Blue Hour (Japan, 2019) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Sunada (Kaho) is a director of television commercials – just past thirty-years-old, drinking a little too much, and hiding an unenthused lover from a happy...
The Journalist (Japan, 2019) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Directed by Michihito Fujii and based on a book by Isoko Mochizuki, The Journalist stars Shim Eun-Kyung as Erika Yoshioka, a reporter for a Tokyo...
Night Cruising (Japan, 2019) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
The opening sequence of Makoto Sasaki’s documentary is undoubtedly its boldest and most intriguing moment: for thirteen minutes, the screen is utterly black while the...
A Japanese Boy Who Draws (Japan, 2018) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Masanao Kawajiri’s experimental animated short depicts the life of a boy aiming to achieve his dream of being a manga artist. It took the Runner-up Award...
Being Natural (Japan, 2019) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Tadashi Nagayama showed that he is not afraid to experiment with style and shifting genres in his debut feature Journey of the Tortoise (2017), which...
The Island of Cats (Japan, 2019) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Cats are the prism through which to view an island town and its community life in Iwago Mitsuaki’s film, based on a manga by Nekomaki....
Jesus (Japan, 2018) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Made during his senior year at Aoyama Gakuin University, Hiroshi Okuyama’s Jesus clocks in at just under seventy-five minutes. But his debut is an emotionally...
Bullet Ballet (Japan, 1998) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Shinya Tsukamoto’s Bullet Ballet is a film about an obsession with a gun. It’s an obsession that starts when Goda (Tsukamoto) learns that his girlfriend...
Orphan’s Blues (Japan, 2018) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Orphan’s Blues was the winner of the Grand Prize at the Pia Film Festival 2018 and was screened at last year’s Nara and Tokyo international...
Ten Years Japan (Japan, 2018) [JAPAN CUTS 2019]
Ten Years Japan is the latest addition to the ‘Ten Years’ project which kicked off with Ten Years Hong Kong in 2015 and was followed...