Strangers in Kyoto (2025) review [Japannual 2025]

A light-hearted exploration of uncomfortable truths that marks our interactions with others/the Other – what we say is not what we mean; what we want to say we are not allowed to say; politeness is often a fabricated facade that we must believe in.

The Hardness of Avocado (2019) review [Camera Japan 2020]

Jo Masaya’s anti-romantic narrative does not only show the spectator the need for the subject to question their own subjective position, but also the importance to take the other serious at the level of his/her subjectivity.