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Shion Sono – Anchiporuno AKA Antiporno (2016)
Kyoko is a twenty-one-year-old artist who loves being at the center of attention. One day, feeling down, she lashes out against her assistant, sexually humiliating her in front of the rest of the...
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Tetsuji Takechi – Kuroi yuki AKA Black Snow (1965)
Synopsis: Review from Midnight Eye: Credits roll over a static shot of a prostitute, lying prone on her back with all the aloofness of Manet’s Olympia and nothing but the prostrate figure of a hulking...
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Seijun Suzuki – Tokyo naito AKA Tokyo Knights (1961)
東京騎士隊 After the sudden death of his father, high school kid Koji is elevated to company president of the Matsudara Syndicate. The old guard thinks they got themselves an easy stooge, but Koji has some...
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Naomi Kawase – Hikari AKA Radiance (2017)
Quote: A passionate writer of film versions for the visually impaired meets an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight Quote: In 1997, Naomi Kawase became the youngest winner of the...
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Seijun Suzuki – Kemono no nemuri AKA The Sleeping Beast Within (1960)
けものの眠り A man never returns from an office party, sending his wife and daughter in to a frenzied search for clues. They acquire the help of a journalist friend, who goes on a chase down the seedy...
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Shuji Terayama & Shuntaro Tanikawa – Video Letters 1982-1983 (1982)
Shuji Terayama (December 10, 1935—May 4, 1983) was an avant-garde Japanese dramatist, writer, director, and photographer, noted for such films as Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Fruits of Passion. In 1967,...
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Tomu Uchida – Chiyari Fuji AKA A Bloody Spear on Mount Fuji (1955)
A young samurai, Shojuro Sako, travels on the Tokaido to Edo with his two servants, Genta and Gonpachi. Gonpachi has been told by Shojuro’s mother to prevent his Master from drinking.. The road is not...
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Yûya Ishii – Yozora wa itsudemo saikô mitsudo no aoiro da AKA The Tokyo Night...
A love story between a building-site labourer, whose best friend suddenly drops dead, and an overstressed, underpaid nurse....
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Takahisa Zeze – Karura no yume aka Dream of Garuda (1994)
A convicted rapist, Ikuo is released from prison and goes in pursuit of the woman he raped, Mieko. So obsessed is he with revenge he see’s her in every woman he meets. After carrying out vicious...
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Shion Sono – Shinjuku suwan AKA Shinjuku Swan (2015)
Quote: Shiratori Tatsuhiko (Go Ayano) is a no-good bum and a loser. Wandering the streets one day, he meets Matora (Yusuke Iseya), a blond-haired devil who introduces him to a talent agency called...
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Shinji Aoyama – Helpless (1996)
Yasuo is a gangster just released from jail. Believing his boss double-crossed him, enraged Yasuo is on his way to find the boss. But before setting out for the dangerous trip, Yasuo asks Kenji to...
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Kôji Wakamatsu – Endless Waltz (1995)
Quote: Koji Wakamatsu, who in the past has directed such pungently titled exploitation flicks as Go Go Be a Virgin a Second Time and Violated Women in White, spins this biopic about jazz saxophonist...
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Sogo Ishii – Mizu no naka no hachigatsu AKA August in the Water (1995)
Quote: Taking in the whole spectrum of pre-millennial new age phenomena, the bizarre August in the Water (whose English language release title is a direct translation of the Japanese, though is not to...
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Akira Kurosawa – Shichinin no samurai AKA Seven Samurai [+commentary] (1954)
Quote: In 16th century Japan, protracted feudal wars have created a prevailing sense of lawlessness. Bandits have organized into formidable armies that scavenge the countryside in search of villages...
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Joji Koyama & Tujiko Noriko – Kuro (2017)
Romi, a Japanese woman living in Paris, works in a karaoke bar. At home in the suburbs, she tends to her paraplegic lover Milou. To pass the time she recounts to him a story alluding to a period they...
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Kon Ichikawa – Nobi AKA Fires on the Plain (1959)
Quote: Fires on the Plain opens to a harsh and unexpectedly cruel act, as Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi) is struck in the face by his commanding officer for returning to his under-provisioned and demoralized...
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Hea-hoon Yang – My Dear Rosetta (2007)
Quote: In 1998, the Festival de Cannes created the Cinéfondation to inspire and support the next generation of international filmmakers. Since then, with the help of the Festival, the Cinéfondation...
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Yôji Yamada – Kiri no hata AKA Flag in the Mist (1965)
Synopsis: When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko (Chieko Baisho) travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get...
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Momoko Andô – 0.5 miri AKA 0.5 mm (2014)
From japansociety.org Sawa, a home helper for a middle class family with an elderly infirm grandfather, is forced to stretch her morals to keep her job. As a result, she finds herself broke and out on...
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Hirokazu Koreeda – Kiseki aka I Wish (2011)
Synopsis / Plot Two brothers are separated after their parent’s divorce. Older brother Koichi lives with his mother and grandparents in Kagoshima. Younger brother Ryonosuke lives with his father in...
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