Japan
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In 2025, Asian cinema continues to make its mark around the world. Animated features from mainland China and Hong Kong, as well as Japan, have shattered box office records, while… Read More
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Winner of the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, the latest film by All the Long Nights director Sho Miyake is a beautifully staged and delicately poised rumination… Read More
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The last few days have seen Hong Kong reeling from the unspeakable tragedy of the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, which has left at least 146 people… Read More
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Anchored by an astonishing central performance from Ryo Yoshizawa and a fastidious devotion to the traditional art of kabuki theatre, Lee Sang-il’s sumptuous saga Kokuho emerges as the finest Japanese… Read More
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In Last Samurai Standing, 292 fighters from across the land assemble for a merciless showdown to the death in the late 19th century, at the dawn of Japan’s transformative Meiji… Read More
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A former Las Vegas magician and a young bride-to-be form an unlikely crime-fighting duo in Black Showman, a murder mystery adapted from Keigo Higashino’s bestselling novel by director Ryo Tanaka,… Read More
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Inspired by real stories from Tokyo’s LGBTQ+ community, Anshul Chauhan’s Tiger follows a young man as he navigates the Japanese capital’s underground queer scene, while also struggling to reconcile his… Read More
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Better known for directing feel-good crowd pleasers like The Waterboys and Swing Girls, Japanese director Shinobu Yaguchi proves he is equally adept at delivering genuine scares with the riotously entertaining… Read More
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The cluttered confines of Kowloon Walled City have recently been given a new lease of life. The once notorious Hong Kong neighbourhood of dilapidated and densely populated residential buildings was… Read More
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For more than a century, movies have been adapted from novels, plays, television shows and real-life historical events. But recently, cinematic spectacles have derived from board games, toys, emojis –… Read More
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Winner of the Fipresci prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight programme in 2024, Desert of Namibia serves up a potent cocktail of adolescent malaise and assertive femininity, and… Read More
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This week sees the cinema release of Ballerina, the first in a series of planned spin-off movies from the incredibly successful John Wick action franchise. Focusing on a new character,… Read More
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With three of Japan’s most accomplished actresses under 30 – Suzu Hirose, Hana Sugisaki and Kaya Kiyohara – performing under the assured stewardship of director Nobuhiro Doi, and with a… Read More
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Anime compilation films are far from a new phenomenon. Since the 1970s, feature-length re-edits of animated television series have been a mainstay in Japanese cinemas. Offering diehard fans the opportunity… Read More
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Kurosawa delivers a shamelessly commercial adventure story that proved a direct influence on George Lucas’ Star Wars. Always a good time introducing Steve to Asian classics. Read More
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It is no exaggeration to say that Sakura Ando is one of the most important actresses of contemporary Japanese cinema. A winner of numerous accolades, including five Japan Academy Film… Read More
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After breathing new life into some of Japanese cinema’s most beloved monsters in Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, animator-turned-director Shinji Higuchi now turns his attention to the classic 1970s disaster… Read More
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Takuya Kimura chases 3 Michelin stars while butchering the French language in this Paris-set big-screen spin-off to the hit Japanese TV show. Read More
The James Marsh film review archive 