Makoto Ueda proves that cinema is alive and kicking.
Fiamma (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
With brutal elegance, Uchida develops the idea that physical reality cannot be equated with subjective truth.
Night Flower (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Eiji Uchida delivers a highly moving drama of motherhood.
SAI: Disaster (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase deliver an experience that, in our view, has everything to become a cult-phenomenon, so do not sleep on it.
Fantasia International Film Fest: Japanese Films not to miss.
Find out our recommendations of this year’s Fantasia Film Festival.
Ando (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Arai might be the fresh blood that the thriller genre thirsts for in Japan. However, only time will tell.
Tokyo Taxi (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yoji Yamada delivers an incredibly touching experience – possibly his swangsong – for cinephiles to savour.
Moon In The Ordinary (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Spectators who haven’t had similar life-experiences might struggle to emotionally invest into the characters and the narrative.
At the Lovehotel (2026) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Santa Ikegami delivers a self-assured debut that does not easily give away its thematical message.
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) review-analysis
A modern classic, one of the best, if not the best, cinematic experiences of the ‘00.
A Unique Country In Asia (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
A film that fully embraces the political dimension pink film once was known for.
Fujiko (2026) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
An incredibly satisfying feel-good experience about personal freedom, about holding on to one’s desire within a societal field that seeks to suffocate it.
Mag Mag (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yuriyan Retriever delivers a satisfying film of subjective growth, yet not without a highly ironic aftertaste.
Long Night (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
A self-assured debut, wielding the filmic frame to stage the alienation of the contemporary subject, the failure of imaginary fictions, and the disruptive effect of avoiding Otherness,
The Deepest Space In Us (2025) [Nippon Connection 2026]
Chikuma utilizes his atmospheric blend of intimacy and alienation to assert that the societal field will always fail the Otherness of its subjects and, more importantly, that the deepest space in us is something that continually escapes us.