Japan Cuts Unleashes Their 2013 Line Up!

While this summer's asian cinema diet for NYCers is ample enough with the New York Asian Film Festival, one cannot forget their partner-in-crime at Japan Society and the concurrent awesomeness that is Japan Cuts. Entering its seventh year, Japan Cuts... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Interview: Kenji Kohashi, Director of Route 66 Doc DON'T STOP!

If Kenji Kohashi seems like a familiar face to you that's because he probably is. As an actor, he's appeared in numerous TV dramas in Japan, and is probably best known to Western audiences as Hyuga in Ryuheu Kitamura's 2003... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Interview: Director Naoko Ogigami on RENT-A-CAT

Over the last couple of years New York audiences have had a couple chances to cozy up to the films of Naoko Ogigami, with Japan Cuts screenings of the enticingly-titled Toilet and the less-so-in-title but equally charming Kamome Diner. This... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Interview: Filmmaking Without Borders -- A Discussion with LEONIE Director Hisako Matsui

Hisako Matsui (Yukie and Oriume) brought her latest film Leonie to Japan Cuts last Friday for its U.S. premiere. Leonie is a biopic on Leonie Gimour (Emily Mortimer) an American journalist who falls in love with Japanese poet Yone Noguchi,... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Interview: Japan's Leading Man Kôji Yakusho

The 2012 edition of Japan Cuts may be drawing to a close this evening, but we still have a few more treats up our sleeve. And this may be the best yet! Cementing himself as a star in his native... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Review: LONELY SWALLOWS

I always gravitate toward documentaries that feature young people regardless of how they are made (in this case, poorly from a technical standpoint). With Gu Su-yeon's Hard Romanticker, this year's Japan Cuts highlights some of the trials and tribulations of... More »

By Dustin Chang

Japan Cuts 2012 Review: ROADSIDE FUGITIVE SR

Yu Irie (8000 Miles, 8000 Miles 2 and Ringing in Their Ears) returns to this year's Japan Cuts with Roadside Fugitive SR, the third installment of his sleeper hit debut, 8000 Miles. The lovable losers from Saitama- Ikku (Ryusuke Komakine) and... More »

By Dustin Chang

Japan Cuts 2012 Interview: Toshiaki Toyoda Talks Monsters, Manifestos & Moviemaking

Arguably one of the most fascinating filmmakers working in Japan over the last 15 years, Toshiaki Toyoda was recently in New York to present his latest film Monsters Club to the audience at Japan Society's Japan Cuts. Our correspondent, The... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Review: THE WOODSMAN AND THE RAIN

The major highlight of this year's Japan Cuts festival for Japanese film fans, as well as fans of great acting in general, is the New York appearance of Koji Yakusho, one of Japan's most acclaimed and accomplished actors, who continues... More »

By Christopher Bourne

NYAFF/Japan Cuts 2012 Review: HARD ROMANTICKER

There is an old saying about the Japan-Korea relationship my grandfather once told me that is very revealing. Apparently it's really easy for a Japanese to pick out Koreans among them because Koreans stink of garlic. For a Korean who... More »

By Dustin Chang

NYAFF/Japan Cuts 2012 Review: POTECHI (CHIPS)

NYAFF and Japan Cuts favorite Yoshihiro Nakamura (Fish Story, Golden Slumber, A Boy and His Samurai) returns with his latest film Potechi (Chips), in which he once again adapts a novel by Fish Story and Golden Slumber author Kotaro Isaka.... More »

By Christopher Bourne

NYAFF/Japan Cuts 2012 Screening: MONSTERS CLUB, A Brief But Beautiful Poetic Gem

One of the film's playing under the co-banner of the 2012 New York Asian Film Fest and Japan Society's Japan Cuts is Toshiaki Toyoda's Monsters Club, having its US premiere this Sunday, July 15 at Japan Society. Our correspondent Alexander... More »

By Ben Umstead

Japan Cuts 2012 Preview: For July, A Cool Slice of Cinematic Pie

Though the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival is winding down, cinephiles in New York, or those visiting, have plenty more to look forward to in July. And Japan Society's Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema,... More »

By Peter Gutierrez

JAPAN CUTS 2011: INTO THE WHITE NIGHT Review

TCR 01:15:47:04Into The White Night is a good film. Too bad I had to watch a non-anamorphic screener with a time code running across the top and the wordSAMPLEstamped smack dab in the center of the frame. Call me a... More »

By Joshua Chaplinsky

Japan Cuts 2011: VENGEANCE CAN WAIT Review

It's been a couple of days since I checked out the Masanori Tominaga-directed oddball comedy Vengeance Can Wait, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It features a quartet of characters, each of who with wildly varying... More »

By Charles Webb

An Interview With YAKUZA WEAPON Star And Co-director, Tak Sakaguchi

[And as promised, Diva Velez's interview with YAKUZA WEAPON star/co-writer/co-director, Tak Sakaguchi, which is being cross-published at The Diva Review.] The Lady Miz Diva: Welcome back to the New York Asian Film Festival and Japan Cuts. You're returning with the... More »

By Diva Vélez

An Interview with YAKUZA WEAPON Co-Director, Yudai Yamaguchi

[Yakuza Weapon, the latest from Versus writer and Battlefield Baseball director Yudai Yamaguchi and Sushi Typhoon madman Tak Sakaguchi screened two weekends back as a part of Japan Cuts and NYAFF and just last night at Fantasia. We now present... More »

By Diva Vélez

JAPAN CUTS 2011: HARU'S JOURNEY Review

Tadao (screen legend Tatsuya Nakadai) is very upset. He's first seen storming out of the house by the sea in a small fishing village in Hokkaido, with his granddaughter Haru (Eri Tokunaga) trailing behind with his cane. She apologizes... More »

By Dustin Chang

JAPAN CUTS 2011: SKETCHES OF KAITAN CITY Review

A young shipyard worker takes pride in his work. You can see it in his face when one of the gigantic ships he worked on is being launched to sea. There is almost a childlike glee in him. Then the... More »

By Dustin Chang

JAPAN CUTS 2011: TORSO Review

One might wonder that whether we need yet another film about a blow up sex doll, especially one coming from the long time Hirokazu Kore-Eda's cinematographer Yutaka Yamasaki. Not that Kore-Eda's approach in Air Doll was in any way sensationalistic,... More »

By Dustin Chang

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Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

Destroy All Monsters: Retire Superman

While the internet is tearing itself apart in its efforts to empirically determine whether Man of Steel "sucks" or "is awesome" - because such things are now apparently possible, given Superman Returns' near-unilateral, and intellectually disturbing, dismissal - I'd like to pause to make a gentler request: may we please... More »

Fifteen Unfilmable Novels And The Directors Who Should Try Anyway

Ah, the 'unfilmable' novel. Go back ten or fifteen years and it seems everyone had some sort of list of great novels that could never be brought to the screen. The limitations at the time were largely technical and in recent years those lists have dwindled with titles such as... More »

Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: On MAN OF STEEL, SuperJesus, and THIS IS THE END's Jewpocalypse

Back in 1933, while Hitler was ascending into power in Germany and diasporic Jews throughout the world looked on with concern, two high school students created one of the most indelible mythical heroes of the last century. Borrowing from the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, Joe Shuster and Jerry... More »

Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END

This is the big week of Superman's return, with Zack Snyder's take on the caped saviour hitting our screens. While my opinion's kind of mixed on the film, there's still plenty to admire about it. I also discuss the overt Jesus imagery throughout, as expanded in a full cineruminations column... More »

70s Rewind: Bridges, Barbra, Bogdanovich, Brynner

Amazon's Prime Instant streaming service is not as well-established as Netflix and has far more modest offerings in off-beat and strange cinema. Still, since I temporarily dropped Netflix, I've been diving deeper into Amazon's catalog, and discovered a good number of films from my favorite movie decade. Here's a selection... More »