Anime Blog Tracker

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.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

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.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

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.…

Heroic Purgatory

Mar 21, 2023 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 16, 2023 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 6, 2024 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 12, 2023 • Subscribe

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 Announces Complete Lineup

In Osaka 10th to 19th March.

Windows on Worlds

Mar 5, 2023 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 5, 2024 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Mar 24, 2021 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 4, 2024 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 18, 2025 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 12, 2022 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2021 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 17, 2025 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 9, 2021 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 2, 2024 • Subscribe

Where Love Goes 愛のゆくえ (2023) Director: Fuka Miyajima [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

Where Love Goes 愛のゆくえ, from director Fuka Miyajima, is a rich story about love that takes a girl from Hokkaido to Tokyo and back, by way of magical realism.…

Genkinahito

Mar 15, 2023 • Subscribe

A Preview of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025

A preview of the films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025!

Genkinahito

Mar 3, 2025 • Subscribe

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

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2022 • Subscribe

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

Windows on Worlds

Feb 26, 2022 • Subscribe

The Narrow Road 窄路微塵 (2022) Director: LAM Sum [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

The Narrow Road 窄路微塵 is director LAM Sum’s moving ode to working-class life in Hong Kong during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Narrow Road 窄路微塵 (2022) Director: LAM Sum…

Genkinahito

Mar 14, 2023 • Subscribe

Strangers 人知れず Director: Sae Suzuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Strangers 人知れず Director: Sae Suzuki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] is an effective look at how people can explore thorny issues such as sexual harassment and discrimination in…

Genkinahito

Nov 14, 2022 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Nov 14, 2022 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

May 18, 2022 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 18, 2024 • Subscribe

Sumiko

Three Sisters 세자매 Director: Lee Seung-won (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Three Sisters 세자매 Director: Lee Seung-won (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Mar 6, 2021 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Apr 12, 2021 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Apr 17, 2021 • Subscribe

New York Asian Film Festival 2023

Table of Contents For the third year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF)…

Heroic Purgatory

Jul 19, 2023 • Subscribe

exception

Swallow Flying to the South 燕南飛 (2022) Director: Mochi Lin [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]

Swallow Flying to the South 燕南飛, from director Mochi Lin, is an emotionally moving stop-motion animation about her mother’s experiences at a school during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Won…

Genkinahito

Mar 17, 2023 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 7, 2024 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 2, 2024 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Apr 11, 2022 • Subscribe

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.

Genkinahito

Jan 9, 2023 • Subscribe

Ito いとみち Director: Satoko Yokohama (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

“Ito” is a heart-warming comedy drama rich in Aomori’s culture where a girl learning to express herself through time spent at a maid cafe and her shamisen skills.…

Genkinahito

Mar 17, 2021 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Apr 15, 2022 • Subscribe

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]

Genkinahito

Jul 15, 2022 • Subscribe

Marchen Awakens Romance

Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Summer Wedding is a unique and strong take on pandemic isolation. Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Genkinahito

Mar 29, 2022 • Subscribe

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…

Genkinahito

Jul 18, 2024 • Subscribe

SANKA: Nomads of the Mountains 山歌 Director: Ryohei Sasatani [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

SANKA: Nomads of the Mountains 山歌 Director: Ryohei Sasatani [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Genkinahito

Apr 22, 2022 • Subscribe

My Sister 姊姊 Director: Pan Ke-yin (2021) Taiwan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

My Sister 姊姊 is a wonderful Taiwanese short that delivers a shot of reassuring love through a bratty brother and family. Director: Pan Ke-yin (2021) Taiwan [Osaka Asian…

Genkinahito

Mar 11, 2022 • Subscribe

Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 Director: Noriko Yuasa [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 (Dir Noriko Yuasa) is a heady story of remembering an individual through pulling together memories. Amidst the farce and tears of the funeral lies a…

Genkinahito

Apr 8, 2024 • Subscribe

An E-mail Interview with Oudai Kojima, Director of JOINT [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

An E-mail Interview with Oudai Kojima, Director of JOINT [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Mar 15, 2021 • Subscribe

Wash Away うぉっしゅ Director: Ikunosuke Okazaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]

Wash Away うぉっしゅ, the sophomore feature by director Ikunosuke Okazaki, may have an unlikely premise but it works well as an existential examination of loneliness. It plays at…

Genkinahito

Mar 1, 2024 • Subscribe

An Interview with Daisuke Miyazaki, Director of NORTH SHINJUKU 2055 [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Another great Interview with Daisuke Miyazaki, this time for his work on the sci-fi short NORTH SHINJUKU 2055. You can read it in Japanese and English! [Osaka Asian…

Genkinahito

Apr 28, 2022 • Subscribe

Melting Sounds ほとぼりメルトサウンズ Director: Kahori Higashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Melting Sounds is a wonderfully incisive yet offbeat MOOSIC LAB film concerned with mortality and human connections. Higashi’s light touch delivers a profound, cute, and deeply humanistic pae…

Genkinahito

May 27, 2022 • Subscribe

Marchen Awakens Romance

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…

Genkinahito

Mar 18, 2024 • Subscribe

Sumiko

Aloners 혼자 사는 사람들 Director: Hong Sung-eun (South Korea) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Aloners 혼자 사는 사람들 Director: Hong Sung-eun (South Korea) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]

Genkinahito

May 2, 2022 • Subscribe

An Email Interview with Hiroshi Gokan, Director of “Gotō-san” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

An Email Interview with Hiroshi Gokan, Director of “Gotō-san” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]

Genkinahito

Apr 5, 2021 • Subscribe

Bear Man 웅남이 (2023) Director: Park Sung-kwang [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]

Bear Man 웅남이 (2023), by director Park Sung-kwang, is a solid comedy/action/crime film about bears that turn into men. It makes good on its premise and offers an…

Genkinahito

Jul 17, 2023 • Subscribe