Introduction

Nothing is more cozier than to snuggle in a comfy chair in the cinema and indulge in the visual fantasies of others. These visual fantasies do not only produce pleasure for the spectator, but create a gateway for him to explore other cultural structures – elaborations of how, within a given culture, a subject deals with the Real. For many years now, audiences find a wide array of such gateways at the Fantasia International Film Festival. More than any film festival around the world, Fantasia gives audiences a satisfying taste of diverse subjective and cultural solutions to the Real – comedy, horror, fantasy, drama.

Of course, psycho-cinematography directs its gaze at the Japanese selection. The first film that arouses our interest – and should arouse yours to – is Yuta Shimotsu’s second feature film, New Group (2025) In 2023, Shimotsu suprised fans of the J-horror genre by crafting an incredibly satisfying horror film, Best Wishes To All, and we are eager to discover his second horror-narrative.

Anything by Koji Shiraishi, the undisputed master of J-horror, is on our must-watch list. We’re eager to re-discover his Cult-Classic, Norio: The Curse (2005) and to savour his latest horror film, Red Spider Lilies: The Ascension (2024).

While Takashi Miike does not deliver masterpieces like in the past anymore, he still crafts films that are worth to experience in the cinema. Fantasia International Film Festival offers two films by the hand of the legend, the sports drama Blazing Fists (2025) and drama Sham (2025).

Of course, there are many more Japanese films to discover at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Sometimes it is better to choose a film at random, without looking anything up, and be subjected to twists and turns written by the screenwriter and brought to life visually by the director, the cinematographer and the cast.

However, there are two Japanese films that one, as cinephile, cannot afford to miss. These films must be experienced in the comfy darkness of the cinema. The first film is Toshiaki’s visual and auditive feast Trancending Dimensions (2025) and the second one is the eccentric comedy Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005).

Trancending Dimensions (2025) By Toshiaki Toyoda

Transcending Dimensions is Toyoda’s masterpiece, a culmination of his past disillusionment with the societal Other and his interest in spiritualism and rebirth born from being mistreated by the Other of the law. Toyoda has crafted a visceral, evocative experience which cannot be put into words, but must be experienced. Highly recommended.   

Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005) by Shunichiro Miki

Funky Forest: The First Contact is strange, mundane, surprising, deadpan funny, funky, and ethereal all rolled into one. Miki’s anthological comedy is, as a result, not for everyone. Yet, those spectators who are open to such an unforgettbale eccentric mix will not only find a funny but highly recognizable exploration of the misunderstanding that marks the interactions between the sexes, but also one of the most innocent but bizarre visualizations of the fractured state of our sexuality.