A diffident young woman begins to step into herself while chasing love under the blossoming cherry trees of Tokyo in Shunji Iwai’s impossibly charming drama.
Dec 6, 2022 • Subscribe
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Interview: Shunji Iwai
By Andrew Osmond. The delightful comedy-drama The Case of Hana & Alice is a kind of anime, except that it was filmed first in live-action, then converted into…
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夏物語、 川上 未映子、文藝春秋、 2019 Summer Story, Mieko Kawakami, Bungeishunju, 2019 [Since I first read this book, an English translation has been published by Europa Press as Breasts and…
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April Story (1998) [Film Review]
April Story; or, My Dearest Senpai When I made it into university, Moriyama, my home-room teacher congratulated me, saying "It was a mi...
Love Letter (ラブレター, Shunji Iwai, 1995)
Two lost women are forced to deal with the recent and not so recent past through the serendipitous connection of a misdirected letter in Shunji Iwai’s tremendously moving…
An Osaka Story (大阪物語, Kozaburo Yoshimura, 1957)
A man who tries to escape his poverty ends up imprisoning himself in Kozaburo Yoshimura’s tragicomedy
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…
Japan Society Presents Love Letters: Four Films by Shunji Iwai
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The 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8 (8日で死んだ怪獣の12日の物語, Shunji Iwai, 2020) [Fantasia 2021]
Takumi Saito plays a version of himself raising “capsule kaiju” as means of combatting Covid helplessness in Iwai’s whimsical pandemic drama
The Weald (杣人物語, Naomi Kawase, 1997)
Naomi Kawase takes to the mountains hearing the stories of the ageing villagers as they meditate on loss, loneliness, and regret.
Story of a Blind Woman /女めくら物語 / Onna mekura monogatari (1965)
Obscure Japanese Film #130 Ayako Wakao This Daiei production stars Ayako Wakao as Tsuruko, an orphan who loses her sight at the age of 16 ...
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All About Lily Chou-Chou (リリイ・シュシュのすべて, Shunji Iwai, 2001)
Alienated turn of the century youth finds refuge in the music of an etherial pop star and online connection in Shunji Iwai’s elegiac youth drama.
A Tale of Sorrow and Sadness (悲愁物語, Seijun Suzuki, 1977)
An aspiring golfer begins to lose her sense of identity after being picked up as a brand ambassador in Seijun Suzuki’s surreal consumerist satire.
Lovely Little Ai (愛ちゃん物語♡, Ohno Candice Mana, 2021)
A lonely young woman struggling to escape her father’s obsessive control after bonding with a maternal neighbour in Ohno Candice Mana’s whimsical drama
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A young man walks into an empty subway station already ominously strewn with blood and finds there the corpse of a woman shorn of her limbs. The corpse…
Tale of Japanese Burglars (にっぽん泥棒物語, Satsuo Yamamoto, 1965)
A former burglar finds himself conflicted on realising only he can prevent a miscarriage of justice in Satsuo Yamamoto’s ironic tale of post-war moral confusion
Casting Blossoms to the Sky (この空の花 長岡花火物語, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2012)
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Kite (1998): Nah
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A (1998) [Documentary Review]
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Comic Yuri Hime, April 2023 (コミック百合姫2023年4月号)
I know I’m running way behind on Comic Yuri Hime magazine. I have been unable to go to the Japanese bookstore since March, and reading Japanese was too…
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Comic Yuri Hime, April 2022 (コミック百合姫2022年4月号) starts off with an evocative cover image. I very much continue to enjoy this year’s cover design, with it’s patchwork of color…
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Ringu (リング, Hideo Nakata, 1998)
A reporter finds herself the victim of a dark and mysterious curse while investigating the strange death of her niece in Hideo Nakata’s landmark J-horror.
S2E6 - The Quiet Family (1998)
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Here we are at the April 2020 issue of Comic Yuri Hime magazine(コミック百合姫2020年4月号). This year the cover theme is women in ill-fitting clothing having what always looks like…
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A middle-aged school teacher finds himself tempted by a free-spirited student in Ann Hui’s melancholy marital drama.
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The Quiet Family; or, Lonely Lodge Did I tell you about Chul-ki? He was so good at digging that if you gave him a…
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Softsubbed Torrent | Hardsubbed Torrent Softsubbed DDL | Hardsubbed DDL CW: Fatphobia in episode 7. This series goes so many Inoue-as-hell places in episodes 7 and 8. Inoue’s…
Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998) – Episodes 09-12
Softsubbed Torrent | Hardsubbed Torrent Softsubbed DDL | Hardsubbed DDL CW: Suicide imagery in episode 12. This is like… one of three times we’ve seen an Inoue series…
Yu-Gi-Oh! (1998) – Episodes 01-04
Softsubbed Torrent | Hardsubbed Torrent Softsubbed DDL | Hardsubbed DDL So this isn’t the famous Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. This is the (infamous) “Season Zero” anime by Toei…
One and Four (一个和四个, Jigme Trinley, 2021)
A lovelorn forest ranger has an incredibly bad day in Jigme Trinley’s tense psychological drama.
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An emotionally distant salaryman faces instability in his professional and personal lives just as his estranged father resurfaces in Somai’s gentle family drama.