Daiga Matsui’s narrative ultimately develops into something that expands beyond mere romance, a surprising and highly satisfying time-loop drama.
Category: Directors
Escape (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2025]
Adachi crafted 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 capture.
Abashiri Prison – Saga of Homesickness (1965)
An engaging narrative that illustrates how the image of the father can be a prison for the subject.
Another Abashiri Prison Story (1965)
An enjoyable thriller – a straight-forward yakuza flick with many pleasant moments, but not the sequel the first narrative deserved.
Abashiri Prison (1965) review
Teruo Ishii delivers an interesting exploration of the frailty of the social bond between criminals as well as the trauma that, in some cases, animates the criminal reflex.
The Box Man (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival]
An incredible satisfying cinematic experience, one that enthrals the spectator from start to finish
Guard from Underground (1992)
Kurosawa’s early slasher is a successful stylistic experiment that anyone who calls himself a fan of Japanese horror should see.
Conflagration (1958) review
A narrative that serenely depicts the possible outcome of a subject’s failure to find, in a post-war landscape, someone to carry the Name-Of-The-Father.
Ox-Head Village (2022) review
A solid horror-movie that pleasantly utilizes a sense mystery to engage the spectator and fluidly integrated unsettling imagery to put the spectator ill at ease and even scare him/her.
The Executioner (1974) review
A highly enjoyable narrative that delivers everything a fan of the martial arts genre desires.
XXXholic (2022) review
“An exquisite visual experience that is sadly held back by its unfitting manga-like moments.”
Onpaku (2022) review
While Fujii does not re-invent the J-horror genre with Onpaku, he does prove the horror-frame can still be exploited to deliver satisfying horror narratives.
The Midnight Maiden War (2022) review
“A visually exciting experience that shows that the only revolutionary thing that can give life its worth is desire that remains desire.”
Lesson In Murder (2022) review
In Shiraishi’s talented hands the narrative transforms into a visual elegant and compelling examination of the desire that drives us all.
The Island Closest To Heaven (1984) review
“This might be the purest idol-film Obayashi made and the clearest example of how Kadokawa wanted to exploit the audio-visual medium.”