Hideki Arai’s 1990s manga series Come on Irene (Itoshi no Irene) addressed the shortage of brides in the rural areas of Japan, melding comedy, drama and darker thriller hues into its story – there is no wonder that it attracted Keisuke Yoshida, a Japanese filmmaker whose previous projects successfully combined those same elements. In fact,…
Category: Japanese Cinema
23rd Busan International Film Festival: In Conversation with Nats Sitoy, the First Filipino Actress to Take Lead Role in a Japanese, Manga-Based Film
Natileigh – Nats – Sitoy is a Cebuana actress who has been busy making a name for herself as an indie actress in the Philippines. After she won Best Supporting Actress role at Cinema One Originals for her role in Lily, she appeared in Bagahe (2017), in Brillante Mendoza’s Netflix series Amo (2018) and in…
26th Raindance Film Festival: Room Laundering Review
In Japan, a ‘jiko bukken’ is the name given to stigmatized properties where the last tenant has died of unnatural causes. Supposedly – according to Room Laundering at least – Japanese landlords must disclose to possible residents if the last tenant died of something out of the ordinary. Leaving landlords stuck with unrentable properties, that…
20th Udine Far East Film Festival: One Cut of the Dead Review
Is there anything that has yet to be seen in the zombie film genre? You might think there isn’t, but One Cut of the Dead, which earned itself not only a standing ovation from the audience in Udine, but also missed winning the festival audience-favourite title by a handful of votes, landing on second place,…
20th Far East Film Festival: “The Blood of Wolves” Review
Yakuza films, as a genre, have evolved exponentially since they first emerged in the silent movie era of the Japanese film industry. Initially depicted as sympathetic Robin Hood-like characters who were forced to live their lives as outlaws, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the violent, brutish image of Yakuza as we know it came…
Udine Far East Film Festival Reveals Its 20th Anniversary Edition Lineup
Today, a mere 9 days before the European audience finds its way to the little town in the Northeast Italy to explore the new and old jewels of Asian Cinema, Udine Far East Film Festival revealed its 2018 lineup. It was to be expected that the 20th anniversary edition of the festival would provide the…
The Third Murder Review
Following the success of his family dramas Like Father, Like Son, which won the Jury Prize at 2013 Cannes Film Festival, Our Little Sister, which competed for Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and the critically acclaimed After the Storm (2016), Japanese film director, producer and screenwriter Hirokazu Kore-eda surprised his faithful audience by veering…
The 22nd Busan International Film Festival: ‘Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?’ Review
Riding hot on the success of the last year’s Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, producer Genki Kawamura dished out yet another animated, fantasy high-school romance film this year – but as highly expected as it was, the remake of the 1993 live-action TV drama of the same name, Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side…
Project Itoh’s Genocidal Organ
A word, a whisper in a general’s ear, and just like that a nation will descend into chaos. Neighbour against neighbour, brother against brother, indiscriminate violence to the point where even the leaders forget exactly how it all began. How can something like this happen? And can it really be the work of one man?…
In Conversation with Mori Yoshitaka and Matsuyama Kenichi
This year’s Udine Far East Film Festival offered a great selection of truly excellent films, and among those, some packed an especially powerful emotional charge; in this grouping, there is no doubt that Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow was among the very best. The film’s screening was accompanied by director Mori Yoshitaka, known best for his Space…
Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow Review
In the Western cinematic scopes, we can find a number of chess-themed sports films and biopics, but there is a mere handful of productions that feature the Japanese cousin of the popular board game: shogi, known also as ‘Japanese chess’; a sport that has, since its 16th century beginnings, evolved into one of the most…
19th Far East Film Festival: Close-Knit
Tomo has been abandoned by her mother, again. While this isn’t the first time it’s happened, and her mother has been more-or-less an absent parent since day one, it still hurts. Unable to live on her own, the eleven-year-old seeks refuge with her uncle Makio. He gladly accepts but he doesn’t live alone anymore, he…
19th Far East Film Festival: Teiichi: Battle of Supreme High
Teiichi wants to create his own empire. How’s that possible, you may ask? Well, by controlling the student council at his elite high school, of course. If he can run the school then Teiichi’s a shoe in for a prestigious government position, and from there he can even become Prime Minister. With his father’s broken…
19th Far East Film Festival Opening: The Survival Family
On Friday, 21st April 2017, the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) opened the doors of Italy’s Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine for the 19th time; the selected opening film was Shinobu Yaguchi’s The Survival Family that promptly announced one of the “red threads” of this year’s edition: we were up for 10 days of excellent…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 