[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] There’s an old Japanese proverb that goes, “The nail that sticks...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] After finally seeing Violence Voyager for myself (having learned of its...

In the 1980s and 1990s, a lot of anime was produced exclusively for the booming home video market. Freed from the more stringent...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The Town That Dreaded Sundown is essentially two different movies...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] When I first watched Master of the Flying Guillotine back in college, I...

The Criterion Channel’s synopsis describes The Housemaid as a “venomous melodrama,” and it certainly earns that label; director Kim...

In Samurai Wolf, director Hideo Gosha shaves his already minimalistic chanbara formula all the way down to the bone. Although...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Back in 2020, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes—Junta Yamaguchi’s...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The opening scene of Kaz I Kiriya’s From the End of the World—an...

In her brief introductory speech preceding Japan Society’s screening of When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty, director Yuho Ishibashi claimed...

I went into Single8 hoping that it would recapture the magic of It’s a Summer Film!—which remains one of the best movies I’ve ever seen...

I Am What I Am is the exact sort of pleasant surprise that defines Japan Cuts for me. The synopsis on the festival website led me to...

After taking last year off due to COVID-related concerns, Japan Cuts has finally returned to NYC! Since I’m feeling a bit out of...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] A great mystery requires a certain degree of misdirection. The Last...

Recently, I read an exquisitely curated collection of jisei—Japanese death poetry. It was a thoroughly engrossing volume, offering unique...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Loyalty. Tradition. Brotherhood. These are the values that govern...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Knightriders is a movie about legacy. I mean, if you want to get...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Fall Guy is the perfect English title for Kinji Fukasaku’s scathing...

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The Criterion Channel categorizes The Comfort of Strangers as an "erotic...

But I’m a Cheerleader is the epitome of camp. I’m not just talking about the film’s depiction of homosexuality, by the way. Yes, it is...