It's hard to be an optimist about the present state of Japanese cinema. One reason is the decline of the mid-budget film, previously the refuge of much quality work, with many talented directors going either fully commercial or extremely indie. Micro-budget films are not inferior per se but their subject matter tends to be limited. There are an awful lot of films now about slackers scraping by without partners or prospects. Some, with no apologies, are on my top 10 list for 2015.