Film
- Japan, Technology, Drama films, Crime films, World news, Asia Pacific, Internet, Culture, Film, Thrillers
Cloud review – bizarre internet action thriller descends into hail of bullets
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s baffling crime farrago follows a cyber fraudster pursued by an angry gang of disappointed s…
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Kaiju No 8: Mission Recon review – the fury and rawness of battle as monsters keep coming
A high school-style training academy is the setting for Tomomi Kamiya and Shigeyuki Miya’s punky anime tale of…
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The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru review – British wartime tragedy told with potent empathy
This enthralling Chinese documentary about the torpedoing of a Japanese freighter carrying 1,816 British PoWs …
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Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods review – classic anime has cosmic charm
An anniversary edition of the 2013 martial arts animation is light on bombast, funny and mischievousHere is a …
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Johatsu review – poignant account of Japan’s ‘voluntarily disappeared’
Melancholy documentary follows the owner of a ‘night moving’ business in Japan, helping people abandon their o…
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Cottontail review – life lessons are learnt in tender, Beatrix Potter-inspired tale
A Japanese man journeys to the Lake District to honour his late wife, testing his relationship with his son in…
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The Colors Within review – musical teen anime is a synaesthetic joy
Three adolescent misfits form a band in this luminous feature from Liz and the Blue Bird director Naoko Yamada…
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Stray Dog/High and Low review – Kurosawa lifts crime drama to astonishing new peaks
★★★★★/★★★★★Drawing on hardboiled US fiction, as American film had fed on his own Seven Samurai, the director b…
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Japanese singer and actor Miho Nakayama dies aged 54
After making her name with J-pop hits, the performer went on to win acclaim for film roles including Love Lett…
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Remembering Every Night review – drifting drama follows three Tokyo women living their lives
Yui Kiyohara’s film of long shots and silences could be deeply boring or oddly fascinating depending on your p…
- Japan, Reality TV, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, Television, Culture, Film
The Contestant review – the cruelty of reality TV on show in one of its earliest manifestations
Tomoaki Hamatsu was a sensation over the year he stayed alone in a single room amusing the camera, but this do…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom review – intriguing fantasy franchise is far from your average anime
Its Game of Thronesian intrigue, benevolent Skeletor protagonist and surprising lack of gratuitous violence se…
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‘I wanted those 828 men not to be forgotten’: the Chinese documentary raising wartime ghosts
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru – rejected earlier this week as China’s official Oscars contender – recounts a …
- Godzilla, Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, Action and adventure films, World news, Asia Pacific, Culture, Film
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color review – magnificent monster in mono
Black and white re-release of one of the fire-breathing lizard’s best outings looks terrific and has an intrig…
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Black Box Diaries review – Japanese journalist’s courageous documentary about her own rape ordeal
Shiori Itō’s account of her sexual assault by a high-profile colleague, and her fight for justice, is a tough …
- Japan, Society, Rape and sexual assault, Law, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Culture, Film
Black Box Diaries review – inside the remarkable events that triggered Japan’s #MeToo movement
Japanese journalist Shiori Itō tells how she pursued her rape case against a prominent TV executive This is th…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
My Hero Academia: You’re Next review – old-style superhero battle anime with hint of the surreal
The fourth film spin-off from the daffy Japanese X-Men knock-off beams its dream-like action into a flying for…
- Malala Yousafzai, Fukushima, Japan, Marine life, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, South Korea, Culture, Film
The Last of the Sea Women review – female Korean divers as picturesque eco-feminist tradition
Sue Kim’s film about South Korea’s underwater fishers has everything from nuclear pollution to sexism to cover…
- #MeToo movement, Japan, Sexual harassment, Rape and sexual assault, World news, Documentary films, Film
‘Editing it was like exposure therapy’: Shiori Ito, the reluctant face of Japan’s #MeToo movement
After reporting a high-profile journalist for sexual assault, Ito was championed and vilified. She relives tha…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Crime films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram review – cult anime goes on wild treasure hunt
The latest outing for the high school sleuth sees him join forces with his arch enemy, a master thief. Despite…