Kei Ishikawa’s take on Ishiguro’s first published work is frustrating and bland, undermining its fascinating characters’ emotional truthsKazuo Ishiguro has long been a subtle and potent figure in the movies, with his distinctively Anglo-Japanese melanc…
The normally great director misses the mark with a wonderfully animated but narratively clunky retelling of the Shakespearean stapleFilm versions of Hamlet are the new buses; you wait for ages for one, then three come along all at once: first Hamnet, t…
New version of the sci-fi day-on-repeat sees a perplexed duo repeatedly battle monstrous plants but leaves you feeling as bored as the protagonist appearsThe second film adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s 2004 eponymous novel, this new one is considera…
Based on a 2000 novella, this sweet animation follows a young girl who wakes from a vegetative state on the verge of feral, but begins to bond with others after an intervention by her grandmother This tender and sweet animation from film-makers Maïlys …
Based on a real-life case of a teacher charged with abusing a child, Japan’s master of the extreme doesn’t sit on the fence in this two-sided retellingTakashi Miike, Japan’s maestro of the extreme, now takes on a relatively sedate and mainstream genre:…
Dazzling rotoscoped running sequences make up for a lack of narrative subtlety in Kenji Iwaisawa’s filmMuch has been written about the act of running, a therapeutic exercise with the potential for cathartic release. Within the context of professional s…
The film version of A Pale View of Hills, the Nobel-winner’s tale of loss, exile and a pregnant radioactive bride, is about to premiere at Cannes. The writer explains why this story is so personal to himKazuo Ishiguro still remembers where he was when …
Spirited Away animator Yoshiyuki Momose takes the reins in this dreamy and dark family fable, adapted from AF Harrold’s novel of the same nameStudio Ponoc – the Japanese animation studio founded by Studio Ghibli alumni, which gave us Mary and the Witch…
Obsessively detailed clash between two rival high school teams has done massive box office in Japan, but it won’t make much sense to the uninitiatedThis is the second highest-grossing movie of the year in Japan, but unless you’re a teenager, an anime j…
A sublime score from Hiromi Uehara drives this coming-of-age-anime, which brings three young jazz musicians to life with spectacular imageryIs jazz dead? Yuzuru Tachikawa’s Blue Giant certainly begs to differ. Following three 18-year-old boys who dogge…
The seductively quirky sad-serious tone of the author is evident as a constellation of characters try and save the city – including a lost cat and a giant talkative frogJapanese novelist Haruki Murakami has inspired some prestigious movies, most recent…
This playful tale about an ogre samurai, a poisoned queen and a demonic pool of talking slime has a lot of confusing lore for the uninitiated to catch up onThis high-spirited anime feels like having the contents of a Dungeons & Dragons manual screa…
The premise of a high-school tutor forced to choose which of his students to marry could have been disastrous but this romantic fantasy film avoids ickinessYou fear the worst when you discover that this is an anime about a high-school tutor forced to c…
Two grandees of Japanese animation adapt a Nahoko Uehashi fantasy novel that covers too much ground to take flightA key animator on numerous classics including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Your Name, Masashi Ando teams up with Masayuki Miyaji, …