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Netflix has revealed that its Japanese slate for the year ahead includes three films and a seven new and returning series.

The features include Drawing Closer by Takahiro Miki, a director well-known for romantic dramas such as Love Me, Love Me Not and Your Eyes Tell. It follows a young man with a terminal illness who falls for a woman who is also living on borrowed time. The cast is led by Ren Nagase and Natsuki Deguchi.

It is based on a best-selling novel by Ao Morita and is scripted by Tomoko Yoshida, whose collaborations with Miki go back to...

If I had to define the word tedious with a movie, it might be Netflix’s Japanese-language film The Village, also known simply as “Village.” What looks like a mystery tinted with Japanese art and a deep message of “be kind to everything around you” turns out to be more tiring than inspiring. It’s quite disheartening because this movie could’ve turned out brutal and emotional if it weren’t so sporadically paced. The two hours have definitely been underutilized, and the details that have been paid attention to are redundant. A lot of the film is dark, and if you’re watching it in the daytime, it might be a little difficult to understand what exactly is happening. The plot attempts to cover the dark and difficult subjects of bullying, the idea of evil being hereditary, climate change, depopulation, and the abandonment of tradition for contemporary culture. While...

Tiffcom, the market that runs concurrently with the Tokyo International Film Festival, is completely online this year, with 73 films screening for buyers Nov. 4-6. (The festival runs Oct. 31 to Nov. 7.)

But the Japanese companies are quite at home in the new online environment. They are also pitching plenty of new product that is not on the screening schedule, including new titles that have begun to earn.

Leading the Shochiku slate is “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish,” a Tamura Kotaro animation based on a story by Tanabe Seiko about a feisty disabled woman who finds love with an abled-bodied college student.

The story was first made into a 2003 live-action film that was a critical and commercial success. The animation had its world premiere last week at the Busan festival.

Also new to the Shochiku lineup is “Sakura,” a family drama directed by acclaimed indie veteran Yazaki Hitoshi. Fasting-rising young actors Kitamura Takumi,...

Korean pop sensation, Bts will provide the original theme song for upcoming Japanese movie “Your Eyes Tell.” With Bts member Jungkook among the composers, it is the first time that the best-selling band has participated with a film in this manner.

The song and the movie share the same English-language title, though the English title of the song is presented as “Your Eyes Tell” and the film also goes by the Japanese title “Kimino mega toikaketeiru.” The song features as a track on the new “Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey” album being launched Wednesday for the Japan market.

The film is a remake of the 2011 Korean movie “Always,” which was directed by Song Il-gon. The retread is directed by Takahiro Miki and stars Yuriko Yoshitaka (“We Were There”) and Ryusei Yokohama (TV drama “Your Turn to Kill”). It is set for release by Gaga Corporation on Oct. 23 this year.