A preview of the films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025!
Mar 3, 2025 • Subscribe
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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.…
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.…
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.…
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.
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…
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…
Rainy Blue レイニー ブルー (2025) Dir: Asuna Yanagi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]
Asuna Yanagi delivers Kumamoto stories as she channels her teen filmmaking experiences into her debut Rainy Blue レイニー ブルー (2025), a warm-hearted coming-of-age comedy drama [Osaka Asian Film…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 Announces Complete Lineup
In Osaka 10th to 19th March.
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
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
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)
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…
I Am Kirishima 桐島です (2025) Director: Banmei Takahashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]
Banmei Takahashi revives the turbulent times of the 70s as he depicts 50 years on the run of the fugitive Satoshi Kirishima and finds a rich and moving…
The Tales of Kurashiki 蔵のある街 (2025) Director: Emiko Hiramatsu [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]
The Tales of Kurashiki 蔵のある街 (2025) is a celebration of the beautiful historic city by director Emiko Hiramatsu who sets a youth story in her hometown and delivers…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022’s Opening and Closing Films
Details on Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022’s Opening and Closing Films – Yanagawa, Miss Osaka
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…
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]
Crumpled だからなに (2025) Director: Chihiro Yuki, Hikaru Yabuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025]
In their co-directorial/writing debut Crumpled だからなに (2025), Chihiro Yuki and Hikaru Yabuki deliver a tersely-shot short where strong physicality defines the emotional journey. [Osaka Asian Film Fe…
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…
A Preview of the Japanese Titles at the New York Asian Film Festival 2024
A glance at the Japanese films programmed for New York Asian Film Festival 2024!
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…
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…
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…
The Sound of Light (2013) Dir: Junichiro Yamasaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
The Sound of Light (2013) Dir: Junichiro Yamasaki is part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022’s Online Theater
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…
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…
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]
An Interview with Masashi Komura, Director of POP! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
An Interview with Masashi Komura, Director of POP! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
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.…
A Glimpse at the Japanese Films and a Selection of Others at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023
A glimpse at the feast of Japanese films and a few titles that really moved me that are playing at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 (March 10th to…
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…
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]
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]
An Interview with Fumito Fujikawa, Director of The Light of Spring [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022/Five Flavours Film Festival 2022]
An Interview with Fumito Fujikawa, Director of The Light of Spring, a dramamentary that played at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 and is currently screening online at Five…
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…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022: 10 Japanese Films Online and Available Internationally
Details on the films programmed for the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 Online Theater (Available Internationally)
Random Call ランダム・コール Dir: Riki Ohkanda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Random Call ランダム・コール Dir: Riki Ohkanda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Young Birds 雛鳥 Dir: Eriko Izumi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
Young Birds 雛鳥 Dir: Eriko Izumi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
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…
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]
An Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of Melting Sounds [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of MOOSIC Lab affiliated film “Melting Sounds”. It is available in Japanese and English. [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
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.
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]
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…
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…