Arai might be the fresh blood that the thriller genre thirsts for in Japan. However, only time will tell.
Category: Festivals
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.
Long Night (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
A self-assured debut, wielding the filmic frame to stage the alienation of the contemporary subject, the failure of imaginary fictions, and the disruptive effect of avoiding Otherness,
The Deepest Space In Us (2025) [Nippon Connection 2026]
Chikuma utilizes his atmospheric blend of intimacy and alienation to assert that the societal field will always fail the Otherness of its subjects and, more importantly, that the deepest space in us is something that continually escapes us.
Blue Boy Trail (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Kasho Iizuka delivers a heartfelt demand to the spectator to go beyond the mere societal and ideological question of gender and consider the right of the subject to carve out his own singular space of ego-contentment.
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.
Recommendations: Nippon Connection 2026
Do not miss any of these films at this year’s Nippon Connection.
Confetti (2023) review
A pleasant film that underlines, in an elegant and touching manner, the necessity for the subject to find an Other to commit himself to his dream, to his desire.
Rainy Blue (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
Asuna Yanagi does not simply deliver a heartwarming coming-of-age narrative, but also a work that has the potential to inspire young people.
The Gesuidouz (2024) review [Japannual 2025]
While the concatenation of deadpan comical moments succeeds in charming audiences, Ugana’s narrative falls flat in the last half-hour.
The Young Strangers (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival 2025]
Uchiyama delivers a masterpiece that does not merely grab the spectator by his throat, but confronts him with the fundamental importance of the signifier in a heartrending way.
The Harbor lights (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
The beauty of Harbor Lights lies in its ability to invite 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.
The Invisible Half (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
Masaki Nishiyama’s message resounds clearly: embrace your Otherness, despite all the societal hammers seeking to hammer you, the nail that sticks out, down.
Baka’s identity (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
Koto Nagata offers the spectator a saddening but entertaining portrait of what the Japanese Other does not want anyone to see: the unsavoury marriage between crime and capitalism