‘Ride or Die’: A wild road trip worth taking
Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato deliver committed performances in Netflix’s new emotional and sexually explicit drama about two women on the run after killing a man.
‘Blue’: Not your typical underdog story
Kenichi Matsuyama plays a fighter on a losing streak in Keisuke Yoshida’s “Blue,” a boxing drama that finds nobility in failure.
‘Zokki’: Five stories, three directors, one goofy time
Actors Naoto Takenaka, Takayuki Yamada and Takumi Saitoh joined forces to direct a clever offbeat comedy containing interconnected stories based on Hiroyuki Ohashi’s manga.
‘Homunculus’: You need to see this like you need a hole in the head
Takashi Shimizu’s adaptation of a manga series about a man who gains psychic powers after having a hole drilled in his head manages to be tasteless and timid at once.
‘Signal The Movie Cold Case Investigation Unit’: Obvious but with plenty of panache
This cop thriller based on a 2018 Fuji TV series may be gimmicky, but it delivers in the action department.
‘Junk Head’: One man’s imaginatively twisted labor of love
Takahide Hori’s stop-motion animation feature, which took seven years to complete, has finally arrived in Japanese theaters after receiving a warm reception overseas.
‘Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction’: The politics of publishing can deliver a real bite
Warring editors of middling magazines go to battle over writers and readership in Daihachi Yoshida’s intriguing drama about the publishing world.
‘The Blue Danube’: Finding levity in the drudgery of war
Akira Ikeda’s absurdist drama about two towns locked in an interminable war finds humor in tragedy and boredom.
‘Kontora’: A poetic meditation on the human cost of war
Director Anshul Chauhan’s second feature is a haunting drama that transcends its Japan-specific World War II subject matter.
‘Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time’: Anime epic gets a fitting finale
Hideaki Anno’s fourth and final film in his retelling of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is a visual spectacle as well as a moving story about overcoming personal demons.
‘The Sun Stands Still’: Race against time fails to pick up the pace
Eiichiro Hasumi’s big-budget thriller about globe-trotting spies is not quite Japan’s answer to the “Mission: Impossible” movies.
‘You're Not Normal, Either!’: Oddball duo makes for hearty laughs
Koji Maeda’s entertaining comedy has everything a true screwball film requires: sparring opposites, quick-witted banter and love gone awry.
