japan
TACFEST III Review: Shane Kosugi’s SEEK Brings The Ninja Fever Back In a Notable Directorial Debut
Having inherited a name as Kosugi, always associated to Ninja badassery, thanks to the immortality of celluloid. It was inevitable that the sons of one of the big responsables of the Ninja fever that infected the world during the 80’s, were going to follow his steps and try to keep the ninja legacy still alive. We all know that Ninjas make everything cooler. “Seek” marks the directorial debut of Shane Kosugi, after a whole life in front of the camera on film and television, to bring us a story with old-fashioned flavor, that follows a Ninja agent from a ninja secret organization called Seek, who’s requested by his superior to save a fellow agent that’s been kidnapped by a rival organization and in the meantime, recover a new highly explosive liquid called “RDX@” to stop a ruthless Yakuza leader. But things won’t go as planned. Shane shakes a good cocktail […]
JFF THEATER: KEY OF LIFE: A touching trip of laughs and emotions
Since August 1, 2024, Japanese film fans are in luck as the Japan Foundation has launched a new streaming website, “JFF Theater,” through which they distribute Japanese films and other works worldwide, with multilingual subtitles and free of charge, with the intention of promoting Japanese culture and language learning. “Key of Life” is one of the films included in the platform, which will be available until February 1, 2025 and is part of a new collection on the platform that´s been called: “The twist and turns of life” that includes other films such as “Under the Open sky”, or “Her love boils water”, in a collection that according to the site, explores the unpredictable journey of human existence marked by moments of joy, sorrow, struggle and acceptance. The film, released in 2012, and directed by Kenji Uchida, with a cast made up of Masato Sakai, Teruyuki Kagawa and Ryoko Hirosue, […]
THE QUEEN OF VILLAINS Review: A Fascinating Trip to the 80´s Japanese Pro Wrestling Scene
The Queen of Villains is a ticket to the past that gives the viewer the opportunity to delve into the Japanese pro wrestling scene of the eighties, hand in hand with the greatest villain who back then sowed fear in the AJW rings, in brutal confrontations against what is possibly the most famous female tag team in the history of Japanese wrestling, The Crush Gals. During five exciting episodes, we discover the ins and outs behind the AJW wrestling promotion, while we accompany a young Kaoru Matsumoto in her transformation into the fearsome Dump Matsumoto, genuinely embodied by Yuriyan Retriever, her uncanny performance is just a gift for the audience. However, the series is not limited to simply recounting Dump Matsumoto‘s journey to stardom, but becomes a thorough recreation of that unforgettable era of wrestling in Japan, being also a perfect portrait of the reign of the Crush Gals, a […]
TACFEST 2024 Review: KIGURUMI BLADE: Brawls, Bullets and Cosplay
A mysterious evil organization goes after a junior high school student, luckily for him, he finds the protection of a young mysterious girl who is well trained in the art of violence and hides her identity under a bulletproof kigurumi costume (term used for costumes of animal characters in Japan.) Beneath this a priori simple plot lies a much more complex story that goes evolving until unfold the real motives under the chase of the main characters. A story that takes place in a motley film universe inhabited by a bunch of peculiar characters that are driven by the only way to communicate that they know, the language of violence. Shingo Soejima from a script wrtten by himself alongside Kunihiko Okamoto, directs this intriguing action film filled with violence and brutal fight scenes under the action direction of Akira Ogiwara. Bringing a gripping action story to the screen that make […]
CITY HUNTER Returns In April In The Upcoming Netflix Live Action Feature
After numerous adaptations of the popular manga by Tsukasa Hojo for cinema and television, director Yuuichi Satou (You, I Love, The Master Plan) brings back into motion the adventures of the finest sweeper on the streets of Shinjuku from a script by Tatsuro Mishima, with Ryouhei Suzuki (Poison Berry in My Brain, Kasane: Beauty and Fate) as Ryo Saeba/City Hunter and Misato Morita (The Naked director, Top Knife) as Kaori Makimura, Ryo´s always loyal sidekick. Some brief glances of the upcoming film could be seen in a Japanese Netflix teaser that announces the upcoming realeases for this 2024 on the streaming service. Some images that suggest a faithful transition from the manga pages to the screen with a big resemblance of the actors with the characters they´re portraying. City Hunter was first published in 1985 by Shūeisha on the pages of their mega popular magazine, Shonen Jump, becoming an instant […]
JFFO 2022 IT’S A SUMMER FILM!! Review: A Film to be Made to Save the Future of Cinema.
Barefoot is a high school girl, member of the school film club, obsessed with Shintaro Katsu and the Zatoichi series, but in general, obsessed with classic samurai films. She gathers a bunch of friends as her crew to film a samurai film during the summmer in order to release it in the school film festival, not knowing yet, that the making of her film, might be crucial to save the future of cinema. Tell something more about the plot would be spoil the fun of this heartwarming feature film written and directed by Sôshi Masumoto, that gives the audience a sincere meta-story about love to the seventh art. What at first sight might look a simple teenage film about love to cinema, hides behind its surface, a touching story that revolves about the passion of dreaming and the joy of filmmaking, that puts on the screen the power of cinema […]
TUNGUSKA BUTTERFLY Review: Asami’s Triumphant Farewell
Asami´s final ride on the screen, is truly a statement of what she´s always been capable of. The film not only gives her the chance to showcase her excellent skills as screen fighter, but also allows her to develop an emotional and complex character that gives off her immense talent as dramatic actress. If this is really the last time that we are going to see her in a film (I hope not) she can be proud of this wonderful final farewell. With a limited budget but so much heart, Akira nobi directs a heartwarming story of redemption and second chances, in which Asami plays Saki, a woman who struggles to survive, being unable of keeping or finding a steady job due her past as ex-convict, but her life changes when she meets a hopeless young girl, with whom she develops a strange but sincere relationship. A young girl who´s […]
LOWLIFE LOVE Review: The Nightmare of Making Cinema
A scoundrel lowlife who years back had a minor success as indie film director, struggles to keep relevant as a filmmaker, while he works as an acting teacher exploiting his students and sleeping with all the wanna-be actresses making them false promises of turning them into the stars of movies that he will never direct. Until one day, his miserable existence seems to have a stroke of luck, when two promising students arrive to his classes, an aspiring and naive script writer, who brings a brilliant scrip under his arm that can become in a fantastic project, and a young aspiring actress who has everything to become a star, whom this Lowlife director will try turn on his muse with fatal consequences. Writing and directed by Eiji Uchida, the film gives a different view of movie industry lacking of the idealization of some other meta stories that finds to inspire […]
SAILOR CATS Review: A mad mission through time in search of the ultimate fun.
Three beautiful girls wearing sailor Moon costumes, travel through time to help Hattori Hanzo in a deadly mission that can change Japan´s history forever… Mad premise for a crazy adventure, in which all this craziness is where relies all its charming. Directed by Kanzo Matsuura back in 2011, this delightful madness keeps a perfect balance between action and comedy, having as one of its strong points, the action direction of Japanese stunt team ” Ral´C Action Group” leaded by Shigeki Hayase, having as final result, solid fight choreographies that makes all the performers look fierce and powerful screen fighters. As main difference with other similar productions, the film dispenses of filthy old abandoned warehouses, and displays a wide variety of outdoor scenarios that gives the flick a most colorful and lively set up, and a less goofy and cheap tone. The main trio is formed by Asami, Yuuki Kurata and […]
STATION (駅) (1981) Review: When life is a station where trains of regret never stop coming
Ken Takakura and Chieko Baisho screen romances were something special that went beyond any definition that words could express. They were restrained and quiet on the surface but passionate and intense underneath. This classic from Japanese cinema directed by Yasuo Furuhata (Demon Yasha) hides on its plot a story of vengeance that is caught into a love story. 2 hours and 15 minutes of feelings put into images and two terrific actors that put on display their incredible talent in an acting masterclass, to tell a story about regrets, in which Ken Takakura plays a detective training to be a sharpshooter at Olympics who goes out of his way to crack the case of a serial killer specialising in policeman murders when his coach is gunned down by a fleeing criminal. Ken Takakura leads the story, being restrained and serious but filling every scene with his smashing screen presence, showing […]
BOXER ボクサー (1977) Review: Losers Building Dreams That They Can Believe In
The director of this film, Shuji Terayama, was an avid boxing enthusiast who even declared that he had learned more about life through boxing than attending school. That philosophy is impregnated during the whole film, a story of lowlives trying to survive in the suburbs of an industrial city full of losers that their only destiny is to die being losers. A pessimistic, darker, and probably more realistic vision of the boxing world than most movies of the genre,that tells the story of an old glory of boxing played by the legendary Bunta Sugawara, who becomes the coach of the man who accidentaly killed his brother in a construction site, in order to make him pay his debt with him and more importantly achieve again boxing glory, but this time as a coach. Here there’s no fanfares or inspirational heroes, just two hopeless losers that need each other to build […]
LOVE IN THE MUD (泥だらけの純情) Review: A love that arises from a stab, can only end in the mud
A girl from a wealthy family, daughter of the ambassador to Spain (Momoe Yamaguchi) is surprised by some yakuzas who attemp to rape her, but fortunately for her, a thug from the neighborhood (Tomokazu Miura) appears to save her stealing her heart in the proccess… However, They both come from very different backgrounds and worlds apart, and their love will not be a bed of roses, but rather a bath in the mud. Directed by Sokichi Tomimoto, Love in The Mud (1977) was the second adaptation of a novel into cinema, and one of the many films that Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura starred together and in which they forged their love off the screen, until they got married and she retired forever from show business to dedicate herself to her family, leaving her big fandom waiting for a return that never happened. Love in the Mud is a title […]
DEMON/YASHA Review: Even the toughest guys live passionate romances
Ken Takakura plays Shuji, a retired Yakuza gangster who lives in a small coastal town trying to put his dark past behind him, but when a gorgeous young woman (Yuko Tanaka) also from Osaka comes to town to settle down, the world of our cold and ruthless Yakuza seems to stop. She becomes a forbidden passion for him, and we all know that passion blinds reason and is guided by heart. So our cold protagonist lets his weakness for the beautiful Yuko Tanaka, (gorgeous as always), guide him back to that past he left in Osaka, for just one and only reason, LOVE. Because when real tough guys as ken Takakura falls madly in love, all the passion they keep inside their soul, explodes in glorious violence splashing the screen for the enjoyment of movie junkies and moviegoers all around the world. A restrained story full of silences, complicit glances, […]
THE SACRAMENT Review: The joys of making cinema
Sometimes navigating through the seas of indie cinema, you may find hidden treasures that nobody will watch but that are filled with cinematic magic as this small film from 2017 directed by Isora Iwakiri. The Sacrament is a metacinema with fantastic elements where we follow an aspiring nerdy director during the making of his first feature film. In the quest of the perfect actress for his ambitious project, he finds a mysterious ghostly girl, who will become on his star and obsession. With a fake “making of” narrative style, we follow this curious director in the making of his film, through a plot where fiction constantly deceives the viewer, and shows us the havoc and misfortune that comes from wanting to be a captor of moments to turn them into fiction, although it is also a reflection of the passion, love, and often the frustration felt by those who want […]
JAPAN CUTS Review: SEIJO STORY – 60 Years of making films, a love story devoted to art
In 2020, Nobuhiko Obayashi left us, leaving behind an important legacy as one of the most renowned independent japanese filmmakers in Japan movie industry. This honest documentary follows the veteran filmmaker during the production and post production of his cinematic testament, “labyrinth of cinema” (That can be also enjoyed in Japanese cuts online festival) but most importantly goes deep into the love story between the director and his wife and producer Kyoko Hanyu, who met in 1959 as students in Seijo university in Tokyo, falling in love, getting married and devoting their life to cinema for over 60 years, until the death of the Japanese filmmaker. The story is told through the eyes of the couple, while the directors, Isshin Inudo and Eiki Takahasi, follow them showing some old footage from their first 8mm works and travelling with them to the location of some of their old movies, including interviews […]
JAPAN CUTS Review: TORA-SAN MEETS THE SONGSTRESS AGAIN – Tora’s most beloved Madonna second chance
This fifteenth entry of the series is one of the most beloved by fans and also one of the finest entries. This chapter was the second appearance of Lily (Ruriko Asaoka) the most recurring Madonna in the series whose first appearance was in the eleventh entry “Tora san´s Forget me Not” and would appear in the series four times more, including this one and last year 50th anniversary´s film, “Tora san, Wish you were here”, having five total appearances throughout the series. This installment begins as a road movie with Tora travelling through Hokkaido in company of a discontented salary man (Eiji Funakoshi) who searchs for a lost love from the past. In their journey, Tora runs into Lily and the spark that lighted their fire in the eleventh film, burns again giving them a second chance.Lily joins them in their trip, however, Lily and Tora have a disagreement and […]
JAPAN CUTS Review: TORA SAN, OUR LOVABLE TRAMP – The beginning of the journey for the greatest hero of unrequited love
The character of Tora-san has surpased all the boundaries of cinema and has become an icon in Japanese popular culture, being one of their most beloved characters, starring a long series of 48 films between 1969 until 1995, in which is probably the longest movie series starred by a same actor in movie history. From 1969 to 1989, two films were released each year, one in summer and one for New Year Release. From 1990 to 1995, only one film was released by year, and the series came to an end with the death of its star, Kiyoshi Atsumi from lung cancer at the age of 68. Atsumi was so identified with the character, that fans moaned his death as the death of the beloved tramp, and although that there were plans to follow the series, the passing of Tora san himself, made that the idea lost all sense. For […]
TERMINATOR ZEN KILLER Review: Ninjas from the past fighting Terminators from the future, in the most bizarre and erotic adventure you could ever imagine
A rip off of Terminator in which some evil villain from the future sends a killer cyborg to the year 2009 to kill a nerd who is supposed to be makind´s only hope, but some lady from an ancient past who can see the future, decides to send a ninja to the year 2009, to protect the nerd and save the world… And that ninja was no other than the gorgeous Asami, whom 11 years ago was at the top of her reign as queen of V-cinema, kicking butts and saving the day from evil Cyborgs and boredom. Directed by Jiro Ishikawa, The film is a really low budget product with cheap special effects and low production values, in which they managed to make a very good looking product (if you are not very demanding, of course). However, the action scenes are very well made, being one of the strongest […]
DECO TRUCK GAL NAMI SAGA Review: Carrying The Legacy Of Trucker Yaro, In A Thrilling Journey With Redemption As Final Destination
Deco Truck gal Nami (Hideo Jojo), is a 4 movies series from 2008 to 2012, strongly influenced by Trucker Yaro (Noribumi Suzuki) a 10 film series that were produced by Toei from 1975 to 1979, and starred by the legendary Bunta Sugawara, in the role of Momojiro, a truck driver who in each movie falls in love with a different woman, while lives crazy adventures in the road and always ends with a broken heart. Trucker Yaro original poster (1975) Deco Truck Gal Nami carries the legacy of Noribumi Suzuki´s creation in essence and style, following a same patterns of truck chases, action and adventures on the road, including numerous homages and even fanservice for fans of the original movies, having in every installment a cameo of an actor that resembles to Bunta Sugawara playing Momojiro. However, the storylines between both sagas are completely different, introducing a female version […]
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