Cinemas have cautiously started to reopen in parts of Japan, but many of us are still having to sit tight and do all our movie-viewing at home. If, by now, you’re feeling like you’ve reached the bottom of the streaming barrel, fret not: There are still choice morsels of domestic and overseas offerings to be found on all the major services, tucked away in corners where the algorithms fail to reach.
Even before many theaters closed for the state of emergency, many films that had found critical acclaim overseas struggled to secure distribution here. It’s too bad that audiences in Japan were able to watch Spike Lee’s (admittedly great) “BlacKkKlansman” but not Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” a caustic satire on race and power that offered a more malevolent counterpoint. Fortunately, the latter is now available on Amazon Prime Video, though you’ll have to search for it by its Japanese title, “White Voice.”
Confused? That's typical of Amazon Prime's service here, where many films are almost impossible to find if you don't know their Japanese titles. Dig deep enough and you’ll find VHS-quality editions of classics such as “Citizen Kane” (“Shimin Ken”) and “An American in Paris” (“Pari no Amerikajin”), as well as world cinema staples including Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” (“Kamen/Perusona”), Tran Anh Hung’s “The Scent of Green Papaya” (“Aoi Papaiya no Kaori”) and Patrice Leconte’s “Monsieur Hire” (“Shitateya no Koi”), all with Japanese subtitles only.