Yugo Sakamoto successfully mixes up the formula that structured his previous two action narratives. Highly Recommended.
Category: Youth
I Was Born, But … (1932) review
What allows Ozu’s exploration of parental failure to retain its power to charm and engage is the very fact that every child needs to go through such phase.
Secret: A Hidden Score (2024) review [Nippon connection 2024]
Spectators who like piano and pianists might find something to enjoy in this emotionally impotent narrative.
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days (2024) review [Nippon Connection 2024]
Fujii proves that the tropes of the romance genre can still be exploited in a refreshing and emotionally satisfying manner.
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.
Faraway Family (2023) review [OAFF 2024]
A very touching narrative that explores the frail position of the father and how his structural failure can cause subjective struggles and inhibitions.
Wash Away (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
A pleasant narrative that offers a fresh but familiar exploration of the subject’s fundamental desire for recognition/love and the problematic yet medicative function of consumption.
Memories of this Scent (2024) review [OAFF 2024]
An endearing and fragrance rich tale of subjective change.
Ask For The Moon (2022) review [OAFF 2024]
A satisfying narrative that illustrates how the subject’s ego is but a response to his complexes and struggles.
Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween – Destiny (2023) review
A prime example of a cinematic narrative that is solely made for the fans of the manga and the anime.
Monster (2023) review
Kore-eda succeeds in delivering an utterly engaging narrative about the fundamental misunderstanding that underpins our fabrication of our truth.
Violence Action (2022) review
A mildly entertaining action-comedy that ultimately fails to fully satisfy the spectator.
Amiko (2022) review [Japan Cuts 2023]
A fabulous narrative that explores the destructive effects caused by the radical misunderstanding that marks the field of speech and the refusal to speak to one’s child as a subject.
Kingdom 2: Far and Away (2022) review
An epic and quite emotional experience that sadly fails to reach it full potential by holding on too tight to its shonen-roots.
Man Who Causes A Storm (1957)
Inoue’s rags-to-riches narrative might not escape the territory of predictability, but he puts enough thematical meat on the table so that the spectator, in full knowlegde of how the narrative will unfold, still comes away fully satisfied.