Category: Features

June 28, 2023 · 0 comments

The late Kinji Fukasaku is most fondly remembered for his hold-no-bars yakuza flicks, characterised by their hard-as-nails anti-heroes and brutal action. However, in the late 1970s, the director began to expand his cinematic palette, first by dipping into the jidaigeki genre with Shogun’s Samurai (1978). Also known as The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy, the film starred semi-frequent Fukasaku collaborator Shinichi […]

June 26, 2023 · 0 comments

By Shelley Pallis. Suzushiro might seem a little bit old to be doing a paper round, but he’s a college student on a “newspaper scholarship” who needs the money. Well, everybody needs the money – Japan is on the skids after an “unprecedented disaster”, that might be covid-19, or might be whatever the next jackpot […]

June 22, 2023 · 0 comments

By Tom Wilmot. What is nationality? That is the question at the heart of Go (2001), Isao Yukisada’s award-winning film adapted from Kazuki Kaneshiro’s 2000 novel of the same name. The movie explores the endlessly complex subject of nationality and ethnic belonging, via a coming-of-age story sprinkled with romance. A critical and box office success […]

June 16, 2023 · 1 comment

By Jonathan Clements. “I have loved novels, films and animation since I was a child,” says scriptwriter Reiko Yoshida, “and I was hugely interested in the world of stories. But it was not until I graduated from university when I thought I would make a career out of it.” However, she wasted no time after […]

June 13, 2023 · 0 comments

By Andew Osmond. Anime’s first ever star was an A.I. character, Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. While the series stressed the boy bot’s Kryptonian-level powers – 100,000 horsepower, in Tezuka’s phrase – the anime also made clear his mind, his personality, compassion and principles are entirely artificial. Like most A.I. characters in anime, Astro Boy is […]