The haunting beauty of "Kwaidan"

by Cláudio Alves

This month, in the Criterion Channel, there's a spotlight on Kwaidan, the Masaki Kobayashi classic that became the first significant example of Japanese horror to reach international audiences. You can find critic Grady Hendrix exploring the 1964 anthology on the streaming service, but that's far from the only reason you should check it out. Kwaidan collects four ghost stories that, together, form cinematic poetry of ravishing beauty. No wonder Kobayashi's film has entranced The Film Experience for years. Dancin' Dan once wrote about Kwaidan for the Oscar Horrors series, Nathaniel and Juan Carlos discussed it in podcast form, and I highlighted its costuming for an idealized Oscar ballot. 

Still, it's never a wrong time to re-consider Kwaidan, to get lost anew in its visual splendor...

Click to read more ...

"A Man" leads the Japan Academy Film Nominations

by Nathaniel R

"A Man" received 13 nominations from the Japanese Academy.

Last year the Japan Academy Film prizes were had a slightly higher profile on this side of the pond due to the international success of Drive My Car (which was also popular with Oscar voters). This year, there's no Japanese breakout film unless you count popular anime titles but it's still worth sharing what the Japan Academy is loving. With 13 nominations Kei Ishiwaka's A Man (which premiered at Venice) is the film to beat and it's worth noting that it came out after the deadline for the Oscar submissions this year [updated] and also wasn't submitted by Japan in the new Oscar season. The Japanese ceremony was two days before the Oscars this year on March 10th. Here are the nominees and UPDATED TO INCLUDE THE WINNERS AFTER THE JUMP...

Click to read more ...

Best International Film Reviews: China, India, and Japan

by Cláudio Alves

For many, this year's Best International Film race will forever be remembered with an added asterisk, a reminder that the outcome would have been different had India submitted RRR instead of Last Film Show. This is not a commentary on artistic quality, merely award prognostication. The action blockbuster keeps racking up honors, while the country's official submission remains under-discussed. If neither succeeds, it will continue a sad Oscar trend. As one of the world's leading film industries, it's notable how little India has factored in these awards' history, indicating AMPAS' biases as well as India's own sometimes surprising submission choices.

While considering India's fate, let's also peruse the titles selected by Asia's other major film-producing nations… 

Click to read more ...

Venice at Home – Day 6: (A)Moral Tales

by Cláudio Alves

Good news for Martin McDonagh fans - The Banshees of Inisherin is getting great reviews, marking a potential return to form after Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri proved to be a polarizing picture, regardless of its awards success. The new film reunites the Irish director with two of his favorite thespians, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. With another hit on his resume, the latter is having a marvelous year. Maybe that will materialize in Oscar buzz, or maybe not.

In contrast, Koji Fukada and his cast need not worry about such matters. The Japanese auteur rarely registers with voters beyond the festival circuit. Nevertheless, fans should be excited about Love Life, a family drama centering on a returning patriarch who brings with him much pain and guilt. Such aching themes are a constant in Martin McDonagh's cinema, too, featuring prominently in the first collaboration between the director, Farrell, and Gleeson. So let's remember that brilliant black comedy and one of Fukada's offbeat oddities… 

Click to read more ...

Review: "Inu-Oh", a punk riot and true spectacle

by Nathaniel R

Last week we had the pleasure of an invitation to the East Coast premiere of the anime rock opera Inu-Oh, which opens in theaters today. It's distributed by GKids, a company which has long championed non-Hollywood animation for US audiences who we all know can be stubbornly myopic about animation, viewing it as a genre rather than a medium capable of all kinds of genres and visual experiences. The screening was at Japan Society here in Manhattan. I bring this up primarily because I had somehow never been there and must highly recommend the venue which has monthly screenings of both anime films and acclaimed live action Japanese films, too (recent films included everything from Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke to the kaiju film Mothra, to Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha).  Seeing specialty films, which generally play to tiny arthouse crowds, in a beautiful respectful context to a large packed crowd is always a thrill (one of the reasons film festivals, never lose their thrill).

And Inu-Oh deserves a big screen so don't wait until streaming if it hits a theater near you...

Click to read more ...