Film

Though he rarely acknowledges the fact in public, Dai Watanabe is the son of Ken Watanabe: arguably Japan's most internationally known actor since Toshiro Mifune. Among Japanese media, the fact is common knowledge, though in interviews with Watanabe junior, the subject is often off-limits. Dai ...

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 ...

The kids aren't quite alright. After watching his late parents go up in smoke at a crematorium, all Hikari (Keita Ninomiya) can think about is how their ashes look like the Parmesan cheese he sprinkles over his spaghetti. On meeting fellow orphans Ikuko (Sena Nakajima), ...

One does not tune into an anime directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi for subtlety. For over a decade, Imaishi has been known as one of anime's most raucous storytellers. In series like "Gurren Lagann" (2007), "Kill la Kill" (2013) and "Space Patrol Luluco" (2016), goofy super-robots, ...

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, ...

"Children of the Sea" has achieved the impossible. The new animated film from Studio 4°C adapts the manga of the same name by Daisuke Igarashi — whose idiosyncratic, wispy illustrations, with their huge numbers of flowing lines, always seemed impractical, if not downright impossible to ...

Following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that claimed 17 lives in early 2018, Japanese filmmaker Emily Taguchi and her team spent months with members of the grieving community, documenting their recovery and activism in the wake of ...

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 ...

Last month, Japan lost a cultural giant. April 11 saw the passing of Kazuhiko Kato — better known by the pen name Monkey Punch — the creator of "Lupin the Third." The manga, about a playboy thief descended from fictional French gentleman thief Arsene ...

Japanese film director Yasuo Furuhata, known for his work with the late actor Ken Takakura, died of pneumonia on May 20 in Tokyo, Toei Co. said Sunday. He was 84. After joining the film production company, Furuhata, a native of Nagano Prefecture, marked his debut ...

The Cannes Film Festival, the world's premier film event, has long been a holy grail for Japanese filmmakers. Selection for the main competition is the ultimate goal for many, though screenings in other sections convey prestige at home that other festivals, in Japan and ...