Film
- Japan, Cannes film festival, Drama films, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Festivals, Culture, Film
Sheep in the Box review – a bland, baffling tale of AI children from Hirokazu Kore-eda
There’s nothing wrong with film-makers leaving their comfort zone but the Japanese director’s latest effort ju…
- Japan, Cannes film festival, Drama films, Europe, World news, Asia Pacific, France, Books, Festivals, Culture, paris, Film, Film adaptations
All of a Sudden review – care home drama is tender, meditative and a little too precious for its own good
Cannes film festival: Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ocean-hopping treatise on love and mortality is undeniably beautiful…
- Japan, Cannes film festival, Drama films, World news, Asia Pacific, Romance films, Festivals, Culture, Film
Nagi Notes review – clear, calm light shed on criss-crossed family passions
Cannes film festivalSet in a beautifully filmed provincial Japanese town, what could have been a soapy drama i…
- Robert De Niro, Japan, Restaurants, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Culture, Food, Film
Nobu review – story of obsession and loss that lies behind the luxury sushi empire
This affectionate portrait of chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa finds surprising emotional depth beneath the glossy surf…
- Japan, Drama films, Period and historical films, World news, Asia Pacific, Stage, Theatre, Culture, Film
Kokuho review – passionately male Cain-and-Abel kabuki epic of gender-crossing actors
Lee Sang-il’s heartfelt drama spans 50 years following the bond and rivalry between two brothers who play the …
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That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: Tears of the Azure Sea review – hectic anime lives again
There is less daffy humour in this sequel than in the 2023 original, but some sublime animationBy the demented…
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‘Opening the hidden door within us’: how Exit 8 took a simple game to purgatory
Genki Kawamura’s eerie new film expands on a haunting video game that leaves players lost in endless subway tu…
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Exit 8 review – Escher-esque subway station corridor leads to disquieting psychological mystery
A commuter’s entrapment provides a taut, unnerving and rare example of an adaptation that holds close to the v…
- Martin Scorsese, Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson, Japan, Culture, Religion, Film, Christianity
Silence took Martin Scorsese nearly 30 years to make – and it shows
The period drama set in feudal Japan is an epic of divine proportion, tackling grand questions of faith and co…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, Action and adventure films, World news, Asia Pacific, Comedy films, Culture, Comedy, Film, Thrillers
Ghost Killer review – fantastic karate chopping and gunslinging in in supernatural action-comedy
Top notch choreography features heavily in tale of a student who is inhabited by an assassin’s spirit determin…
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The Last Blossom review – a yakuza faces his final reckoning in affecting anime
A talking balsam flower asks an elderley yakuza to weigh up a life of violence and kindness in Baku Kinoshita’…
- England, Kazuo Ishiguro, Japan, Drama films, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, UK news, Culture, Film, Film adaptations
A Pale View of Hills review – two-stranded adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro novel in the shadow of the A-bomb
Kei Ishikawa’s take on Ishiguro’s first published work is frustrating and bland, undermining its fascinating c…
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Japan, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Stage, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
Scarlet review – Mamoru Hosoda turns Hamlet into tale of prowling knights and deep ‘nothingness’
The normally great director misses the mark with a wonderfully animated but narratively clunky retelling of th…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants to Be Loved review – sword, sorcery and smartphones
Those not up to speed on the Miss Kobayashi manga may struggle with the full nuance of this dimension hopping …
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‘I considered starting over as a farmer’: Masao Adachi on political cinema, revolution and Japan today
The director and ex-Japanese Red Army militant discusses his new film Escape, about the anarchist fugitive Sat…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, Action and adventure films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
All You Need is Kill review – time loop anime offers giant alien flower for Groundhog Day with mechs
New version of the sci-fi day-on-repeat sees a perplexed duo repeatedly battle monstrous plants but leaves you…
- Fukushima, Japan, Environment, Japan disaster, Nuclear power, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Energy, Culture, Film
Fukushima review – a devastating account of disaster and denial in 2011 nuclear catastrophe
A tense return to the disaster foregrounds the heroism of the ‘Fukushima 50’ while raising questions about cor…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Lupin the IIIrd the Movie: The Immortal Bloodline review – eye-popping fan-service in latest in anime franchise
Takeshi Koike’s latest take on Monkey Punch’s vintage manga thief is beautifully animated, but the gossamer-th…
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‘People ought to know’: Blue Boy Trial brings Japan’s trans history up to date
Kasho Iizuka’s feature casts trans actors to revisit a notorious 1965 trial that made gender reassignment ille…
- Family films, Japan, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
Little Amélie review – tender and poignant study of the fragility of early childhood
Based on a 2000 novella, this sweet animation follows a young girl who wakes from a vegetative state on the ve…