A samurai’s daughter falls for a lowly manure man in a city on the brink of change in Junji Sakamoto’s touching dramedy.
Jun 15, 2023 • Subscribe
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Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023) Director: Junji Sakamoto [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]
Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023), directed by Junji Sakamoto, is an absolutely heart-warming and moving story of love set during the end of the samurai period. Its beautiful…
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Introduction Junji Sakamoto (Another World (2019), I Never Shot Anyone (2020), My Brother, The Android and Me (2022)) might not be as well-known by international audiences as other…
What's The Difference Between 行かないです and 行きません? #learnjapanese
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Is 行かせて ikasete the Te-form of いかせる ikaseru? #learnjapanese
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Immersion (忌怪島/きかいじま, Takashi Shimizu, 2023)
An attempt to recreate the “real” in the “virtual” causes a rupture between this world and another in Takashi Shimizu’s high tech horror.
"Would it be Okay to Add か as a Question Particle in かわいいくない?" #learnjapanese
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I Go Gaga, Welcome Home Mom (ぼけますから、よろしくお願いします。~おかえりお母さん~, Naoko Nobutomo, 2022)
In a followup to her hugely popular documentary, Naoko Nobutomo follows her parents as her mother’s health continues to decline.
Tokarev (トカレフ, Junji Sakamoto, 1994)
The discovery of a pistol concealed under a vending machine provokes a prolonged crisis of power and masculinity in Junji Sakamoto’s tense psychological drama.
決死の一発描きをお見せします。 My life risking drawing, without rough sketches!
漫画家・浦沢直樹の「浦沢チャンネル」。今回は、連載中の漫画「あさドラ!」より、主人公・浅田アサの一発描きをほぼノーカットでお見せします。 This is the channel of a Japanese Manga artist Naoki Urasawa. He draws a picture of Asa Asada from his recent work without rough sketches this time. The…
My Sunshine (ぼくのお日さま, Hiroshi Okuyama, 2024)
A young man with his head in the clouds discovers a new means of expression through figure skating in Hiroshi Okuyama’s delicate drama.
いただき
The newsletter is out, and the podcast is online: This month I wrote about いただき (itadaki). Yes, just いただき. I had this bizarre internal sense that いただき was…
I Never Shot Anyone (一度も撃ってません, Junji Sakamoto, 2020)
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Onna x Onna Umakuikanai Renai Essay parlor, Volume 1 (女×女のうまくいかない恋愛エッセイ parlor) by Fujio, has had a long journey from there to here. This manga began more than a…
The Light of Spring (ひかりのどけき, Fumito Fujikawa, 2022)
Pushed to breaking point by the pressures of the contemporary society amid the coronavirus pandemic, an ordinary family undergoes a trial separation in Fumito Fumikawa’s neorealist drama
Image of a Mother (母のおもかげ, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1959)
A little boy’s difficulties in accepting his new stepmother express an anxiety about the changing nature of the family in Hiroshi Shimizu’s familial melodrama.
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When we first met Miwa, she was unsure of herself. And when we met Saeko she seemed very confident. As we’ve got to know them, we’ve come to…
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You know how you feel after you’ve had a fever, when the fever breaks and you’re soaked in sweat? You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel…
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Mondays: See You “This” Week! (MONDAYS/このタイムループ、上司に気づかせないと終わらない, Ryo Takebayashi, 2022)
Harried office workers must get through to their dejected salaryman boss if they’re to escape a workplace time loop in Ryo Takebayashi’s zany corporate comedy.
From the End of the World (世界の終わりから, Kazuaki Kiriya, 2023)
Charged with the responsibility of saving the world, a teenage girl wonders if she should in Kazuaki Kiriya’s pre-apocalyptic drama.
The Nighthawk’s First Love (よだかの片想い, Yuka Yasukawa, 2021)
A young woman begins to regain a sense of self-confidence in the face of social prejudice when invited to consult on a film in Yuka Yasukawa’s adaptation of…
"Can I Say 温めてくれませんか at a Convenience Store?" #learnjapanese
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It’s All My Fault (ぜんぶ、ボクのせい, Yusaku Matsumoto, 2022)
A young orphan and a homeless drifter attempt to overcome the legacy of parental rejection in Yusaku Matsumoto’s sensitive coming-of-age drama.
Struggling Man (私はいったい、何と闘っているのか, Toshio Lee, 2021)
A dejected middle-aged man experiences a crisis of masculinity when his home and work lives come under threat in Toshio Lee’s warmhearted comedy.
My Sorry Life (愛のくだらない, Kozue Nomoto, 2020)
A self-absorbed TV producer gets a wake up call when her boyfriend announces he’s pregnant in Kozue Nomoto’s ironic dramedy
Would あたためてくれないか? Be Too Casual? #learnjapanese
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The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか, Hayao Miyazaki, 2023)
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A lonely researcher attempts to ease his existential anxiety by building a simulacrum of himself in Junji Sakamoto’s gothic sci-fi chiller
What does まどかが好きな人は二人いる mean?
Learn Japanese with Yuta: https://bit.ly/3hyXcYh Support me on Patreon: https://goo.gl/aiWNd5 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatYuta Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatyuta/ Facebook: https://bit.ly/381qpHS Blog: http://www.yutaaoki.com/blog/
"Can I Say 日本に行く。お土産いる? Without けど?" #learnjapanese
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__ませんか vs Wouldn't You Like ___ #learnjapanese
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Heimin no Kuse ni Namaikina!, Volume 3 (平民のくせに生意気な!)
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Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me? (先生、私の隣に座っていただけませんか?, Takahiro Horie, 2021)
A mangaka and her cheating husband become locked in a cat and mouse game of ambiguous revenge in Takahiro Horie’s deliciously cynical anti-rom-com
Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023)
Ryuichi Sakamoto’s first taste of fame was in the late 1970s, when his band Yellow Magic Orchestra competed with Kraftwerk to become the kings of electro-pop. With synthesiser…
Mother (おかあさん, Mikio Naruse, 1952)
A teenage girl struggles to understand her self-sacrificing mother in Mikio Naruse’s subversive take on the hahamono
Basic Japanese Sentence Structure No. 20 かわいい #learnjapanese
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君たちはどう生きるか/The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki and his team are undoubtedly masters of their craft. It’s been ten years since Miyazaki directed a film (the wonderful, if divisive, The Wind Rises). This…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし)Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…
The Evaporated: 神隠し(かみかくし)Gone with the Gods –On Air now
People have a habit of vanishing in Japan---even hundreds of years ago, it happened often enough that myths were created to explain these sudden disappearances. 神隠し (kamikakushi)--to be…