An unserious man begins to grow up while chasing love in Hawaii in a cheerful if ultimately downbeat musical celebration of the centenary of Japanese migration to Hawaii.
Mar 1, 2023 • Subscribe
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All the Long Nights (夜明けのすべて, Sho Miyake, 2024)
Mismatched colleagues struggling amid contemporary corporate culture find unexpected solidarity in Sho Miyake’s gentle human drama.
Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜)
While shopping in random bookstores in Japan at the end of last year I kept seeing book,s with girls in school uniforms wielding swords. I did that thing…
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら)
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら), translated on the cover as After Sunrise, Haru Harukawa Collection is a collection of shorts by, obviously Harukawa Haru. Some of these…
The Demon (鬼畜, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1978)
When his mistress abandons their three children on his doorstep, a resentful father and his enraged wife take drastic action to be free of them in Yoshitaro Nomura’s…
Tokyo Bay (東京湾, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1962)
Two old war buddies find themselves on opposite sides of the law in Nomura’s sprawling journey through the post-war underworld
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All the Long Nights 夜明けのすべて (2024) Director: Sho Miyake [Nippon Connection 2024 / Japan Cuts 2024]
Beautifully depicted, workmates suffering in silence with mental and physical conditions feel the warmth of human connection in director Sho Miyake’s All the Long Nights 夜明けのすべて (2024)…
The New Morning of Billy the Kid (ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け, Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)
A collection of pop culture icons attempt to safeguard a cafe bar/live house from an assault by savage gangsters in Yamakawa’s anarchic post-modern satire
Writhing Tongue (震える舌, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1980)
A married couple are faced with psychological torment when their little girl contracts tetanus in Yoshitaro Nomura’s harrowing medical drama
Village of Eight Gravestones (八つ墓村, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1977)
A young man is called to the country to inherit a cursed fortune in Yoshitaro Nomura’s eerie adaptation of the Seishi Yokomizo mystery.
The End of the Pale Hour (明け方の若者たち, Hana Matsumoto, 2021)
Dejected youngsters flounder amid the ruins of the salaryman dream in Hana Matsumoto’s youthful drama.
Two Wives (妻二人, Yasuzo Masumura, 1967)
A conflicted social climber becomes disillusioned with his comfortable life on reencountering his uni girlfriend in Yasuzo Masumura’s dark mystery drama.
Bakumatsu Joshikousei – Oni to Yoake, Volume 1 (幕末女子高生 鬼と夜明け 一)
Back a the beginning of the year, I reviewed the second volume of a sequel to this series, Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜). Given that I knew…
The Dawning Sky (明け行く空, Torajiro Saito, 1929)
A female pastor is unexpectedly reunited with the child she was forced to abandon in Torajiro Saito’s tearjerking familial melodrama.
The Mannequin House Murders / 人形館の殺人
I didn’t like this book at all. I don’t have much more to say about it.
I Still Remember (二次人生, Lik Ho, 2021)
A directionless young man regains a sense of purpose after reuniting with a childhood father figure in Lik Ho’s sporting drama
Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月)
Saki loves piano. Or does she? She loves taking lessons with her teacher, she’s sure of that. But her teacher is leaving… In Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月),…
Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
A young man from an exiled clan tries to make peace between the natural world and the industrial in Hayao Miyazaki’s landmark 1997 animation
What does まどかが好きな人は二人いる mean?
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Just the Two of Us (二人ノ世界, Keita Fujimoto, 2020)
A man paralysed from the neck down and the blind woman who cares for him find themselves struggling against the prejudices of an ableist society in Keita Fujimoto’s…
Wolves of the Night (夜の狼, Yoichi Ushihara, 1958)
A heartless yakuza becomes conflicted on being confronted with the consequences of his actions in Yoichi Ushihara’s slice of Nikkatsu Noir.
Death Within the Evil Eye / 魔眼の匣の殺人
It’s difficult to succeed genius. Chrono Cross isn’t as good as Chrono Trigger , Bioshock 2 isn’t as good as Bioshock , and National Treas...
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Episode #72 (S10E1) – Princess Mononoke [ もののけ姫] (1997)
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Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie – Over the Rainbow
This is one of those movies that has such an absurdly long title that I just didn’t add a caption to it. To make fun of a cliché,…
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Well, wow. A whole lot of story happened in this volume. First, Saki finds Kanon’s former best friend – the one Kanon feel betrayed her – and learns…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 7 (雨夜の月)
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 7 (雨夜の月) is absolute perfection. It was so good, that the moment I finished it, I started from the beginning and read it again.…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 3 ( 雨夜の月)
2022 has been an absolute celebration of amazing Yuri manga licenses and releases. Almost everything I wanted to have been licensed has been. Of the two remaining that…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 2 ( 雨夜の月)
In Volume 1, we met Saki, a high school student who plays piano, and her classmate (and piano teacher’s daughter), Kanon, who is hard of hearing. Kanon is…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 5 (雨夜の月)
In my fevered anticipation for The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 1 coming from Kodansha next week, I was thrilled to have the newest volume of the…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月)
Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The…
Kinuyo’s First Love (絹代の初恋, Hiromasa Nomura, 1940)
The changing social mores of the 1930s are played out in the fortunes of two sisters unwittingly falling for the same man in Hiromasa Nomura’s romantic drama.
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“Love Live! Sunshine!!” finally gets to end on a good note.
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The Sands of Kurobe (黒部の太陽, Kei Kumai, 1968)
Kei Kumai directs a three-hour epic devoted to the sometimes brutal construction of the Kurobe Dam.
Prison Boss (獄中の顔役, Yasuo Furuhata, 1968)
A noble-hearted gangster finds himself at odds with an increasingly corrupt society in Furuhata’s manly yakuza drama
The Seven Great Detectives / 7人の名探偵
Yukito Ayatsuji ’s The Decagon House Murders was published in 1987, and is credited with kick-starting the shin-honkaku (new orthodox) mov...
The Black Umbrella Mystery / 体育館の殺人
The Black Umbrella Mystery is a story with the soul of Ellery Queen and the body of an anime protagonist. There are a few Japanese…
The Labyrinth House Murders / 迷路館の殺人
The shin-honkaku movement has always been a bit meta. It’s right there in the name: it means “new orthodox,” as it’s a revival of the origi...
The Rest of Our Lives (ラストターン 福山健二71歳、二度目の青春, Shinji Kuma, 2023)
A pair of elderly men struggle to find meaning in their lives in the face of well-meaning infantilism and health anxiety in Shinji Kuma’s warmhearted ageing drama.
A Son (二十歳の息子, Ryuichi Shimada, 2022)
Documentarian Ryuichi Shimada follows a social worker who decides to adopt a 20-year-old man recently released from juvenile detention.
The Time of Reckoning / 不信のとき / Fushin no toki (1968)
Obscure Japanese Film #128 Jiro Tamiya and Ayako Wakao Asai (Jiro Tamiya) is an artist who designs advertising posters for a printing comp...
The Human Wall / 人間の壁/ Ningen no kabe (1959)
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A disaffected young man gets a fresh start in a utopian community but quickly becomes disillusioned in Shinji Araki’s slick dystopian thriller
Beast Alley (けものみち, Eizo Sugawa, 1965)
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Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
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Otona no Yuricon 2020 (大人のユリコン2020)
After a prolonged trip across the ocean, a long-awaited doujinshi has finally arrived at my home. And, like clockwork, the Melonbooks website is down for maintenance, so I…
Shurijō Akewatashi 首里城明渡し – The Turning Over of the Sui royal palace
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The Tycoon / 傷だらけの山河 / Kizudarake no sanga (1964)
Obscure Japanese Film #144 Ayako Wakao and So Yamamura Having delivered a mega-hit for Daiei studios with Shinobi no mono (1962) and also...
Three Women of the North (北の三人, Kiyoshi Saeki, 1945)
Three female radio operators become the backbone of a moribund war effort in the last propaganda film produced before the war’s end.
Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2
This is still a very flawed series, and this second season of the show suffers from some unique issues compared to its first, but it sure isn't afraid…
Tokyo Sweetheart (東京の恋人, Yasuki Chiba, 1952)
A fake ring causes untold chaos in a small corner of Ginza in Yasuki Chiba’s charming ensemble rom-com.
House on Fire (火宅の人, Kinji Fukasaku, 1986)
An anxious writer fears collapse under the weight of fatherhood in Kinji Fuksaku’s adaptation of the autobiographical novel of Kazuo Dan.