A young man (Kodai Kurosaki) has a tense reunion with his estranged father in “Brand New Landscape.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
‘Brand New Landscape’ captures family dysfunction in a shimmering city
In director Yuiga Danzuka’s first feature, Tokyo gleams with promise — but loneliness lingers in every corner.
Suzu Hirose (left), Satoshi Tsumabuki (center) and Masataka Kubota (right) play childhood friends caught up in the simmering tensions of postwar Okinawa in Keisuke Otomo’s “Hero’s Island.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
‘Hero’s Island’: Okinawa-set epic is lavishly realized but lacks bite
Keisuke Otomo recreates postwar turmoil in rich detail that is sometimes more vivid than the characters themselves.
An anthropomorphic frog (voiced by Non) and a banker turned parking lot attendant (Koichi Sato) team up on a mission in "After the Quake."
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
The familiar is made surreal in ‘After the Quake’
Tsuyoshi Inoue’s feature reworks NHK’s four-part Haruki Murakami drama adaptation, evoking the dreamlike atmosphere of the author’s works.
Filmmakers Chloe Zhao and Lee Sang-il will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award, given to filmmakers who have “left their marks in cinema and will be entrusted with the film industry's future,” at this year's edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2025
Tokyo film festival to open with Everest and close with some Shakespeare
Japan’s main movie event kicks off Oct. 27 with the true story of the first woman to summit Mount Everest. It closes Nov. 5 with Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet."
The process of making “Baan” was personal and enlightening for Maneetapho, who spent years talking about anime on his YouTube channel and podcast before making the jump to becoming an anime creator himself.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2025
YouTuber Gigguk shifts from talking anime to making anime
Garnt Maneetapho, who runs the YouTube channel Gigguk, makes the jump from critic to creator with his short film “Baan — The Boundary of Adulthood.”
Yoshihiko Matsui’s “There Was Such a Thing Before” follows two high-school friends (Oshiro Maeda, left, and Airu Kubozuka) growing up in the aftermath of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdown.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2025
‘There Was Such a Thing Before’: Fukushima grief and fury in monochrome
Eighteen years since his last feature, Yoshihiko Matsui is back with a somber Fukushima tale that demands attention, even as its drama feels stilted.
A college professor (Hidetoshi Nishijima) becomes desperate to find his kidnapped son in Tetsuya Mariko’s “Dear Stranger.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2025
‘Dear Stranger’ confronts marriage in turmoil, but lacks subtlety
Despite its emotional stakes, Tetsuya Mariko’s kidnapping drama stumbles on stilted dialogue and too many coincidences.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?