Introduction

Opening the door of cinema is very much like undraping a mirroring window that offers the spectator a fantasmatic glance at the Other, engages with his desires and fantasies, and allows him to put his own subjective position within the Other into question. When a year comes to a close, is is the perfect time is to look back and undertake the difficult task of deciding which Japanese films had the most subjective impact, which films were the most effective mirroring windows.

One year of cinema is, sadly, not enough to offer a definite list of best films of a certain year – certain films stay under the radar, others only manage to escape the festival circuit the following years. Any list is, thus, a selection of a subset of the set of Japanese films produced in a given year. For 2025, we only have one year of films under the belt, so we cannot consider our list definitive in any way. However, despite certain cinematic lacuna, we do want to offer our readers our initital ranking for 2025.

Honourable Mentions

The Invisble Half by Masaki Nishiyama

With The Invisible Half, Nishiyama promptly establishes himself as a new promising talent in the field of Japanese horror. While he relies on the compositional toolbox of those who came before him, he succeeds, with great effect, in adding his own compositional and thematical twists to the genre. While Masaki Nishiyama nearly undercuts the narrative’s message by a contradictory narrative choice, his message still resounds clearly: embrace your Otherness, despite all the societal hammers seeking to hammer you, the nail that sticks out, down.  

* Ghost Killer by Yugo Sakamoto

Ghost Killer does little to re-invent the genre, but delivers everything one’s desires in such narratives in spades – a crowd-pleaser, indeed. Yugo Sakamoto proves that he is the master of the comedy-action genre and Kensuke Sonomura re-affirms his skill at framing action in an exciting way. We hope that both continue to collaborate in the future, delivering more fantastic concoctions that audiences can savour.

*Dawn Chorus by Yoshinori Sato

Dawn Chorus is a beautiful meditative narrative about the struggles of becoming subject. However, Sato’s film should not be mistaken for a narrative that celebrates motherly love. On the contrary, Sato shows, by evoking the destabilizing effect of familial fracture, the need for the subject to have an Other subject to address his signifiers of suffering to and who grants him the space to construct an ego out of the shards he is given by his past.

*I Am Kirishima by Banmei Takahashi

I Am Kirishima is a timely narrative that, by offering a detached but touching portrait of one of Japan’s most wanted, shows how inert a society animated by a marriage between capitalism and right-wing nationalism is. The strength of I Am Kirishima lies in the fact that Banmei Takahashi refrains from idealizing Satoshi Kirishima and stages him as a mundane man who desired societal change, yet got absolutely nothing.

*How Dare You by Mipo O

How Dare You? has many endearing moments that will touch the spectator, but the beating heart of the narrative lies in its refined exploration of different parental styles and the effects they sort on the child’s coming-into-being. With her narrative, Mipo O delivers one of the most convincing arguments to parents to create space for the subjectivity of their child and to take their signifiers – their pleasures, pressures, worries, fights, and frustrations – seriously.

Top Ten Japanese Movies

10) Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura

With Exit 8, Genki Kawamura delivers an engaging and visually arresting psychological horror narrative. Taking the concept of liminality to its anthropological origin, Kawamura transforms the simple concept of liminal ‘spot-the difference’ spaces into a harrowing and unheimlich exploration of the psychological phase where the subject is pushed out of his former ego, yet unable to accede to next stage of his subjectivity. Highly recommended.

9) Yoyogi Johnny by Satoshi Kimura

While Satoshi Kimura does not venture out of the common romantic frame with Yoyogi Johnny, his choice to give the tragical dimension of love a deadpan comical twist pays off, creating a unique narrative that will resonate with youth and those who have kept in touch with their younger self.

8) River Returns by Masakazu Kaneko

With River Returns, Masakazu Kaneko explores the themes he holds so dear in a fresh and engaging way. The director utilizes the clash between capitalistic modernity and pre-modern spirituality beautifully to convince the spectator to go beyond the consumptive way of interacting with the other and have more eye and ear for the subjectivity of the Other.    

7) Flames Of A Flower by Oudai Kojima

Flames of The Flower offers a compelling exploration of the divergent ways subjects deal with trauma and the Other that fails to respond adequately. While Oudai Kojima’s narrative is hopeful – highlighting the importance of social bonds for working-through traumatic experiences, it also shows that the way the Other makes itself present can have disastrous consequences.

6) Escape by Masao Adachi

Masao Adachi’s Escape forms the perfect companion piece to Takahashi’s I Am Kirishima (2025). He delivers a beautiful and affectionate piece on the troubled subjectivity of a subject who choose to escape, erasing his name from the societal field, to avoid being apprehended by the police. The film is not only a must-watch because it sketches out Japan’s lesser-known revolutionary past, but also because it emphasises the radical need for voices who demand societal change.   

5) Renoir by Chie Hayakawa

With Renoir, Chie Hayakawa delivers an incredible moving experience that succeeds in exploring the difficulty for the subject to deal with death and the loss it introduces. With her evocative and impressionistic narrative structure, Hayakawa does not only reveal that the dimension of death/loss is intrinsically linked with the riddle of the Other’s desire for the subject, but also illustrated that what cannot be spoken about will determine the subject’s acts and signifiers. 

4) Truth Or Lies by Teppei Isobe

Truth Or Lies is an incredibly satisfying film that does not merely show that subjects need the lie but also that it is, by virtue of fiction, that our signifiers have effects on the other. Teppei Isobe’s success lies in his ability to bring a group of actors and actresses together that bring his thematical explorations in a believable and touching manner alive. 

3) The Harbor Lights by Mojiro Adachi

The beauty of Mojiro Adachi’s The Harbor Lights does not only lie in the touching and atmospheric narrative it stages, but in the fact that the film, due its subtle evocative nature, invites the spectator to think through the dynamic of inter-generational trauma – the dimension of loss – and the destabilizing effect of (structural) discrimination long after the credits have faded.

2) New Group by Yuta Shimotsu

With New Group, Yuta Shimotsu delivers a narrative that, in all probability, will be called the first true J-horror classic of the current decade. By crafting an exciting, yet unheimlich narrative puzzle and attacking the spectator with a variety of unsettling images, Shimotsu invites does not only frame the terror of conformity in an unforgettable way but demands that the spectator, whether he likes it or not, puts the way he relates to Otherness into question.   

1) Transcending Dimensions by Toshiaki Toyoda

Transcending Dimensions is  Toshiaki 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.