Documentary films
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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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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…
- 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…
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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 …
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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…
- 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…
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‘Intense and insane’: was this the most unsettling reality TV show ever?
In the new documentary The Contestant, a Japanese man is put through an astonishing TV experience for more tha…
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Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus review – a stark, emotional finale from master musician
In his last weeks of life, the Oscar-winning composer is filmed at the piano by his son. It is an almost wordl…
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Finding Her Beat review – women-only taiko drumming troupe takes on the US
The challenges of bringing the Japanese drum style to an American audience are laboriously told, but the perfo…
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All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars review – dreamlike study of tsunami survivors
Swedish visual artist Jennifer Rainsford has made an at times mesmerising film that follows the aftermath of J…
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Tokyo Stories review – artistic immersion into the city’s creative life
The Exhibition on Screen documentary series delves into the boundless energy of the Japanese megalopolisHaving…
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Dreaming an Island review – an eerie tour of planet Earth’s depopulated future
This documentary about a small Japanese island, a once thriving mining outpost that now has only 100 residents…
- Japan, Ireland, US news, Nuclear weapons, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Photography, Culture, Film
US airman who rescued film of A-bomb horrors is honoured at last
Cameraman Daniel McGovern copied footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastation to ensure lessons were learnedT…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Olympic Games, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Sport, Film
The Witches of the Orient review – very strange but true sports history
Julien Faraut’s documentary recounts how a Japanese women’s volleyball team recruited from factory workers bec…
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The Reason I Jump review – an empathic study of nonverbal autism
Documentary inspired by Japanese teenager’s bestselling book takes us into the world of young neurodiverse peo…
- Japan, Life and style, Craft, US news, World news, Documentary films, Design, Art and design, Culture, Film
Wood life: the soulful craft of George Nakashima
A new family-led documentary reveals the story of the US woodworker who, influenced by the philosophy of Japan…
- Japan, Environment, Marine life, Conservation, Animals, Wildlife, Fishing, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Culture, Food, Film
Ama-San review – a deep dive into Japan’s fisherwomen culture
Cláudia Varejão’s camera embark’s on an enigmatic and occasionally baffling study of a hypnotic worldThe ama a…