Anime Blog Tracker

Snowdrop スノードロップ Director: Kota Yoshida [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Snowdrop スノードロップ, by director Kota Yoshida, is a socially conscious domestic drama/character study that looks at the welfare system via a woman chased by the trauma of abandonment…

Genkinahito

Mar 5, 2024 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023

 For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023

 For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023

 For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024) Director: Sawako Fukuoka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024), sees editor/writer/director Sawako Fukuoka draw upon her own experiences to make a quirky comedy/drama about the everyday pressures and small-scale strangeness experienced b…

Genkinahito

Mar 18, 2024 • Subscribe

Sumiko

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023) Director: Elene Naveriani [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023), by director Elene Naveriani, is a touching late coming-of-age film about a 48-year-old woman in a Georgian village growing into herself after a near-death…

Genkinahito

Mar 6, 2024 • Subscribe

Suton すとん Director: Rikako Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Suton すとん, by director Rikako Watanabe. is a quietly affecting character study where a young woman’s life is marked by the poignancy of aging and separation and also…

Genkinahito

Mar 2, 2024 • Subscribe

Blue Imagine ブルーイマジン Director: Urara Matsubayashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 / Japan Cuts 2024]

Director Urara Matsubayashi makes a definitive #MeToo film for the Japanese film industry with her sincere and complex drama Blue Imagine ブルーイマジン [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 / Japan…

Genkinahito

Jul 18, 2024 • Subscribe

POP! Director: Masashi Komura (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

POP! provides a slightly surreal, slightly sweet existential crisis. POP! Director: Masashi Komura (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Mar 24, 2021 • Subscribe

City of Wind (2023) Director: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

City of Wind (2023), by director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, is a perfectly-crafted portrait of Mongolian youth that looks at the way modernity and tradition, social order and individuality affect…

Genkinahito

Mar 4, 2024 • Subscribe

A Preview of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025

A preview of the films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025!

Genkinahito

a month ago • Subscribe

Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024) Director: Sawako Fukuoka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024] Second Draft

Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024), sees editor/writer/director Sawako Fukuoka draw upon her own experiences to make a quirky comedy/drama about the everyday pressures and small-scale strangeness experienced b…

Genkinahito

Mar 18, 2024 • Subscribe

Sumiko

A Glimpse at the Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024

A glimpse at the feast of films programmed for Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 (March 01st to March 10th)

Genkinahito

Feb 5, 2024 • Subscribe

Joint ジョイント Director: Oudai Kojima (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Joint ジョイント Director: Oudai Kojima (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021] is a refreshing take on the yakuza genre thanks to the depth of its world building and…

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2021 • Subscribe

V. MARIA (2025) Director: Daisuke Miyazaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

In Daisuke Miyazaki’s V. MARIA, the passing down of Visual Kei culture and love from one generation to the next is genuinely moving and the stylish delivery of…

Genkinahito

13 days ago • Subscribe

Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

A refreshing sci-fi short from Japan, Out of TOKYO202x takes the time-slip formula and uses it on the summer Olympics of 2021! Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival…

Genkinahito

Mar 12, 2022 • Subscribe

Good Luck グッドラック Director: Shin Adachi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

Good Luck グッドラック is a wonderful low-key comedy from Shin Adachi that is part travelogue, part-Before Sunrise walk-and-talk, all cool-couple chemistry (HANA AMANO IS A-M-A-Z-I-N-G) [Osaka Asian Film…

Genkinahito

13 days ago • Subscribe

The Winter of 1905 (1981) Director: Yu Wei-Cheng [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

The Winter of 1905 (1981), directed by Yu Wei-Cheng, is a solid dramatisation of Li Shutong’s time in Japan and the influences that would lead him to become…

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2024 • Subscribe

Perfect Nervous (2024) Dir: Masaru Sano [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Perfect Nervous (Dir: Masaru Sano, 2024) is a gorgeous short film with fantastical elements as it tells a life-affirming story wherein two young women with incurable body-altering diseases…

Genkinahito

Mar 25, 2024 • Subscribe

A Preview of the Japanese Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024

A Preview of the Japanese Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 (March 01 – March 10) – trailers and synopses.

Genkinahito

Feb 19, 2024 • Subscribe

Swimming, Sumiko

Wash Away うぉっしゅ Director: Ikunosuke Okazaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Wash Away うぉっしゅ, the sophomore feature by director Ikunosuke Okazaki, may have an unlikely premise but it works well as an existential examination of loneliness. It plays at…

Genkinahito

Mar 1, 2024 • Subscribe

Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 Director: Noriko Yuasa [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 (Dir Noriko Yuasa) is a heady story of remembering an individual through pulling together memories. Amidst the farce and tears of the funeral lies a…

Genkinahito

Apr 8, 2024 • Subscribe

New Religion ニューレリジョン (2022) Director: Keishi Kondo [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

New Religion ニューレリジョン is a highly-atmospheric horror film from Keishi Kondo who crafts an original story with distinct visuals. It’s one of the best J-horror films I have seen…

Genkinahito

Mar 16, 2023 • Subscribe

yes, yes, yes Director: Akihiko Yano (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

A powerful drama about reckoning with grief, “yes, yes, yes” is powered by raw performances from its brilliant cast. yes, yes, yes Director: Akihiko Yano (2020) [Osaka Asian…

Genkinahito

Mar 9, 2021 • Subscribe

Sekai 世界 (2023) Director: Marina Tsukada [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

Sekai 世界, directed by Marina Tsukada, is a rich portrait of two people living in Nagano prefecture. It gently guides us into their inner worlds and exploring them…

Genkinahito

Mar 11, 2023 • Subscribe

December 赦し (2022) Director: Anshul Chauhan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

December 赦し is director Anshul Chauhan’s third feature film. An impressive courtroom drama, it takes us through a harrowing criminal trial that constantly keeps us empathising with and questi…

Genkinahito

Mar 12, 2023 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 Announces Complete Lineup

In Osaka 10th to 19th March.

Windows on Worlds

Mar 5, 2023 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 Announces Complete Lineup

At venues across Osaka March 10 to 20 plus 10-film retrospective selection streaming worldwide March 3 to 21

Windows on Worlds

Feb 26, 2022 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022’s Japanese Films

Details on many of the Japanese films that will be screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2022 • Subscribe

Sojourn to Shangri-la 是日访古 Director: Lin Yihan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

In “Sojourn to Shangri-la” 是日访古, director Lin Yihan uses the tragicomic event of a failed fashion shoot to slip into an exploration of the transcendent and mythological and…

Genkinahito

Mar 29, 2024 • Subscribe

It Must Be Love 愛の茶番 Director: Junko Emoto [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

It Must Be Love 愛の茶番, by director Junko Emoto, has actors give fun improvisational performances as egotistic characters driven crazy by love in a film-meets-theatre experiment. [Osaka Asian…

Genkinahito

Mar 8, 2024 • Subscribe

404 Still Remain 너와 나의 5분 (2024) Director: Uhm Ha-neul [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

Director Uhm Ha-neul’s 404 Still Remain 너와 나의 5분 (2024) is a gorgeous romance between two beautiful boys that revels in early 2000s Japanese and Korean pop culture.…

Genkinahito

10 days ago • Subscribe

An Interview with Sae Suzuki, Director of Strangers [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

STRANGERS tackles gender discrimination and sexual harassment in a heartfelt and interesting way. Director Sae Suzuki talks about how she made it in an interview done in Japanese…

Genkinahito

Nov 14, 2022 • Subscribe

Three Sisters 세자매 Director: Lee Seung-won (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Three Sisters 세자매 Director: Lee Seung-won (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Mar 6, 2021 • Subscribe

Strangers 人知れず Director: Sae Suzuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Strangers 人知れず Director: Sae Suzuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] is an effective look at how people can explore thorny issues such as sexual harassment and discrimination in…

Genkinahito

Nov 14, 2022 • Subscribe

An Interview with Satoko Yokohama, Director of “Ito” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

An Interview with Satoko Yokohama, Director of “Ito” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Apr 12, 2021 • Subscribe

Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] V-Cinema

A rewrite of my review of Out of TOKYO202x, a refreshing sci-fi short from Japan that takes the time-slip formula and uses it on the summer Olympics! Director: Akinori…

Genkinahito

May 18, 2022 • Subscribe

Journey to Face Them 그를 마주하는 시간 (2024) Director: Hwang In-won [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

Journey to Face Them 그를 마주하는 시간 (2024), by Hwang In-won, is an examination of facing up to the trauma after assault is all about elliptical storytelling and…

Genkinahito

5 days ago • Subscribe

The Midnight Sun 折にふれて (2024) Director: Hina Murata [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

The Midnight Sun 折にふれて, by director Hina Murata, left me in tears as it captures the pain of parting from family through strong atmospherics and motifs and contrasting…

Genkinahito

18 days ago • Subscribe

The Land of Morning Calm 아침바다 갈매기는 (2024) Director: Park Ri-woong [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

Writer/director Park Ri-woong (The Girl on a Bulldozer) delivers a fiery working-class hero fighting against society’s moral indifference in The Land of Morning Calm 아침바다 갈매기는 (2024) [Osaka…

Genkinahito

4 days ago • Subscribe

The Outsiders’ Club よそ者の会 (2024) Director: Hami Nishizaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]

Hami Nishizaki’s use of location and her cast brilliantly depict the feeling of alienation through two characters whose intentions are misconstrued by the people around them in The…

Genkinahito

16 days ago • Subscribe

Masaru Sano on Capturing Good Images for His Phantasmagorical Film Perfect Nervous (2024) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 Interview]

“We meticulously took photographs during the location scouting and created storyboards based on the photos, with the intention of making all the shots as beautiful as possible.”: Masaru…

Genkinahito

Mar 25, 2024 • Subscribe

An Interview with Yutaro Nakamura, Director of A NEW WIND BLOWS [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

A Brief Interview with Yutaro Nakamura, Director of A NEW WIND BLOWS [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Jun 7, 2021 • Subscribe

An Interview with Shinji Imaoka, Director of A Rainbow-colored Trip [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

An Interview with Shinji Imaoka, Director of A Rainbow-colored Trip [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Jun 9, 2021 • Subscribe

The Girl on a Bulldozer 불도저에 탄 소녀 Director: Park Ri-woong (South Korea) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

The Girl on a Bulldozer is a strong drama with a mystery that needs to be cleared up by an unconventional female lead brought to brilliant life by Kim…

Genkinahito

Mar 15, 2022 • Subscribe

An Interview with Yusaku Matsumoto, Director of BAGMATI RIVER [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

An Interview with Yusaku Matsumoto, Director of BAGMATI RIVER [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Genkinahito

Apr 11, 2022 • Subscribe

An Interview with Sheikh M Haris, Director of HOWLING [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Get the background to the Japanese neo-noir black comedy HOWLING in this Interview with Sheikh M Haris, the Director [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Genkinahito

Apr 15, 2022 • Subscribe

An Interview with Yuko Watanabe, Director of BOY SPROUTED [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

An interview with Yuko Watanabe, director of the short film BOY SPROUTED. You can read it in Japanese and English! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022].

Genkinahito

May 14, 2022 • Subscribe

An Interview with Kasho Iizuka, Director of ANGRY SON [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

An interview with Kasho Iizuka about the making of his film ANGRY SON, shown as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022.

Genkinahito

Jan 9, 2023 • Subscribe

An Interview with Azusa Hieda, Director of Summer Wedding [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

SUMMER WEDDING is a short by Azusa Hieda that sees a relationship undergo a massive change due to isolation forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. You can read some…

Genkinahito

Jun 29, 2022 • Subscribe