The truth is, most people genuinely mean well but they often make mistakes. They make them because they don’t think things through, fail to consider perspectives outside of their own, or act on ass…
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KALANCHOE カランコエの花 (2017) Dir: Shun Nakagawa
Shun Nakagawa’s coming-of-age drama Kalanchoe (2017) uses a class as a microcosm for society to explore difficulties in sincerely dealing with people who are different. It will be…
Sayonara, Girls (少女は卒業しない, Shun Nakagawa, 2022)
A collection of teens contemplate the ghosts of youth in facing graduation from a school soon to be demolished in Shun Nakagawa’s poignant drama.
Jigoku Hanazono (地獄の花園)
Jigoku Hanazono (地獄の花園) is absolute trash, hilarious and unforgivable, and probably puzzling to anyone who isn’t deeply interested in girl-gang lore. It’s a movie tailored almost …
Casting Blossoms to the Sky (この空の花 長岡花火物語, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2012)
An emotionally arrested journalist begins to reconnect with the past through wartime stories of Nagaoka in Obayashi’s compassionate plea for a kinder future
Sayonara, Girls. 少女は卒業しない (2022) Dir: Shun Nakagawa streaming on SAKKA
Shun Nakagawa’s understated ensemble drama “Sayonara, Girls” (2022) features a set of rising actors, featuring Yuumi Kawai and Rina Ono, playing out a quietly moving story of high…
Somebody’s Flowers 誰かの花 (2022) Director: Yusuke Okada
Somebody’s Flowers 誰かの花 「Dareka no Hana」 Release Date: January 29th, 2022 Duration: 115 mins. Director: Yusuke Okada Writer: Yusuke Okada (Script), Starring: Shinsuke Kato, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Ch…
Shin Sommelier- Shun no Wine
Fancy settings and high class clientele abound as a disenfranchised wine expert returns to his role and helps to launch a fancy restaurant in this second Sommelier work…
Song of the Flower Basket (花籠の歌, Heinosuke Gosho, 1937)
The daughter of a tonkatsu shop finds herself with an overabundance of suitors in Heinosuke Gosho’s generally cheerful yet occasionally dark melodrama.
Yakuza Graveyard (やくざの墓場 くちなしの花, Kinji Fukasaku, 1976)
A maverick cop finds himself sympathising with noble yakuza when confronted by entrenched corruption in Kinji Fukasaku’s jitsuroku-esque gangster drama.
Girls in the Orchard / 花の中の娘たち / Hana no naka no musumetachi (1953)
Obscure Japanese Film #109 Mariko Okada Toho’s first feature film in full colour concerns the Ishii family, who live in the rural area of ...
Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 8 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ )
A few weeks ago, I reviewed HabuCore F, the 10-years-later epilogue to a series Hayate x Blade (はやて×ブレード), which I described as “a gonzo battle/school manga series.” I…
Hana no Asuka-gumi! ∞Infinity, Volume 9 (花のあすか組! ∞インフィニティ)
Once again, we come to the end of the longest-running girl-gang manga series. I say “again,” because this series has ended several times before. This first time when…
Hana no Asuka-gumi Infinity, Volume 7 (花のあすか組 ∞インフィニティ)
Buckle in, folks, today’s review is going to be a lot of expository commentary for a payoff that may seems small to you, but is hella powerful to…
Episode 128 – Six Degrees of Oguri Shun
Happy New Year! We have returned with our first anime episode of 2018, in which we talk about the last anime episodes of 2017. We are going over…
![Featured image for Jigoku-no-Hanazono: Office Royale (地獄の花園, Kazuaki Seki, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20210909/1631146394.21046.47019.jpg)
Jigoku-no-Hanazono: Office Royale (地獄の花園, Kazuaki Seki, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]
Office ladies go to war in Kazuaki Seki’s anarchic, Bakarhythm-scripted transposition of the yankee manga to the world of the OL
Otakon 2017
We’re a while out from Otakon, but we’re still gonna podcast about it! I brought fellow podcasting...
Otakon 2017
We’re a while out from Otakon, but we’re still gonna podcast about it! I brought fellow podcasting cohorts Chris (@gokuffy) and Helen (@WanderinDreamr) to cover Otakon 2017 in…
Acen 2017
We’re back for a special episode, rounding up Acen 2017 with my friends Kenny (@Minoru79), Kyle (@ANewtypeCentury), and Patz (@PatzPrime). No show notes this time, just us shooting…
Acen 2017
We’re back for a special episode, rounding up Acen 2017 with my friends Kenny (@Minoru79), Kyle (@ANewtypeCentury),...
Huahua’s Dazzling World and its Myriad Temptations (花花世界, Daphne Xu, 2022)
Xu’s largely observational doc follows an unlikely streaming star as she overcomes her sense of futility through boundless optimism.
OSMcast! Anime Weekend Atlanta 2017 10-9-2017
Wait wait wait what 2 updates in a row is this 2017 or what geez SO ANYROAD yes the OSMcast is BACK yet again for a classic late…
Bara no ki ni bara no hana saku / 薔薇の木にバラの花咲く / (‘Roses Bloom on the Rose Bush’, 1959)
Obscure Japanese Film #136 Ayako Wakao Rieko Sumi and Ayako Wakao Reiko (Ayako Wakao) is a senior university student majoring in English w...
Spring 2017 Conclusion
I wish I could say this blog wasn’t dead, but working life has left me a dried husk of a man I used to be and I struggle…
Summer 2017 Conclusion
It’s been pretty dead here, but I can at least be bothered to fart out a season conclusion post. My career is closing in on its expiration date…
Spring 2017 Conclusion
I wish I could say this blog wasn’t dead, but working life has left me a dried husk of a man I used to be and I struggle…
Updates for 2017
As you might be able to tell I have let the maintenance of this site slide this year. So much for my new year's resolution in January. Anyway..…
The Japan Blog List - Japan related blogs which are written in English
Christmas Card 2017
WARNING: AS A PRESENT TO OURSELVES THIS EPISODE IS ONLY MINIMALLY EDITED Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Merry Mega Christmas and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of our…
Summer 2017 roundup
Or “it’s halfway through the new season and I still can’t think of much to say about these shows.” …
Konohana Kitan (2017)
Endlessly fluffy and wholesome —a shining example of the best the iyashikei genre has to offer.
Summer 2017 Conclusion
It’s been pretty dead here, but I can at least be bothered to fart out a season conclusion post. My career is closing in on its expiration date…
Character(s) of the Month: Umi and Shun, and Cob
OK, fabulous people of the Internet. If you could tell by the title of today’s post, this will be a very different Character of the Month post. To…
The Vampire Moth (吸血蛾, Nobuo Nakagawa, 1956)
Kindaichi is on the case when a series of fashion models is mysteriously bumped off by a butterfly-obsessed killer in Nobuo Nakagawa’s atmospheric horror.
Kitanhana Monogatari (綺譚花物語)
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing a book on Yuri history in Taiwan by Baihe novelist 楊雙子 Yáng Shuāngzǐ. Today I am reviewing the…
![Featured image for Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York Asian Film Festival 2021]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20210814/1628931797.19343.45002.jpg)
Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York Asian Film Festival 2021]
Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale is a funny battle comedy that satirises office culture and delinquent manga/films! Jigoku no Hanazono: Office Royale 地獄の花園 Director: Kazuaki Seki (2021) [New York …
Top Movies of 2017
Baseball is back! Pitchers and catchers have reported, Jake Odorizzi has moved from Tampa Bay to Minnesota,...
S4E10 - The Villainess (2017)
Hello everyone, In this episode of Heroic Purgatory, we discuss the 2017 South Korean film, The Villainess. We discuss the film's action, style, and the merits of its questionably…
Winter 2017 – Season Recap
If you’re wondering where I’ve been, I hibernated this last winter. Seriously. Great, and now that I’ve answered all your questions, let’s dive right…
Trickster, March Comes in Like a Lion, Gabriel DropOut, Little Witch Academia, Masamune-kun's Revenge
Winter 2017 – First Impressions
Ah, being asked by a cute girl to pretend to be her boyfriend! It’s the teenage experience we can all relate to surely! Boys are getting asked by…
Top Anime of 2017
Andrew McCutchen was traded to the Giants while I was editing this podcast, so that was the super exciting news for today. Perhaps the free agents will eventually…
Top Anime of 2017
Andrew McCutchen was traded to the Giants while I was editing this podcast, so that was the...
Review: Our Happiness (2017)
Our Happiness 相声大电影之我要幸福 China, 2017, colour, 2.35:1, 92 mins. Director: Zhang Heluan 张鹤栾 [Zhang Luan 张栾]. Rating: 4/10. Confused comedy with a host of xiangsheng performers fails to…
Top Movies of 2017
Baseball is back! Pitchers and catchers have reported, Jake Odorizzi has moved from Tampa Bay to Minnesota,...
Halmoni (Daniel Kim, 2017)
Documentarian Daniel Kim explores his family’s relationship to landscape and culture as Korean farmers in Argentina.
Top Five Anime 2017
Me in 2018. Sooooo I haven’t posted much this year. To those of you who are still checking my blog periodically, I can only say – thank you…
Review: The Door (2017)
The Door 完美有多美 China, 2017, colour/b&w, 2.35:1, 98 mins. Director: Liang Dong 梁栋. Rating: 7/10. Lightly comic, semi-fantasy about an average man faced with an alternate universe in…
Snake Woman’s Curse (怪談蛇女, Nobuo Nakagawa, 1968)
A venal landlord is haunted by the legacy of feudal injustice in Nakagawa’s eerie Meiji-era ghost story
A Hundred Flowers (百花, Genki Kawamura, 2022)
An expectant father finds himself confronted with paternal anxiety and past trauma on learning that his mother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in Genki Kawamura’s adaptation of his…
Equinox Flower (彼岸花, Yasujiro Ozu, 1958)
An ageing patriarch struggles to accept his declining authority in Ozu’s first colour film