The Hungry Lion (Japan, 2017) [NYAFF 2018]
The Hungry Lion is the fourth feature from Fukuoka-born indie filmmaker Takaomi Ogata. Each of his films addresses pressing social issues faced by modern Japan....
The Third Murder (Japan, 2017) [NYAFF 2018]
Hirokazu Kore-eda recently won the 2018 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest film, Shoplifters, receiving mainstream media attention from many outlets...
Dynamite Graffiti (Japan, 2017) [NYAFF 2018]
Adult magazines are big business worldwide, especially in Japan where it is still possible to walk into some convenience stores and see them on open...
Preview – New York Asian Film Festival 2018, June 29–July 15
From vicious, life-destroying phone scams to balletic battles between equally corrupt cops and yakuza, the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) offers films that reflect...
Dawn of the Felines (Japan, 2016) (NYAFF 2017)
Kazuya Shiraishi’s Dawn of the Felines is not a cat zombie film but a melancholic entry in the Roman porno reboot series that provides a...
Aroused by Gymnopedies (Japan, 2016) (NYAFF 2017)
Aroused by Gymnopedies is an entry in the Roman Porno reboot series which also includes Sion Sono’s Anti-Porno (2016), Akihiko Shiota’s Wet Woman in the Wind (2016), Kazuya...
Japanese Girls Never Die (Japan, 2016) [NYAFF 2017]
Those who read my reviews will know that I am a huge fan of Japanese actress Yu Aoi. Ever since I saw her in Hana...
Suffering of Ninko (Japan, 2016) [NYAFF 2017]
Seeing someone suffer is rarely fun but this film all about a Buddhist priest who is cursed to be sexually irresistible to all around him...
Close-Knit (Japan, 2017) [NYAFF 2017]
It has been five years since Naoko Ogigami’s last film, but her latest continues the thematic strand of challenging normative notions of belonging and finding/forging...
The Gangster’s Daughter (Taiwan, 2016) [NYAFF 2017]
The gangster genre has been a staple of cinema for as long as I can remember, and filmmakers continue to find new ways of exploring...