A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Reviews of Japanese-language films I find significant or interesting.
Japanese Films, North American Films
Hikari, “Rental Family” (2025) Beginning in the 1990s, rental family services offering actors to stand in for family members, spouses, friends, co-workers or companions at weddings,…
Lee Sang-il, “Kokuho” (2025) An ambitious and sumptuous work, paying homage to Japan’s kabuki theatre, its craft and performers, “Kokuho” centres around the conflicts and contradictions…
Hayao Miyazaki, “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” / “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” (2008) As always with Studio Ghibli films, and especially those SG…
Hiromasa Yonebayashi, “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” (2017) A visually very attractive family movie, clearly influenced by the Studio Ghibli animation style – indeed, director Hiromasa…
Hayao Miyazaki, “My Neighbour Totoro” (1988) The film that brought Studio Ghibli to an international audience, “My Neighbour Totoro” may be charming and sweet, suitable for…
Hayao Miyazaki, “The Boy and the Heron” (2023) A decade after “The Wind Rises”, the film that originally had been intended as his swansong, Hayao Miyazaki…
Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Broker” (2022) A young woman brings her baby to a church’s baby box and leaves her child in front of it. She is unaware…
Japanese Films, North American Films
Jorge Lucas, Sumire Takamatsu, “Bakemono” (2019) Even in modern times, the demons and spirits of yore can still find a way to inveigle themselves into people’s…
Chinese and Chinese-language Films, Japanese Films
“What Eating the Rich did for Japan” (Asianometry, October 2021) In this mini-documentary on the Asianometry Youtube channel, the history of the zaibatsu – the huge…
Lewis Gilbert, “You Only Live Twice” (1967) By the time this, the fifth film in the James Bond spy movie franchise, came along for the blockbuster…