Asuna Yanagi does not simply deliver a heartwarming coming-of-age narrative, but also a work that has the potential to inspire young people.
Category: Comedy
Under Ninja (2025) review
Great mindless fun, perfect to wash away the stress that has infiltrated one’s body during the week.
Golden Kamuy (2024) review
Shigeaki Kubo reaffirms that he has the skill and talent to bring action-driven narratives to life in a satisfactorily way.
Undead lovers (2024) review
Matsui delivers a heartwarming romance narrative that, due to its fresh approach to certain tropes of the genre, rises above the common derivative romance drivel Japan usually produces.
Strangers in Kyoto (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
A light-hearted exploration of uncomfortable truths that marks our interactions with others/the Other – what we say is not what we mean; what we want to say we are not allowed to say; politeness is often a fabricated facade that we must believe in.
Ghost Killer (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
Sonomura’s narrative does little to re-invent the genre, but delivers everything one’s desires in such narratives in spades – a crowd-pleaser, indeed.
How Dare You? (2025) review [Camera Japan Festival]
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.
The Man Who Failed To Die (2025) review [Camera Japan Festival]
Seiji Tanaka refuses to colour within the lines of comedy, creating an eclectic collage of different genre-elements that does not fail to satisfy the spectator.
Truth or Lies (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
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.
Anime Supremacy (2022)
A light-hearted glance at the inner-workings of the anime-machine.
I Fell in Love With a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn (2025) review [Fantasia Film Festival]
One of the most pleasant surprises of this year.
Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards (2024) review [Fantasia Film Festival]
Ishikawa delivers an engaging narrative with some satisfying twists, many funny moments, and pleasing action-sequences.
Ya Boy Kongming! The movie (2025) review [Fantasia Film Festival 2025]
Shibue’s film can be enjoyed by anyone, yet only those who have watched the drama-series can fully appreciate the narrtaive’s resolution.
Kaiju Guy (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2025]
A narrative that engages the spectator from start to finish, but offers him one of the funniest yet heartfelt celebrations of Tokusatsu filmmaking.
Godzilla’s Revenge – All Monsters Attack (1969) review [The Godzilla Project]
Sekizawa’s narrative confronts the spectator light-heartedly with the endpoint of Godzilla’s social decontextualizing.
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