Category: Based on Novel

Suzuki=Bakudan (2025) review

A thrilling ride that brutally confronts the spectator with the effects of the over-emphasis of pleasure and consumption within social interactions on the subject

Kokuho (2025) review

A deeply moving experience that does not only offer the spectator a mesmerizing and deeply intimate celebration of the performative art of kabuki, but also unearths the radical subjective dimension of embodying and performing a role.

Samurai Fury (2025) review

Yu Irie delivers a samurai narrative that, while not able to match the masterpieces of the genre, offers everything fans have come to expect from the genre.

Lumberjack the Monster (2023) review

A great example of a filmic experience that is helmed by a director that is uninvested in the material and, consequently, merely does his bare minimum

Teki Cometh (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival]

A vivid and mesmerising experience that does not only illustrates the subjective impact of increased isolation on giving meaning to one’s own life – on the stability of the frame of one’s ego.

A Bad Summer (2025) review [Japannual 2025]

Hideo Jojo offers a compelling exploration of poverty within the Japanese societal field as well as the the structural possibility of exploiting the welfare system for one’s own gain.

Revolver Lily (2023) review

A very enjoyable action-thriller that succeeds in satisfying the spectator thirsting for exciting action-pieces.

Mukoku (2017) review

Kumakiri offers a fresh breath in the Japanese sports genre by focusing on trauma, the ill-fitting of the subject within the societal Other, and the importance of forming bonds with the other.

Shinobi no mono: Resurrection (1963)

A satisfying conclusion resolves the thematical exploration of destructive capitalistic pleasure in a satisfactorily yet maybe somewhat naive way.