Manga artists have one great advantage over live-action film directors: They can fantasize and satirize and otherwise have fun with their characters without worrying how flesh-and-blood actors will interpret them. As American comic artist R. Crumb once told his readers, “It’s only lines on ...

The “Always” films, unabashedly sentimental, meticulously realized reminiscences on the Tokyo of the Showa 30s (1955-1965), are intended for the domestic audience only. But the first two received high audience poll numbers when they screened at the Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy, ...

Japanese commercial films nearly always run on the well-worn rails of franchise and formula. Originality in script and concept is gifted to only a chosen few with strong box-office track records — Hayao Miyazaki, Koki Mitani and Shinobu Yaguchi among them. Though not as ...

Violence, director Kinji Fukasaku once told me, is “a pillar of filmmaking.” But on-screen mayhem regarded as extreme in Fukasaku’s 1970s heyday (see his “Jingi Naki Tatakai [Battles Without Honor & Humanity]” series for examples) looks mild in ours. The new meaning of extreme ...

Some years, the top four or five Japanese films quickly leap off my short list to my annual Best Ten. But this was not a great year for the local film industry, in terms of either box office or major awards winners. No masterpieces, ...

This year produced more than its share of memorable quotes, many of which were inspired by the March 11 disaster and its aftermath. But figures from other fields, from sports to entertainment, also said things worth repeating. Here is a sampling, in chronological order: ...

Watching movies is like dreaming with your eyes open. Hardly an original thought, I know. In fact, it’s been a staple of film commentary for nearly a century. But in Japan, Hollywood and elsewhere, filmmakers have long been using CGI, 3-D and other tech ...

After several years of boom, Japanese films finally had a bust in 2011. Although official overall figures have not been released, domestic box-office leader Toho has announced that total revenues from its titles will be down about 20 percent this year compared with 2010. ...

A director who makes a film that loudly complains about the sad state of current cinema is setting himself up as a critics’ punching bag (“You, sir, are part of the problem …”). Also, if he inserts his list of 100 all-time best films ...

A founding member of Iranian cinema’s 1970s New Wave, Amir Naderi made his directorial debut with his 1971 film “Goodbye Friend.” Since the 1980s he has been screening his film at festivals around the world, including Venice, Cannes and Sundance. His latest film, the ...

Filming “Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji),” Murasaki Shikibu’s epic 1,000-year-old tale of love and intrigue among Heian Period (794-1185) nobles, would seem to be an impossible task, like putting the Bible on the screen. (The 1966 John Huston film of that title covers ...