Big pop-culture franchises generate movie sequels as naturally as chickens lay eggs. Directed by first-timers Kazuhiko Hiramaki and Takuya Kawasaki, "Tokyo Ghoul 'S'" is a follow-up to "Tokyo Ghoul," a 2017 sci-fi horror film based on Sui Ishida's hit manga about a college boy who ...

Launched in 2004 to promote digital cinema, the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 13-21) in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, has become a showcase for emerging filmmakers. Among the Skip City alumni who have gone on to thriving careers are Cannes Palme d'Or winner Nuri ...

Taking a pleasure trip abroad used to be a big, once-in-a-lifetime event for the average Japanese. The No. 1 dream destination was Hawaii, since it was seen as glamorous and exotic, yet safe and familiar. A view of Diamond Head out the hotel window ...

The aesthetic of photographer and director Mika Ninagawa is gaudy to the nth degree. She crowds blood-red roses into her frame like crammed commuters in a rush-hour train. When she makes it rain, her actors may as well be standing under Niagara Falls. This may ...

When Japanese directors of a certain age and status film abroad, they usually head for developed countries, not developing ones. Although, to be fair, their choice of foreign locales often comes down to box-office calculations. Japanese audiences enjoy seeing famous European sites on the ...

Japanese movies and TV dramas often feature scenes of mothers making elaborate bento lunches from scratch for their offspring. Seeing these women washing rice in icy water with bare hands before the crack of dawn I reflect back to my own school lunches of ...

To talk about the differences between men and women now is to step into a minefield. One rhetorical foot wrong and off goes the tripwire. But Shunsuke Arita's new comedy "Handling Method for Grumpy Woman" strides blithely into this minefield, awkward English title and all. ...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Atsuko Maeda make an odd couple: The former is best known abroad as a master of horror, starting with his 1997 international breakthrough "Cure," while the latter was a star of idol-pop group AKB48, but has since gone on to a ...

Con artists in movies are typically likeable rogues who prey on the deserving. The title character of Yuichi Hibi's "Erica 38," who is neither "Erica" nor "38," is closer to the unlikable reality: A woman who dupes others with no discernible guilt or remorse, ...

Japanese films about dementia are by now many and, given demographic trends here, interest in the subject is both natural and necessary. But as seen in "A Long Goodbye," Ryota Nakano's drama about a family dealing with the dementia of its once-proud patriarch, dementia has ...