Tag: Reviews

Message from Space (1978) review

Any spectator who perseveres, swallowing all the visual discordances and false notes, will eventually finds pleasure in the action and effect-rich finale.

Kokuho (2025) review

A deeply moving experience that does not only offer the spectator a mesmerizing and deeply intimate celebration of the performative art of kabuki, but also unearths the radical subjective dimension of embodying and performing a role.

One Percenter (2023) review

Yamaguchi delivers a love-letter to down-to-earth action that proves that there is plenty of poetry to be found in the physical action-performances.

Blazing Fists (2025) review

Miike delivers a drama of hope, a narrative that shows, in a satisfying manner, that a subject can materialize himelf within in the ring and by punching and kicking the demeaning discourses concerning criminality within the Japanese Other into shreds.  

Faceless (2024) review

A great thriller that beautifully shows the destructive role the image can play within the societal field.

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.

Sympathy For The Underdog (1971) review

This is not merely classic that speaks to those who felt lost due to the rapid shifts that upheaved the Japanese societal field after the second world war, but continues to speak to those who feel out-of-place, who feel like Gunji unsuited for this world of ‘criminal’ suits.

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.