Put this masterclass of genre-blending immediately on your to-watch list
Category: Romance
Romantic Prelude (2009) review
Naoto Kumazawa and screenwriter Yukiko Manabe succeed in giving the fundamental dynamic that structures the romance film a fresh coat of paint.
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.
Re/Member: The Last Night (2025) review
A fun romp if one takes everything at face-value
This Is I (2026) review
Matsumoto makes a very convincing case for the need for the societal field to become more willing to grant subjects the right to nominate themselves in accordance with their subjective position.
Stigmatized Properties: Possession (2025) review
From scares, unintended farce, to forced romance; another genre-mix that does not entirely click.
She Taught Me Serendipity (2024) review
Akiko Ohku steers away from delivering a clear-cut romantic fantasy to confront the spectator with the messy consequences of utilizing signifiers in the game of love in a very moving way.
Super Happy Forever (2024) review
A compelling drama that traces out the effect of the unsaid on the subject and highlights the subjective need to have some sort of material proof to support a faded fantasy of harmonious union.
A Love Letter From Yesterday (2024) review
The emotional drama is extremely flat – and even the sexual encounters, despite being well-acted by the female cast, cannot infuse life into the dried-up bed of the film’s emotional river.
Undead lovers (2024) review
Matsui delivers a heartwarming romance narrative that, due to its fresh approach to certain tropes of the genre, rises above the common derivative romance drivel Japan usually produces.
My Sunshine (2024) review
A bittersweet celebration of youth – seishun, celebrates the importance of the encounter and of desire, the force that pushes the subject towards inter-subjective connection.
A Bad Summer (2025) review [Japannual 2025]
Hideo Jojo offers a compelling exploration of poverty within the Japanese societal field as well as the the structural possibility of exploiting the welfare system for one’s own gain.
How Dare You? (2025) review [Camera Japan Festival]
With her narrative, Mipo O delivers one of the most convincing arguments to parents to create space for the subjectivity of their child and to take their signifiers – their pleasures, pressures, worries, fights, and frustrations – seriously.
The Man Who Failed To Die (2025) review [Camera Japan Festival]
Seiji Tanaka refuses to colour within the lines of comedy, creating an eclectic collage of different genre-elements that does not fail to satisfy the spectator.
After The Fever (2024) review
It is an exhausting experience, yet an experience that, if one succeeds to make it to the end, convincingly shows that the idea of romantic harmony is but an unrealizable fantasy.