Cloud クラウド (2024) Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa is his chilling warning of how people are dehumanised by materialism/technology, as told through a thriller/home invasion format and a strong performanc…
Jan 6, 2025 • Subscribe
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Cloud (Cloud クラウド, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2024)
“We wanted to make easy money,” a down-on-his luck reseller admits, “is life easy now?” Factory worker Ryosuke (Masaki Suda) rebels against capitalism by subverting it through buying…
Sweet Home (スウィートホーム, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1989)
A documentary film crew encounter a vengeful ghost while investigating a creepy mansion in an early gothic horror adventure from Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウソナタ, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2008)
Orphaned salarymen are the soulless ghosts haunting an increasingly empty city in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s eerie tale of urban anxiety
Serpent’s Path Le chemin du serpent 蛇の道 (2024) Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Serpent's Path Le chemin du serpent 蛇の道 (2024), by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is an updating of a film made nearly 30 years ago. Its setting switched from Japan to France…
Wife of a Spy (スパイの妻, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2020)
An upperclass housewife finds herself pulled into a deadly game of espionage in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dark exploration of the consequences of love
The Guard From Underground (地獄の警備員, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1992)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa positions an office building as an industrial hell but suggests it’s only one of many hazards to be aware of for a woman in the corporate…
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Guard From Underground 地獄の警備員 (1992) Remaster, directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, is a solid slasher film that features a psychotic sumo wrestler smashing the world of corporate Japan.…
Review: Flaming Cloud (2023)
Flaming Cloud 三贵情史 China, 2023, colour, 2.35:1, 106 mins. Director: Liu Siyi 刘斯逸. Rating: 6/10. Mainland actress Yao Chen is the main delight in this post-modern fairytale that…
Fanart Friday, Too: Cloud + Aerith
There are beautiful Clerith fanart pieces out there, and then there’s this illustration, an extraordinary piece by artist, c7肘. Be still, my heart! ★ 【c7肘】「 cloud and aerith…
Old Man Reminisces with Cloud
Twenty-five years of fandom feels like entirely too long. That’s more than half my life. Yet, a quarter century later, MAHQ hits an anniversary that few nerd-ass websites…
Chicago International Film Festival – Cloud
When I was getting in line for this film, I was genuinely surprised at how long the line was. This particular film probably had the biggest turn out…
Cloud Matsuri returns – 15th-19th November
Believe it or not it’s been almost an entire year since our last Cloud Matsuri event in November 2020 – at the time we promised that it would…
Hyakkano - Episode 13 - Kusuri Chemical Cloud
Hyakkano’s second season quickly needed to introduce the six girlfriends from last season. Red strings of fate and explosions! Hyakkano - Episode 13
Review: Gift from a Cloud (2025)
Gift from a Cloud 有朵云像你 China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 119 mins. Director: Yao Tingting 姚婷婷. Rating: 5/10. Light drama about a husband who reappears, with amnesia, in the…
Sayuri サユリ (2024) Director: Koji Shiraishi [Chicago Japanese Film Collective 2024]
Director Koji Shiraishi subverts J-Horror tropes he helped create with his comedy-horror Sayuri サユリ (2024) where a grandmother/grandson duo fight the titular ghost for control of a house. [Chicago…
Manga Musings: Onani Master Kurosawa
Myriad manga are set in the school environment and granted, a lot that I've come into contact with focus on cute high school girls. Onani Master Kurosawa however,…
Episode 518, "Young Man Yells At Cloud"
On this week's episode of The One Piece Podcast we have our Manga Recap of One Piece Chapter 903, "Fifth Emperor" with Stephen Paul (translator for One Piece…
Episode 518, "Young Man Yells At Cloud"
On this week's episode of The One Piece Podcast we have our Manga Recap of One Piece Chapter 903, "Fifth Emperor" with Stephen Paul (translator for One Piece…
NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a – 16 – Cloud Nines
So much for last hope…2B and 9S don’t make it to solid ground before their flight units are intercepted by a squadron of their virus-infected counterparts. Before this…
Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano [Japan Cuts 2024]
Kubi 首 (2023), directed by Takeshi Kitano, is a historical epic that amps up the violence and sex for satire’s sake as Kitano takes aim at the absurd samurai social…
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…
Scandal (醜聞, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
The battle for the soul of the post-war society is fought in the body of a conflicted lawyer in Akira Kurosawa’s seasonal morality tale.
The Not-So-Future Problems of Cloud Content
Despite Google pulling the plug on Stadia, cloud gaming or gaming as a service continues to be the direction the gaming, movies, and anime (and manga for that…
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform – 03 – Free as a Cloud
Akebi Komichi isn’t trying to stand out, she’s just being the best damn Akebi Komichi she can be. That Akebi is bereft of guile, devoid of ego…and runs fastest…
On a Boat オン・ア・ボート (2024) Director: Heso [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Black comedy and painful humiliation abound as a mismatched couple vie for control in the black comedy On a Boat オン・ア・ボート (2024) Director: Heso [Osaka Asian Film Festival…
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…
Ripples 波紋 (2023) Director: Naoko Ogigami [Nippon Connection 2024]
Ripples 波紋 (2023), written and directed by Naoko Ogigami, [Nippon Connection 2024] [Nippon Connection 2024]
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…
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…
KOBAYASHI Kiyoshi (Jigen from “Lupin III”) Has Passed Away
KOBAYASHI Kiyoshi (Jigen from “Lupin III”) Has Passed Away The original seiyuu for Daisuke Jigen (Lupin III franchise) has passed away on July 30. The cause of death…
Wicked Priest (極悪坊主, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1968)
A bunch of corrupt monks get a lesson in business ethics from one of their own in Kiyoshi Saeki’s aptly titled Taisho-era romp.
Golden Partners (黄金のパートナー, Kiyoshi Nishimura, 1979)
Two aimless best friends team up with a young woman looking for her missing father to find long lost wartime gold in Kiyoshi Nishimura’s breezy adventure.
The Idiot (白痴, Akira Kurosawa, 1951)
A pure soul is destroyed by the selfishness and duplicity of the post-war society in Kurosawa’s snowbound adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel.
Rashomon (羅生門, Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
A series of witnesses give conflicting accounts of a death in the forest in Akira Kurosawa’s exploration of the limits of objective truth.
BFI to Host Complete Akira Kurosawa Retrospective
At BFI Southbank January and February 2023.
Yojimbo (用心棒, Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
A cynical ronin plays warring factions off against each other to save a moribund silk town in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai western.
Akira Kurosawa Retrospective at the BFI 2023
The good folks at the BFI have sent us details for an up coming Akira Kurosawa Retrospective. Set to run from Sunday 1st January 2023 until ...
Ikiru (生きる, Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
A lifelong bureaucrat is confronted by the emptiness of the salaryman dream when diagnosed with a terminal illness in Akira Kurosawa’s intensely moving melodrama.
Kagemusha (影武者, Akira Kurosawa, 1980)
A thief reborn as a lord finds himself caught between the contradictions of the feudal order and the borders of identity in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era tragedy.
“Houki Gumo” (trans. “Comet Cloud”) — Yakitate!! Japan OP 1
I was feeling nostalgic, so I thought I’d put this opening up. If you haven’t watched this show…it’s a trip. (Thought I had already, but oh well.) It’s…
The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud GN
Nominated for an Ignatz Award for Outstanding Collection, Kuniko Tsurita explores gender fluidity, ideas of death, and what it means to participate in the counterculture of the 1960s…
Flaming Cloud (三贵情史, Liu Siyi, 2023)
A cursed young man searches for his long lost true love in Liu Siyi’s beautifully designed fairytale romance.
LONESOME VACATION ロンサム バケーション (2023) Director: Atsuro Shimoyashiro [Nippon Connection 2024]
LONESOME VACATION ロンサム バケーション (2023), by director Atsuro Shimoyashiro, gains strength by playing against noir genre expectations and presents a heart-warming tale of people finding connection in ea…
Kubi 首 (2023) Director: Takeshi Kitano, Shuta Takahata [Japan Cuts 2024]
Kubi 首 (2023), directed by Takeshi Kitano, is a historical epic that amps up the violence and sex for satire’s sake as Kitano takes aim at the absurd samurai social…
Falling Into Place Director: Aylin Tezel [Glasgow International Film Festival 2024]
Falling Into Place, by director: Aylin Tezel, is a beautifully shot story of a couple struggling through personal problems to realise their romance that is told in an…
The Young Boss (花笠若衆, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1958)
Hibari Misora stars as a pair of twins separated at birth in Kiyoshi Saeki’s musical jidaigeki adventure
Watching Akira Kurosawa Movies for the First time!
Rashomon If you like movies and/or Japanese culture, it’s impossible to not hear the name Akira Kurosawa, the most culturally significant filmmaker in Japan’s existence. He made a…
Stray Dog (野良犬, Akira Kurosawa, 1949)
A rookie policeman chases an echo of himself through the backstreets of post-war Japan while looking for his missing gun in Akira Kurosawa’s sweltering noir.
Sanjuro (椿三十郎, Akira Kurosawa, 1962)
The cynical drifter finds himself offering fatherly advice to idealistic but hot-headed samurai youth in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo followup.
Watanabe, Kurosawa, & Kumagai: 2004's Inadvertent Samurai Trilogy
While the ninja is arguably the most iconic thing to come from Japan when it comes to worldwide pop culture, I think it's more than fair to ...