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By Justin Aylward

Kiyoshi Kurosawa, one of Japan’s most popular film directors of recent years, has made numerous classics including “Cure” (1997), “Pulse” (2001), and “Tokyo Sonata” (2008). Although many of his best films have received international acclaim, there remain a few underseen TV-Movies waiting to be discovered by audiences around the world. One film is “The Revenge: A Visit from Fate”, a short but impactful crime drama about one man’s descent into apathetic mania. If Kurosawa is respected as a unique director, known as much for creating ominous atmospheres and casual violence in his most successful work, this forgotten yakuza classic is sure to remind audiences of the man’s exceptional flare for crafting dread and angst.

“The Revenge: A Visit from Fate” stars Sho Aikawa as Anjo, a tough but moralistic cop with a traumatic past. Anjo witnessed his parent’s murder years earlier at the hands of a local yakuza gang,...

In 2002, the hype for Japanese horror films was declining rapidly, as the sequels to series like “Ring” or “The Grudge” were commercially and critically unsuccessful. Even though directors such as Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu came to Hollywood to helm the remakes to their films or their sequels, Hollywood had already adapted J-horror tropes to its own productions. As Jerry White points out, one of the perhaps most disappointing entries in the J-horror remakes was Jim Sonzero’s version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s “Pulse” (2001). Perhaps it was this particular experience which made Kurosawa change genres with his next project “Bright Future”.

Bright Future is screening at Black Movie

In general, Kurosawa is best known for his unique horror films such as “Pulse” or “Cure”, films which years after their release now unfold their true impact. At the same time, the director has also repeatedly explored the gap between youth and adults,...

Third Window Films present the third set of a series of films from the legendary 1980s Japanese production company, all with brand new digital restorations. This collection will be released on February 17, 2025 on Blu-ray and digital.

Bumpkin Soup (1985)

Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

A wild and crazy pink film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a director who would go on to become world-renowned with films such as Tokyo Sonata and Cure.

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Bonus Features

Interview with actress Yoriko Doguchi Feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp Video Essay by Jerry White, author of “The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Master of Fear” Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp – limited to 2000 copies

Region Free / TWFBD088

Mermaid Legend (1984)

Directed by Toshiharu Ikeda

on Terracotta by clicking on the image below

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, yet...

Cloud.After four decades spent scaring moviegoers through all manner of supernatural subject matter, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has, with Cloud (2024), taken to exploring the psychological effects of a more everyday evil: capitalism. In this follow-up to his medium-length psychodrama Chime earlier this year (a film as cryptic and tantalizingly elusive as anything he’s recently endeavored), Kurosawa reconfigures a number of themes and ideas that have animated his long-running career in the horror genre, namely loneliness and the ways in which the internet can stoke malevolent forces from both within and without. Kurosawa has described Cloud as an “action film," a simultaneously apt and insufficient characterization for a movie operating on a slippery dialectical wavelength. It’s this cerebral approach to genre, rooted in the quotidian rather than otherworldly, that has led critics like Chris Fujiwara to place Kurosawa not alongside his contemporaries in the J-horror movement, but in the lineage...

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year at Busan International Film Festival, talked about the two films he has playing here, as well as the recent wave of young talent emerging in Japan, during a press event on the second day of the festival.

Mentioning that he turns 69 years old this year, Kurosawa said he decided to churn out two films in a short space of time – Cloud, starring Masaki Suda as a factory worker with a dubious online side hustle, and Serpent’s Path 2024, a French-language remake of his 1998 Japanese film of the same name. Both films are screening as Galas in Busan after Cloud premiered at Venice film festival and Serpent’s Path in San Sebastian.

“It wasn’t my intention, but when I received an invitation from a French producer to remake one of my films in France, I chose Serpent’s Path without hesitation,...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Entries for the 2025 Oscar for best international feature are underway, and Screen is profiling each one on this page.

The 97th Academy Awards is set to take place on March 3, 2025 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.

Submitted films must have been released theatrically in their respective countries between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The deadline for submissions to the Academy is October 2.

A shortlist of 15 finalists is scheduled to...

Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s thriller “Cloud,” which has its world premiere in an out-of-competition berth at Venice Film Festival, is debuting its trailer (below). International sales are being handled by Nikkatsu, and Minerva has picked up Italian distribution rights.

Kurosawa’s festival trophies include the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize for “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), the Un Certain Regard award for best director for “Journey to the Shore” (2015), and Venice’s Silver Lion for best director for “Wife of a Spy” (2020).

Hunting for a subject for an action film six years ago, Kurosawa’s attention was drawn to the online world. He says: “In the obscure corners of modern-day Japan, violent incidents sometimes occur for seemingly no reason whatsoever. When the causes are investigated, it becomes apparent that a system of sorts exists through which petty grudges and frustrations are accumulated and blown out of proportion by the internet.”

The film centers on Yoshi Ryosuke,...

The 2024Berlin Film Festival has added Brandt Andersen’s refugee drama The Strangers’ Case, featuring French superstar Omar Sy (Lupin) to its official lineup. The drama, about a tragedy that strikes a Syrian family in Aleppo, triggering a chain reaction of events that impact five different families across four countries, will screen in the Berlinale Special sidebar at this year’s festival, which runs Feb. 15-25. Jason Beghe and Yasmine Al Massri co-star in the film’s ensemble cast.

Berlin on Thursday also added two mid-length Japanese films to its Berlinale Specials lineup: Chime by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata) and August My Heaven by Riho Kudo (Orphan’s Blues). Chime follows a student at a culinary school who begins to hear voices and becomes convinced half of his brain has been replaced by a machine. August My Heaven centers on Joe, a professional stand-in actor who is hired by clients to play their friend,...

As part of the Aca Cinema Project––”an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States”––Japan Society will run “Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux” from February 15-24. A mix of American premieres and repertory showings, this series puts “bonds of the Japanese family” front and center to “both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.”

U.S. premieres include Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Yoko, starring Rinko Kikuchi, and Keiko Tsuruoka’s Tsugaru Lacquer Girl. A special spotlight is given to Ryota Nakano, whose A Long Goodbye and exquisitely titled Her Love Boils Bathwater will be making New York debuts; his 2020 feature The Asadas also plays.

Repertory screenings will be held for Kohei Oguri’s Muddy River, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, Kore-eda’s Still Walking,...

Top Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi is in post-production of “Le Chemin du Serpent,” a French-language adaptation of his own 1998 film “The Serpent’s Path.”

The story sees a mysterious woman team up with a man whose daughter was killed and who is now seeking revenge. Together they kidnap members of an organization and torture them to find out what really happened.

With Damien Bonnard and Shibasaki Ko in the leading roles, the picture is the anchor title of the Tiffcom sales slate of major Japanese studio Kadokawa.

Production is by Kadokawa and Jean-Luc Ormieres’ Cinefrance Studios. The Japanese company is handling world sales on the picture outside France and Belgium.

Kurosawa, who has been a regular visitor to Cannes with titles including “Pulse,” “Bright Future,” “Tokyo Sonata,” “Journey to the Shore” and “Before We Vanish”, is preparing to complete the new film in time for a summer 2024 release.

Kadokawa’s...

The Tokyo International Film Festival undertook a series of bold changes in 2020 to enhance its international reach, including a location change and major shakeups across staffing and programming. For the global film community, however, much of the overhaul went unfelt due to the travel restrictions of the pandemic. The Tokyo festival’s chairman, Hiroyasu Ando, emphasized at a press conference in the Japanese capital Wednesday that the event “aims to take a bigger leap” this year with its upcoming 36th edition, making good on its ambitions for a transformation.

“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.

The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...

The Japan rugby union team on Sunday thrashed tournament newcomers Chile 42-12 on the first weekend of the freshly kicked-off Rugby World Cup. But in 2015, Japan were the underdogs and yet pulled off a surprise result against rugby titans South Africa.

In the first ever match between the two nations Japan won 34-32, due to an 80th minute try.

“The Brighton Miracle,” a docu-drama capturing and re-constructing that shock match, has been picked up by Blue Sky Media. The film was produced by Syn Entertainment and the rights outside of Japan were brokered by producer’s rep Summer & Co.

The film was written and directed by Max Mannix. Mannix, himself a former professional rugby player, lived more than a decade in Japan and wrote the Kurosawa Kiyoshi-directed “Tokyo Sonata,” which debuted in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2008.

“The Brighton Miracle” follows Eddie Jones, played in re-enactments by New Zealand actor...

The world of Japanese cinema is one of the most acclaimed and beloved. This video examines many of the classics, the most essential films ever made in Japan or by Japanese filmmakers. Why is the appreciation of Japanese cinema so enduring? "Narrator Luiza Liz Bond emphasized the 'heightened aesthetic sensibility' of Japanese filmmakers, on display in 'the tender observation of Ozu's Tokyo Story, the poetic rhapsody of Kurosawa's Dreams, the harrowing feminine gaze of Videophobia." The video essay is split into different chapters covering different styles of films: Bushidō, Wabi-Sabi, Mono No Aware, Yūgen, Guro, and Hen. Many all-timer films are featured including The Sword of Doom, Seven Samurai, Hausu, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tampopo, Love Exposure, Sansho the Bailiff, Tokyo Sonata + many more. Discover films below. // Continue Reading ›...

In “Wife of a Spy”, Kiyoshi Kurosawa once again proves that his bag of tricks can be matched by only a few other directors in the business. The choreographed camera movements, jarring editing, playful use of artificial and natural lighting all exhibit Kurosawa’s unique boldness and creativity. Luckily in this case, the director’s panache was followed by a well thought-out and haunting story, which has not necessarily been the case with his most recent works. The science fiction duology “Before we Vanish” and “Foreboding” were embarrassing ventures into the metaphysical themes that verged on the ridiculous. A return to a more down-to-earth story in “Wife of a Spy” thus proved to be a welcome change.

This article is part of the Asian Cinema Education Film Criticism Course 2021

Although with “Tokyo Sonata” he has successfully fought off the reductionist stereotype, for many years Kurosawa was strongly associated with the j-horror movement.

Central to any spy story worth its salt is the tension built around whom the audience should believe. But the memorable ones make just as powerful the theme of what the characters really do believe — as in, why they do what they do, whether they’re handler, agent, target or pawn. And to make matters even more fascinating, when some of those questions are left unanswered, that’s when some spy yarns achieve something profound about the battlefield on which they’re played.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one of Japan’s established masters when it comes to a knotty premise wracked with tension and secrets, whether working in horror or contemporary drama (“Tokyo Sonata”). It seems fitting, then, that for his first period film, he’d choose a World War II–era espionage tale, where identity and motive are always in play, and horror is real. The result is “Wife of a Spy,...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a unique case of a filmmaker, even for an industry as diverse as the Japanese one, and not just for his additional roles as a film critic and a professor at Tokyo University of Arts. Starting with Pink Film and low-budget V-cinema, he went on to be nominated for an Oshima Prize at Pia Film Festival, worked with Shinji Somai, and won a scholarship to the Sundance Institute by submitting his original screen play for “Charisma”. This particular achievement allowed him to study in the US despite already being a director for almost ten years, which led him to his first major international success, with “Cure”. The film kickstarted a path that led him to the top of J-horror, with his movies, though, implementing a unique approach, that of the “slow-terror”. Some years later, he re-invented himself as he started to deal with family dramas with particular success,...

"It was like a dream." KimStim Films has released an official trailer for the US release of the Japanese indie film To the Ends of the Earth, one of the latest works by prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. This premiered at the fall festivals last year including Locarno, TIFF, and New York, and is opening in select theaters (starting at the Metrograph) this December. A Japanese woman finds her cautious and insular nature tested when she travels to Uzbekistan to shoot the latest episode of her travel variety TV show. It's described as "a brilliant mix of black comedy, travelogue, drama, and adventure-imbued showbiz satire, To the Ends of the Earth—commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan—chronicles the journey of a young woman from displacement to self-discovery." Starring Atsuko Maeda as Yoko, Shôta Sometani, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov,...

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa may be best known for cult favorites like “Pulse,” “Cure,” and “Tokyo Sonata,” but he’s been steadily pouring out films on the festival circuit and into arthouses for four decades. His latest to hit the U.S. is “To the Ends of the Earth,” a road odyssey that picked up acclaim across the Locarno, Toronto, New York, and AFI film festivals in 2019. The film begins an exclusive virtual run on Friday, December 11 via the Metrograph, and IndieWire shares the exclusive first trailer. Watch it below.

Here’s the synopsis: “Yoko (former J-pop idol Atsuko Maeda) travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan (breathtakingly captured by veteran Dp Akiko Ashizawa) to shoot an episode of her travel reality show. In front of the camera, her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted. Despite her best efforts, the filming of the television series ends unsuccessfully,...

A young reporter on assignment in Uzbekistan undertakes a minor rebellion with consequences in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s sweet, sad tale

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is the Japanese film-maker known for his horror movies in the 90s, and the excellent drama Tokyo Sonata from 2009 about a salaryman who loses his job, but still keeps leaving the house each morning in his suit because he can’t bear to confess the truth to his wife.

His newest film is a sweet, sad, mysterious film in a vein of docu-realism and it really grew on me, largely due to the transparently emotional and sensitive performance of its young lead, Atsuko Maeda, who plays Yoko, a young TV reporter filming what appears to be a light travel programme in Uzbekistan. She goes to Samarkand and Tashkent with her crew, and does everything asked of her by the director, doggedly shooting silly items – including having to take...

Above: The movie poster for Sweet Home.It was at the height of the early-'00s J-horror boom that director Kiyoshi Kurosawa built his reputation as a master of the eerie. A nuanced filmmaker whose methodical style provoked genuine chills, he stood apart from the glut of jump scare merchants with a brand of anxiety-inducing, existential horror that eschewed shock tactics in favour of deep, brooding atmospheres. As slow-burners like Cure (1997), Pulse (2001), and Loft (2005) left audiences lingering over the nature of the human condition, a turn to family drama with 2008’s Tokyo Sonata would then mark the apex of his career with an Un Certain Regard Jury Prize win at Cannes. Fast-forward to September 2020, and he’s been recognized for excellence once again, with a Silver Lion win at Venice for his latest film, Wife of a Spy.But back in 1989, the rookie director was at the reigns of a...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

’70s Horror

A horror lineup perfectly timed for Halloween, The Criterion Channel is spotlighting ’70s classics and underseen gems, including Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, early films by David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, and Brian De Palma, Bill Gunn’s Ganja & Hess, and more. It’s an epic collection of essentials and the ideal way to kick off an unprecedented Halloween that should be spent in isolation. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel

Downhill (Nat Faxon and Jim Rash)

Even though Faxon and Rash pay their respects to the original—sometimes mimicking specific scenes and capturing the claustrophobic...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has always been a director for hire. He came up in the film industry during Nikkatsu’s 17 year regression into “Roman Porno” and pinku eiga, a style of soft-core filmmaking, before they filed bankruptcy in the ‘90s. In its golden age, the Japanese movie studio promoted young assistant directors, like Seijun Suzuki and Shohei Imamura, to direct genre films on break-neck shooting schedules and stingy budgets. Working under contract, the directors possibly saw something of themselves in the chain-smoking contract killers they so often portrayed in their Yakuza films. To them, making movies was just a job. But many saw art, fetishized it, or noted patterns and symbols the directors proudly wrote off in interviews. Any creativity in style and form was merely a way of differentiating one film from the others Nikkatsu produced en masse. In the “Roman Porno” days, Kurosawa was directing softcore films for the...

Yakusho Kōji — whose inimitably eclectic filmography stretches from the food porn of “Tampopo,” to the techno-dread “Pulse,” the fluid eroticism of “Warm Water Under a Red Bridge,” the nuclear dislocation of “Tokyo Sonata,” the paycheck of “Memoirs of a Geisha,” and far beyond — has been one of the world’s most vital actors for so long that it’s become easy to take his restless talent for granted. Writer-director Nishikawa Miwa is absolutely hellbent on making that harder, so much so that her latest feature long overstays its welcome as part of a well-intentioned effort to give its leading man as many at-bats as possible and show the full extent of his range. It should go without saying that Yakusho knocks every scene out of the park without breaking a sweat, but he can only circle the bases so many times before the movie around him begins to feel like batting practice.

After leveraging his success in J-horror into a string of grounded social dramas that culminated with the 2008 masterpiece “Tokyo Sonata,” Japanese auteur Kurosawa Kiyoshi seemed to hit the ceiling of his talent or grow bored of himself. Possibly both. The years that followed told the story of a restless artist who was desperate for something — anything — that might live up to the prescient chill of “Pulse,” or the disquieting uncertainty of “Bright Future.”

Kurosawa’s search led him down an increasingly esoteric path that saw him zig-zag from a pair of lifeless ghost dramas (“Journey to the Shore” and the French-language “Daguerreotype”), to an interminable alien invasion throwback (“Before We Vanish”), a toothless “return-to-form” (the psychological thriller “Creepy”), and even the godforsaken wilds of television. By the time last year’s odd and comparatively entrancing “To the Ends of the Earth” found the director trawling for purpose in the arid sands of Uzbekistan,...

Set in 1940 in Kobe, Japan, with an epilogue during the bombing of the city in 1945, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s intriguingly titled Wife of a Spy (Spy no Tsuma) bookends the Second World War in an absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror. Its spot in Venice competition is a well-earned promotion for the director after his many accolades for films like Kairo, Tokyo Sonata and Before We Vanish.

As Kurosawa’s first historical picture, Wife of a Spy will win no awards for imaginative period creation — in fact the sets, costumes and lighting sport the distanced look of an old movie ...

Set in 1940 in Kobe, Japan, with an epilogue during the bombing of the city in 1945, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s intriguingly titled Wife of a Spy (Spy no Tsuma) bookends the Second World War in an absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror. Its spot in Venice competition is a well-earned promotion for the director after his many accolades for films like Kairo, Tokyo Sonata and Before We Vanish.

As Kurosawa’s first historical picture, Wife of a Spy will win no awards for imaginative period creation — in fact the sets, costumes and lighting sport the distanced look of an old movie ...

Kurosawa is a Cannes regular with films such as Tokyo Sonata (2008), Journey To The Shore (2015) and Before We Vanish (2017).

Paris-based distributor Art House Films has acquired French rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s war epic Wife Of A Spy, which is being sold internationally by Japan’s Nikkatsu.

Art House Films specialises in Japanese cinema and has previously released films including Kurosawa’s Foreboding (Yocho) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour and Asako I & II, which played in Cannes competition in 2018. Launched in 2018, the company has also acquired films such as Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo’s Ramen Teh and Israeli director Yaron Shani’s Chained.

Thessaloniki Cinematheque invites you to discover the exciting world of modern Asian cinema this week, through the tribute “A complicated origami: The concept of family in modern Asian cinema”, which will take place Sunday 23 to Wednesday 26 February 2020, at the favorite cinefil location, Stavros Tornes screening room.

The tribute includes four movies that revolve around the concept of family, with three of them being presented in Greece for the first time.

Norwegian Wood (2010) by Ahn Hung Tranh

The film could be described as abstract to the point of ambiguity, the same does not apply to the visual, where Mark Lee presents another excellent work, creating a dramatically beautiful setting where the lives of the protagonists unfold. From the Tokyo of the 60s with the student movements (and a subtle but very derogatory comment), to the bucolic beauty of Kyoto and the tragic symbolism of the sea, all of Lee’s frames...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa made a break from J-Horror to direct a family drama, thus resulting in a true masterpiece of the genre that won a number of awards, including the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes.

The Sasakis are a middle class family, living a more or less regular life in Tokyo. Ryuhei, the father, is a successful senior member of a company with a more than adequate income. At some point, his company terminates his employment, thus resulting in the egress of the family’s issues. Shamed by his dismissal, he keeps it a secret by hypocritically continuing his everyday routine. He actually goes to the employment agency in the morning and spends the remainder of the day roaming the streets, until the time he usually arrives home. He meets Kurosu, another individual like him, who explains that there are many men in...

In 1985, Macoto Tezka (son of the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka) met musician and TV personality Haruo Chicada who had made a soundtrack to a movie which didn’t actually exist: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers.

At the time Macoto was just 22 years old, a film-student with many short experimental films under his belt, but yet to make a feature-debut and of course had the pressure of the Tezuka name. With Chicada as producer, Tezka then adapted this “fake soundtrack” into the real movie story of “The Stardust Brothers”.

With inspiration from “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Tezuka assembled a cast of some of Japan’s most famous musicians of the time, including such greats as Kiyohiko Ozaki, Issay, Sunplaza Nakano and Hiroshi Takano, alongside many famous names in Manga such as Monkey Punch (Lupin the 3rd), Shinji Nagashima (Hanaichi Monme), Yosuke Takahashi (Mugen Shinsi...

The Japanese filmmaker started shooting in Japan in October.

Japan’s Nikkatsu has picked up international rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s next project, an ambitious as-yet-untitled war drama that he will shoot with 8K Super Hi-Vision.

Kurosawa has co-scripted the film with Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose Asako I & II played in Cannes Competition in 2018, and Tadashi Nohara, co-writer of Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour. Yu Aoi (Birds Without Names) will head the cast.

Set in Kobe, Japan in 1940, the film follows a merchant who witnesses a conspiracy whilst travelling and decides to take action to reveal it to the world. His wife...

Kurosawa’s long-awaited return to his psychological J-horror roots, since his latest films were mostly art-house or social ones (Tokyo Sonata), finally occurred, and the result is quite similar to “Pulse” (Kairo). The story is based on Yutaka Maekawa’s novel.

The action in the film starts immediately, as a tragedy occurs when a serial killer detective Takakura was questioning, escapes. The result of the incident is for Takakura to resign, and to follow an academic career in criminal psychology. The script then moves in two axes. The first one takes place in the new neighborhood Takakura and his wife, Yasuko move in. While Yasuko wants to become friends with the rest of the neighbors, they treat her with suspicion except for Nishino, who seems to be the most peculiar of all, until, at least, he is proven to be utterly creepy. The second axis occurs when...

Newcomer director Natsuki Nakagawa made an appearance at Nippon Connection in Frankfurt to present her debut film “She is Alone“. We took the opportunity and talked with the aspiring filmmaker about film studies, university and her strong female lead character.

“She is Alone” screened at Nippon Connection

You graduated from Rikkyo University and studied filmmaking, psychology and Cinematic Arts. As I understand, “She is Alone” is your thesis film. When did you decide to study film? And how much do film and psychology interact?

I wanted to learn how to make a film after I graduated from college. I thought about making a movie from a young age. However, I actually wanted to make a movie when I was looking for a job. The name of the department at my university can lead to misunderstandings because of its name. My department is further divided into psychology and cinematic arts. The...

“She is Alone” is the first feature film of Natsuko Nakagawa. The young filmmaker, who studied cinematic arts and contemporary psychology, tells the story of the suicidal girl Sumiko. Her destructive traits and revenge fantasies cause a lot of chaos within the social construct that goes by the name “high school”.

“She is Alone” is screening at Nippon Connection

After losing her mother to suicide, Sumiko tries to kill herself, too. But the attempt fails and she is under the suspicion of her father, friends, and teachers from then on. Everybody feels responsible and Sumiko is surrounded by an overbearing network of people. “She is Alone” reveals the hypocrisy of this network.

The female lead is characterized by apathy. Having come back from the edge of death, Sumiko spends her days aimlessly as she begins to blackmail her classmate Hideaki, who is dating a teacher at school. Akari Fukunaga (“Unten...

“I’ve always had lots of dreams when I sleep. The dreams have always been about the future.”

In 2002, the hype for Japanese horror films was declining rapidly, as the sequels to series like “Ring” or “The Grudge” were commercially and critically unsuccessful. Even though directors such as Hideo Nakata and Takashi Shimizu came to Hollywood to helm the remakes to their films or their sequels, Hollywood had already adapted J-horror tropes to its own productions. As Jerry White points out, one of the perhaps most disappointing entries in the J-horror remakes was Jim Sonzero’s version of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Pulse” (2001). Perhaps it was this particular experience which made Kurosawa change genres with his next project “Bright Future”.

In general, Kurosawa is best known for his unique horror films such as “Pulse” or “Cure”, films which years after their release now unfold their true impact. At the same time,...

Kurosawa’s latest film is the Uzebekistan-set To The Ends Of The Earth

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is planning a return to genre filmmaking. “I haven’t achieved the complete perfection of it,” the veteran Japanese filmmaker said of his plans to return to the type of filmmaking which first made him an international name.

He was talking at a masterclass reflecting on his career at the Doha Film Institute’s talent development event Qumra in Qatar this week.

Kurosawa began his career making softcore “pink” porn, straight to video titles and low budget yakuza thrillers before emerging as both a key...

Two years after China’s Hehe Pictures rescued it from receivership, former Asian industry powerhouse Fortissimo Films is making a full return to the international film sales business. The revived and revamped company will debut next week at Berlin’s European Film Market, and will also launch an international film marketing services subsidiary.

In its former incarnation, Fortissimo played a major role in growing Asia’s art-house film business and launched the careers of dozens of Asian auteurs. Although it operated out of Hong Kong, the company was legally registered in the Netherlands and filed for bankruptcy there in August 2016. Hehe Pictures backed the acquisition of the company from Dutch bankruptcy administrators in February 2017.

The new Fortissimo will keep its Amsterdam office, but decisions will now be made from Beijing by a team headed by former Im Global executive Clement Magar, Fortissimo’s general manager. Gabrielle Rozing, who was instrumental...

To the Ends of the Earth

Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa shows no signs of slowing, turning to Uzbekistan for his latest feature, To the Ends of the Earth. Kurosawa, who has been steadily making films since the 1970s, broke into international acclaim with 1997’s thriller Cure, and spent the 2000s being praised as one of Japan’s most heralded contemporary genre filmmakers thanks to items like Pulse (2001), Bright Future (2002) and Doppelganger (2003). After a brief hiatus following his 2008 switch to melodrama with Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa has directed two mini-series, seven features and one short since 2012.…...

The Qumra Masters will particpate in workshops and mentoring sessions.

Japanese writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Polish-uk filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski and legendary French filmmaker and artist Agnes Varda have been announced as the first three Qumra Masters for the Doha Film Institute’s fifth annual talent development event in Qatar which runs from March 15-20.

The three filmmakers will participate in mentoring and masterclasses with around 30 yet-to-announced local and international first and second- time filmmakers. A selection of films by the three will also be screened. A further three are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Kurosawa is a Cannes...

A limited-perspective snapshot of a perpetually moving target, and insistent on adhering to 2018 theatrical premieres — thus haunted both by the past and the specter of already-seen “2019” cinema that deserves notice as much as anything herein. Or: it is what it is.

Honorable Mentions

Mandy, A Star Is Born, Cold War, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Wandering Soap Opera

10. 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)

A push-pull experience par excellence: plainly beautiful for its still and natural landscapes, roughshod with the superimposition of effects; statically framed but open to variables, experimentation, “accidents” that are perhaps part of a larger plan, depending on what production story you buy; and thrilling for the breadth of its imagination while also a bit boring in the follow-through. More and more it seems our minds need opportunities to sit, wander, think for themselves amidst stimuli rendering the likes of 24 Frames all the more far-flung. Woe betide the audience saddled with...

Japan’s film industry is still highly insular, making films mostly by Japanese for Japanese audiences. But over the past two decades Japan-resident, non-natives have been making inroads.

They include Australian scriptwriter Max Mannix with the Kiyoshi Kurosawa drama “Tokyo Sonata,” Welsh director John Williams and Canadian producer Jason Gray with the futuristic anthology “Ten Years Japan”.

Simultaneously, more Japanese talent is going abroad to study and work. Examples include “Pacific Rim” star Rinko Kikuchi, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa who shot his upcoming “To the Ends of the Earth”) in Uzbekistan.

Two people emblematic of these trends, are husband and wife Eric Nyari and Ema Ryan Yamazaki. Son of Balazs Nyari, the president of New York post-production house Cineric, Nyari came to Japan at age 21 and in 2009 at age 28, produced his first film, the Atsushi Ogata comedy “Cast Me If You Can.” Since then Nyari has amassed more than 20 producing credits,...

At 22 years old, Macoto Tezuka, the son of legendary manga artist and anime director Osamu Tezuka, was still a film-student who was yet to make his feature debut when he met musician Haruo Chicada, who had made a soundtrack; a soundtrack for a movie that didn’t even exist! Inspired by the record, Tezuka set out to adapt it into his first feature length film “The Legend of the Stardust Brothers”. Thirty-four years after its release, Third Window Films are set to release the film on home video with a brand new restoration and a fresh Director’s Cut of the film, in the process introducing a majority of the western as well as Japanese audience to the film.

“The Legend of the Stardust Brothers” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival (Sdaff)

The film begins with a stark black & white sequence in a futuristic nightclub where the host...

Third Window Films is pleased to announce the World Premiere release of the new master of Macoto Tezuka’s 1985 debut film “The Legend of the Stardust Brothers”

In 1985, Macoto Tezka (son of the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka) met musician and TV personality Haruo Chicada who had made a soundtrack to a movie which didn’t actually exist: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers.

At the time Macoto was just 22 years old, a film-student with many short experimental films under his belt, but yet to make a feature-debut and of course had the pressure of the Tezuka name. With Chicada as producer, Tezka then adapted this “fake sountrack” into the real musical story of “The Stardust Brothers”.

With inspiration from “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Tezuka assembled a cast of some of Japan’s most famous musicians of the time, including such greats as Kiyohiko Ozaki,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

American Animals (Bart Layton)

The rich genre of crime film in which dumbasses get themselves in way over their heads has a proud new entry with American Animals. Though premiering as part of Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, I’d strenuously argue that it is in fact a documentary that happens to be 90% reenactment. Hell, the movie itself even states in the opening chyron that it is a true story,...

2018 is nearing the halfway mark, so it’s time to take a look back at the first six months and round up our favorite titles thus far. While the end of this year will bring personal favorites from all of our writers, think of the below 30 entries as a comprehensive rundown of what should be seen before heading into a promising back half ot the year.

Do note that this feature is based solely on U.S. theatrical releases from 2018, with many currently widely available on streaming platforms or theatrically. Check them out below, as organized alphabetically, followed by honorable mentions and films to keep on your radar for the remaining summer months.

24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)

As a swan song, there aren’t many as beautifully somber as Abbas Kiarostami’s. At first glance simplistically structured, 24 Frames reveals itself to be a complex cinematic survey of time and artifice in filmmaking.

Note: New to Streaming will be taking a two-week break and will return on May 25. Enjoy the latest picks below, and in the meantime, check out our Cannes 2018 coverage here.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood)

Social media discourse around The 15:17 to Paris has already positioned it as the first big cinematic culture war flashpoint of the year. But while liberal thinkpiecers and conservative fans alike will be...

Eureka Entertainment to release Cure (Kyua), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s mesmerising and hypnotic psychological thriller, on home video for the first time in the UK on 23 April 2018 as part of The Masters of Cinema Series in a Dual Format edition featuring a Limited Edition O-card (First 2000 copies only).

Released to critical acclaim in both the East and the West, “Cure” was a breakthrough film for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a nerve shredding thriller about the hunt for a serial killer in a bleak and decaying Tokyo.

A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their horrifying actions. Following the only link – a mysterious stranger who had brief contact with each perpetrator and their victim – detective Kenichi Takabe (Kôji Yakusho, “13 Assassins”, “Tokyo Sonata”) places his own sanity on the line as he tries to end the wave of inexplicable terror.

Yoshio Kato’s 3ft Ball & Souls won the audience award at Skip City film festival.

Japan’s Gaga Corporation is launching international sales on Yoshio Kato’s 3ft Ball & Souls at Filmart. The film made its world premiere last year at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, where it won the audience award, and its international premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

It is the sophomore feature of TV series and commercials director Kato, whose directorial debut Plastic Crime also competed at Skip City in 2014. Kato wrote, directed, produced and fully financed 3ft Ball & Souls.

The film follows a depressed...

I've got an extremely cool trailer for a wildly insane looking alien invasion action thriller called Before We Vanish. The Japanese film was directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Tokyo Sonata) and it looks like a very different and unique take on the sci-fi genre. It definitely offers a fascinating perspective on the genre and as you'll see in the trailer, things get brutal. Here's the synopsis:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa reinvents the alien movie as a unique and profoundly human tale of love and mystery. Three aliens travel to Earth on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for a mass invasion. Having taken possession of human bodies, the visitors rob the hosts of their essence – good, evil, property, family, belonging – leaving only hollow shells, which are all but unrecognizable to their loved ones. Equally hilarious, thrilling, and profound, Before We Vanish reminds audiences of the continued strength of one of Japanese cinema's most...