While the concatenation of deadpan comical moments succeeds in charming audiences, Ugana’s narrative falls flat in the last half-hour.
Category: Indie
Flames of a Flower (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
A compelling exploration of the divergent ways subjects deal with trauma and the Other that fails to respond adequately.
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.
Dawn Chorus (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
A beautiful meditative narrative about the struggles of becoming subject that will resonate with many.
Revolution +1 (2022) Review
Masao Adachi delivers an important political statement that, by offering an evocative sketch of Tetsuya Yamagami’s tragic trajectory, invites the Japanese spectator to question his own passivity towards the political Other.
Yoyogi Johnny (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
Kimura’s choice to give the tragical dimension of love a deadpan comical twist pays off, creating a unique narrative that will resonate with youth and those who have kept in touch with their younger self
Good Luck (2025) review [OAFF 2025]
Shin Adachi utilizes the dynamic of the encounter to examine the problem of desiring within the societal field and the way desire give rise to misunderstanding between subjects.
Short Movie Time: Neu Mirrors (2024) review
Keishi Kondo offers the spectator an unsettling illustration of the Lacanian gaze.
Short Movie Time: Social Circles (2023) review [Japan Cuts 2024]
A highly experimental and conceptual experience that might not be for everyone
Short Movie Time: Bottle George (2024) [Japan Cuts 2024]
An instant stop-motion classic
Performing Kaoru’s Funeral (2023) review [OAFF 2024]
Yuasa’s narrative shows that the unavoidable presence of death during a funeral can allow a subject to re-route his own trajectory.
Blue Imagine (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A powerful reminder of the sexual transgressions that structurally plague the Japanese film industry
Snowdrop (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A complex character portrait that touchingly illustrates how easy it is to misrecognize the logic of the subject-supposed-to-be-in-need.
Short Movie Time: On a Boat (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
The exploration of the frail stability of an obsessional neurotic does not miss its impact on the spectator.
Short Movie Time: Ririka of the Star (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A narrative that does not merely emphasize the beauty of moving female body, but reveals that such beauty can change subjects.
psychocinema 