Belle is Mamoru Hosoda’s most artistically accomplished work to date. As a longtime fan of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer...

I’m a skeptic by nature. When the blandly attractive heroes and heroines in romcoms talk about “love at first sight” and “true love,” I...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Two swordsmen stare each other down. Wind howls through the empty...

Masayuki Suo’s Talking the Pictures ends with a quote attributed to director Hiroshi Inagaki: Movies were once silent. But in Japan, they...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] The plot of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car revolves around a...

Recently, I purchased a ticket for Japan Society’s upcoming screening of Tange Sazen and the Pot Worth a Million Ryo, one of only three...

This weekend, I decided to get into the spirit of the Halloween season by buying a five-movie access pass for Nightstream, a (supposedly)...

Efficient. If I had to choose a single word to describe Paul Schrader’s directorial style, that would be it: Efficient. In his movies...

Concluded Japan Cuts 2021 with a self-catered double feature: It’s a Summer Film!: This lighthearted ode to the spirit of creativity is a...

If you still require evidence that Takashi Miike is a certified cinematic genius, look no further than his latest effort, The Great Yokai...

Here in the United States, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has acquired a reputation for primarily producing “J-horror,” thanks in large part to the...

The jidaigeki genre has become increasingly rare in recent years, even in its native country. Revisionist, postmodern, cynical twists on...

The marketing for Richard Donner’s 1978 adaptation of Superman proudly proclaimed that the film would convince audiences that “a man...

In Willy’s Wonderland, Nicolas Cage plays a badass, taciturn janitor forced to spend the night cleaning a Chuck E. Cheese style family...

Of all the documentaries comprising Japan Society’s “Cinema as Struggle: The Films of Kazuo Hara & Sachiko Kobayashi” retrospective, few...

Earlier this week, I watched Hong Sangsoo’s The Power of Kangwon Province via Lincoln Center’s virtual cinema, and while I enjoyed it, I...

The Many Faces of Chika—the only scripted drama ever produced by documentarians Kazuo Hara and Sachiko Kobayashi—features a fascinating...

Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 is as difficult to analyze as it is challenging to watch; this deeply personal documentary resides...

Watched Goodbye CP, which is currently screening as part of Japan Society’s latest online retrospective—a showcase of the...

To be completely honest, I hadn’t initially planned on watching Tokyo Paralympics: Festival of Love and Glory; if I had, I could have...