-based mk2 films has boarded world sales on Indian director Rohena Gera’s star-crossed romance Sir, exploring love across the classes in Mumbai, ahead of the European Film Market this week.
The picture, which was first announced at Goa’s Film Bazaar in 2016, revolves around the impossible relationship between a middle-class man and his maid. It is currently in post-production.
“Sir is a love story that attempts to break through the class barriers in India, but it’s definitely not a straightforward Cinderella story, the ending is quite the opposite to what we might suspect as is the discovery that even the most privileged individuals are victims of the class divide,” said mk2 films managing director Juliette Schrameck.
Schrameck notes that it joins a number of other new titles either by female directors or looking at the status...
- 2/12/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Before We Vanish (Sanpo suru shinryakusha) Neon Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Screenwriter: Sachiko Tanaka, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, based on the play by Tomohiro Maekawa Cast: Masami Nagasawa, Ryuhei Matsuda, Atsuko Maeda, Hiroki Hasegawa, Yuri Tsunematsu, Mahiro Takasugi, Masahiro Higashide Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 1/25/18 Opens: February 2, 2018 If you’re looking for […]
The post Before We Vanish Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Before We Vanish Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 1/29/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The Japanese branch of Warner Bros has been investing for quite some time in the mainstream Japanese movie industry, mainly through the distribution of Takashi Miike’s and action films based on manga. In that fashion, the “Death Note” franchise was an obvious choice, as one of the most commercial of the last decades.
The film is available for pre-order from Madman Entertainment
“Light Up the New World” takes place ten years after the events of “Death Note 2” and follows “Death Note: New Generation” in terms of theme. King Shinigami seems to consider the mayhem spread by Yagami Light delightful, and has scattered six new notebooks around the world. Unavoidably, the bodies start piling up again, and the Death Note Task Force is resurrected once more. As new Shinigamis appear along the new owners of the notebooks, chaos is being spread in even worse terms than before, particularly after a...
The film is available for pre-order from Madman Entertainment
“Light Up the New World” takes place ten years after the events of “Death Note 2” and follows “Death Note: New Generation” in terms of theme. King Shinigami seems to consider the mayhem spread by Yagami Light delightful, and has scattered six new notebooks around the world. Unavoidably, the bodies start piling up again, and the Death Note Task Force is resurrected once more. As new Shinigamis appear along the new owners of the notebooks, chaos is being spread in even worse terms than before, particularly after a...
- 7/24/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The long wait for Death Note: Light Up the New World is almost over. The film will be released in less than 2 weeks and just recently fans were treated to titillating teaser clips to the movie.
Several viral videos were released on the official website. The clips show the looming chaos in Tokyo and the impending doom of six new Death Notes – supernatural notebooks that can extinguish any name written on its pages.
One of the unleashed viral videos particularly tickled avid fans. The clip shows the ‘Kira Virus’ taking over an unsuspecting victim’s mobile phone. The screen goes black and the ever-daunting Kira hijacks the screen. The audience can only tremble as the sight of the serial killer promises to bring more mischief, mayhem and murder.
Set ten years after the events of the previous films, Death Note: Light Up the New World revolves around a...
Several viral videos were released on the official website. The clips show the looming chaos in Tokyo and the impending doom of six new Death Notes – supernatural notebooks that can extinguish any name written on its pages.
One of the unleashed viral videos particularly tickled avid fans. The clip shows the ‘Kira Virus’ taking over an unsuspecting victim’s mobile phone. The screen goes black and the ever-daunting Kira hijacks the screen. The audience can only tremble as the sight of the serial killer promises to bring more mischief, mayhem and murder.
Set ten years after the events of the previous films, Death Note: Light Up the New World revolves around a...
- 10/19/2016
- by Ella Palileo
- AsianMoviePulse
"When the two connect, the true terror begins." Eureka Entertainment has debuted an official (subtitled) trailer for the Japanese horror-thriller Creepy, which has been playing the film festival circuit all year so far. The latest from filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the film is about an ex-detective and criminal psychologist who discovers that his new neighbor isn't quite who he says he is. The cast includes Hidetoshi Nishijima, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yüko Takeuchi, Haruna Kawaguchi, and Masahiro Higashide. Not only has it played at numerous fests, but the film has received some great reviews so far. One review on ScreenAnarchy says "it's an example of a master attempting a new direction -- in the form of a good, old-fashioned, bloody, spirited thriller." This definitely does look creepy. That guy's smile is the freakiest part about it. Have a look. Here's the official UK trailer for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Creepy, direct from Eureka's YouTube: Takakura is a former detective.
- 8/30/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
After an initial trailer with no English subtitles, a new preview has arrived for Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s thriller Creepy, making things obviously clearer for audiences here due to the addition. The story concerns an ex-detective and criminal psychologist (Hidetoshi Nishijima) with a happy, quiet life who has his tranquility disturbed when he begins to suspect his new neighbor (Teruyuki Kagawa) isn’t quite who he says he is. Featuring one of the creepiest smiles I’ve seen in quite some time from Kagawa, Creepy looks to be a dark and twisted thriller.
We said in our review: “Though the middle stretch does go on for longer than is strictly necessary – a good 20 minutes could easily have been shaved off without forsaking anything crucial – the eventual pay-off doesn’t disappoint. Featuring an industrial vacuum cleaner-cum-sealer, a mysterious mind-control drug — both spooky and narratively convenient, considering the characters’ screamingly preposterous behavior — and...
We said in our review: “Though the middle stretch does go on for longer than is strictly necessary – a good 20 minutes could easily have been shaved off without forsaking anything crucial – the eventual pay-off doesn’t disappoint. Featuring an industrial vacuum cleaner-cum-sealer, a mysterious mind-control drug — both spooky and narratively convenient, considering the characters’ screamingly preposterous behavior — and...
- 8/30/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
The official website for the upcoming film recently updated with a poster featuring the three main characters, also revealing its official title “Death Note Light up the New world”.
The sequel film is set 10 years after the first two live-action films, focusing on a battle for the new six different death notes fall to the human world. Shinsuke Sato (Gantz, Library Wars) will direct the screenplay by Katsunari Mano (Aibou TV drama series). Warner Brothers Japan will distribute it from October 29, 2016.
The poster features Tsukuru Mishima (Masahiro Higashide, center), Yugi Shion (Masaki Suda, left), and Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu, right). It contains the text, “A decade after that incident … Six new Death Notes have been scattered.”
In the new film’s story, a highly advanced information society is beset by global cyber-terrorism in 2016. New charismatic figures, who “inherited the DNA” of Light and the detective L , emerge. The successors of the...
The sequel film is set 10 years after the first two live-action films, focusing on a battle for the new six different death notes fall to the human world. Shinsuke Sato (Gantz, Library Wars) will direct the screenplay by Katsunari Mano (Aibou TV drama series). Warner Brothers Japan will distribute it from October 29, 2016.
The poster features Tsukuru Mishima (Masahiro Higashide, center), Yugi Shion (Masaki Suda, left), and Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu, right). It contains the text, “A decade after that incident … Six new Death Notes have been scattered.”
In the new film’s story, a highly advanced information society is beset by global cyber-terrorism in 2016. New charismatic figures, who “inherited the DNA” of Light and the detective L , emerge. The successors of the...
- 4/22/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Fans of Kiyoshi Kurosawa will rejoice since his latest film, “Creepy” will signal his return to the thriller genre, which was the one that made him an international sensation.
The film is based on the homonymous novel by Yutaka Maekawa and the story goes like this: After having narrowly escaped an attempt on his life at the hands of a psychopath, detective inspector Takakura quits active service in the police force and takes up a position as a university lecturer in criminal psychology. But his desire to get to the bottom of criminals’ motives remains, and he does not hesitate long when former colleague Nogami asks him to reopen an old case. Six years ago, a family disappeared under mysterious circumstances and to this day no body has been found. Takakura follows Saki’s memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. While Takakura immerses himself in the old files,...
The film is based on the homonymous novel by Yutaka Maekawa and the story goes like this: After having narrowly escaped an attempt on his life at the hands of a psychopath, detective inspector Takakura quits active service in the police force and takes up a position as a university lecturer in criminal psychology. But his desire to get to the bottom of criminals’ motives remains, and he does not hesitate long when former colleague Nogami asks him to reopen an old case. Six years ago, a family disappeared under mysterious circumstances and to this day no body has been found. Takakura follows Saki’s memory. She is the only surviving family member from the case. While Takakura immerses himself in the old files,...
- 3/23/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
In the third Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Terence Davies's Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion with Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Catherine Bailey, Jodhi May, Emma Bell and Duncan Duff; Mia Hansen-Løve's outstanding Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's serial killer thriller (and comedy) Creepy with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruna Kawaguchi and Masahiro Higashide. Plus: Trailers and a clip. » - David Hudson...
- 2/14/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
In the third Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Terence Davies's Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion with Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Catherine Bailey, Jodhi May, Emma Bell and Duncan Duff; Mia Hansen-Løve's outstanding Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's serial killer thriller (and comedy) Creepy with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruna Kawaguchi and Masahiro Higashide. Plus: Trailers and a clip. » - David Hudson...
- 2/14/2016
- Keyframe
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