McCurtain brings Mariya’s transition from a space without love to a space bursting with love in a very heartwarming way and visually engaging alive.
Category: Comedy
All Greens (2025) review
Takashi Koyama delivers a coming-into-being narrative that effectively and satisfactorily blends social drama, dark comedy, and musical moments.
The Specials (2026) review [Fantasia 2026]
Uchida’s film will not win any awards, yet the film delivers what it promises and successfully pleases the spectator with its heartwarming message
Gozu (2003) review/analysis [Fantasia 2026]
Takashi Miike delivers a cinematographic gift, a surreal masterpiece that stays with the spectator long after the credits have faded.
Break Free (2026) review [Fantasia 2026]
A pleasant Rocky-like dance-narrative, yet Nakamoto struggles to develop his promising concept into an emotionally satisfying experience.
Tokyo Taxi (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yoji Yamada delivers an incredibly touching experience – possibly his swangsong – for cinephiles to savour.
A Unique Country In Asia (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
A film that fully embraces the political dimension pink film once was known for.
Mag Mag (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yuriyan Retriever delivers a satisfying film of subjective growth, yet not without a highly ironic aftertaste.
Anymart (2026) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
A darkly twisted comical horror narrative that exposes the dynamic of repressive societal violence and what the Japanese societal field seeks to refuse.
Thanc you (2021) review
A quintessential manzai-experience in a filmic envelope and a beautiful introduction to the emotional range relational comedy can have.
Chasuke’s Journey (2015)
Sabu leverages the familiar frame of the encounter to offer a fresh and deeply satisfying experienc
Postman Blues (1997) review
Put this masterclass of genre-blending immediately on your to-watch list
Party 7 (2000) review
Ishii elevates the staging of the truth of the phallus with many moments of refined interactional absurdity and a finale that, in an inimitable fashion, exposes lack and castration.
Short Movie Time: Cheating Office Lady: Wet Galaxy (2016) review
Ono and his cast’s enthusiastic dedication to the absurdity fills the film with a winsomeness that allows the short to surpass its limitations.
A Samurai In Time (2024) review
A beautiful and genuinely endearing love-letter to the chanbara genre