Daihachi Yoshida delivers a darkish comical experience that quite seriously exposes the fictitious dimension of our ego – of the image we present to others.
Category: Psychological
The Parades (2024) review
A narrative that fulfills its promise, allowing the spectator to fleetingly commemorate his or her ‘losses’.
Love On Trial (2025) review
One the most honest explorations of the idol-phenomenon, touching both on the dark and the bright sides of clothing oneself with an idol-image for the male other
Love Doesn’t Matter to Me (2025) review
Aya Igashi corroborates with her latest film that she fully grasps the difficulty for the subject to find within the Other a symbolic place for himself
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.
SAI: Disaster (2025) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Yutaro Seki and Kentaro Hirase deliver an experience that, in our view, has everything to become a cult-phenomenon, so do not sleep on it.
At the Lovehotel (2026) review [Nippon Connection 2026]
Santa Ikegami delivers a self-assured debut that does not easily give away its thematical message.
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) review-analysis
A modern classic, one of the best, if not the best, cinematic experiences of the ‘00.
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,
Love Letter (1995)
Iwai’s film is not one of the greatest Japanese romance narratives, but one of the greatest films of becoming able to love again.
The Blood Of Rebirth (2009) review
Toyoda transforms the folkloric tale of Oguri Hangan into a personal warning for the Other: I will not let you ‘kill’ my societal position as director.
Sana: Let Me Hear (2024) review
Dramatic, thrilling, chilling, shockingly good.
Suzuki=Bakudan (2025) review
A thrilling ride that brutally confronts the spectator with the effects of the over-emphasis of pleasure and consumption within social interactions on the subject
Two Seasons, Two Strangers (2025) review
A moody experience that explores the tension between one’s conscious discourse and one’s unconscious discourse with elegance and arresting beauty.
After the Quake (2025) review
Inoue delivers an engaging cerebral experience that traces out the effect of the great Hanshin Earthquake on subjectivity as well as the state of the father within a capitalistic and consumerist society.