Tagged Japan

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect choice to adapt Kurosawa’s iconic Ikiru (1952) than Kazuo Ishiguro. Born in Japan but raised in the UK since the age of 5, the Nobel Laureate bridges both cultures,...

What would you do if you were a 10-year-old orphan in Japan? Form a rock band with your three orphan friends and become a pop sensation, of course. And in We Are Little Zombies, Makoto Nagahisa’s debut...

This film was previously reviewed on 15/05/2018 as part of the Cannes Film Festival. Hirokazu Kore-eda is on familiar ground with Shoplifters, the story of an unconventional family unit on the fringes of...

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II is an endearing Japanese rom-com with a high-concept premise. Asako (Erika Karata) falls in love with Baku (Masashiro Higashide) at university, but he walks out of her...

Hirokazu Kore-eda is on familiar ground with Shoplifters, the story of an unconventional family unit on the fringes of society who beg, steal and borrow to get by. It’s the most fun Kore-eda has been in...

Damn, Maddie took my opening line. OK then, The Handmaiden is exquisite. Few films this year feel as complete. Usually the best works have one quality that makes them stand out, whether that be a stellar...

This was originally reviewed on 09/10/17 as part of London Film Festival. Takashi Miike’s 100th film Blade of the Immortal is concrete proof that the director has no intentions of slowing down. The usual...

Please note: this article contains descriptions of sexual assault. Takashi Miike is one of the most prolific working directors around. He has made more than one film a year since 1991, and the release of...

Takashi Miike’s 100th film Blade of the Immortal is concrete proof that the director has no intentions of slowing down. The usual opening credits are quite literally cut short, a blood spatter and a scream...

Park Chan-wook’s newest film, The Handmaiden, adapted from Sarah Waters’ crime novel Fingersmith, follows the story quite closely, though setting the film in 1930s Korea and Japan instead of Victorian...

The sound of Silence is astonishing. Insects, waves, weather, chanting, groaning and, yes, prolonged silence - these elements combine into a sensory experience at once rich and austere. The clash of languages...

Documentary director Stephen Kijak is clearly fascinated by band and "visual kei" pioneers X Japan and, although informative, the opening segment of We Are X teeters on the edge of pandering to founder Yoshiki...

https://vimeo.com/176459945 Things weren’t looking good in Japan. The year was 2003 and the nation was near the end of a period known as The Lost Decade. A stagnant economy and record unemployment were...

Assassination is a meticulously crafted film crammed with diverse elements, including sumptuously detailed set design, goofy slapstick humour, and even a meet cute. Best of all, there’s a kickass heroine...

From prolific filmmaker Takeshi Kitano comes Ryuzo and His Seven Henchmen, a slightly bonkers black comedy about an elderly bunch of Japanese Yakuza, who regroup when their ex-leader Ryuzo is bamboozled by a...