Although he is widely regarded as a pioneer of the jidaigeki  genre, Daisuke Ito’s directorial efforts remain elusive in the West. Fans...

[ The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] As might reasonably be expected of an epic poem based on oral...

[ The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] The imagery in Kenji Misumi’s Kenki  is reminiscent of haiku :...

[ The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] Edward Dmytryk’s The Sniper  caught me unawares—like a bullet...

[ The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] In many ways, River  is less artistically ambitious than Beyond...

[ The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] Hundreds of Beavers  isn’t just the best comedy released to the general...

[ The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] With the possible exception of The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then...

While Alice, Sweet Alice  (alternatively titled Communion and Holy Terror ) ostensibly takes place in the early 1960s, its themes are...

I’ll say this for Torso : it wastes little time; within the first ten seconds  of the opening credits, a woman has already removed her...

Like many a follow-up to a bona fide cult classic, Tokyo: The Last War  (sequel to Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis ) is widely considered to...

Master Gardner  opens with the quintessential Paul Schrader image: a character in an otherwise empty room hunched over a writing desk,...

How to describe She Is Conann ? The film resists literalist readings, eschewing traditional narrative in favor of concocting a...

[ The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! ] Near the conclusion of Isabel Sandoval’s quietly beautiful Lingua...

The Tempest  epitomizes my favorite flavor of Shakespeare adaptation: lean, revisionist, and minimalistic (a musical number or two...

I should have my head examined for sleeping on Mikey and Nicky for so long; it’s the exact flavor of old school indie cinema that I...

Conquest is dark even by the usual standards of the dark fantasy genre. Armies of savage beast-men roam the untamed wilderness,...

[The following review contains MINOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] Japan Cuts frequently programs movies about amateur filmmakers—a...

[The following review contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!] When introducing Japan Cuts’ recent screening of Toshiharu Ikeda’s...

Nezumikozo Jirokichi—recently screened as part of Japan Cuts’ Shorts Program 2–managed to hit three major categories on my annual...

[The following review contains frank descriptions of sexually explicit material (albeit in a tasteful, artistic context); YOU HAVE BEEN...