Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world. Throughout its more than a hundred years of history, Japanese filmmakers have created stories that changed the course of cinema itself. Kurosawa Akira, Ozu Yasujiro, Mizoguchi Kenji, Sakane Tazuko, Honda Ishiro, Miyazaki Hayao, Satoshi Kon, Takashi Miike, Nishikawa Miwa, Koreeda Hirokazu are…
2023 Japanese films
Perfect Days Review: Embracing Ephemerality and the Art of Noticing
To celebrate the release of MUBI’s beautiful Collector’s Edition of Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, I’d like to pose a few questions. What would you consider to be a “perfect life”? Travelling all over the world? Having a beautiful house somewhere? Having a prestigious job? Nowadays, we are bombarded with information all the time. Most people…
Godzilla Minus One Review: The Outstanding Kaiju That Conquered Hollywood
On a relatively tiny budget of $15 million, it won the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects this year. It won eight awards (including Best Film) at the 47th Japan Academy Film Prize. It’s the highest-grossing film of its franchise and the third-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2023. I guess Godzilla Minus One‘s success has been…
