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As part of the Aca Cinema Project––”an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States”––Japan Society will run “Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux” from February 15-24. A mix of American premieres and repertory showings, this series puts “bonds of the Japanese family” front and center to “both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.”

U.S. premieres include Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Yoko, starring Rinko Kikuchi, and Keiko Tsuruoka’s Tsugaru Lacquer Girl. A special spotlight is given to Ryota Nakano, whose A Long Goodbye and exquisitely titled Her Love Boils Bathwater will be making New York debuts; his 2020 feature The Asadas also plays.

Repertory screenings will be held for Kohei Oguri’s Muddy River, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, Kore-eda’s Still Walking,...

Takashi Yamazaki’s first feature, “Juvenile,” while nothing groundbreaking, was a charming directorial debut that teased the potential of the director’s talents moving forward. Sadly, the same cannot be said for his second movie, “Returner,” a visually ugly mess that fails to entertain with its action or engage with its sci-fi storytelling. Much of the production team returns, including visual effects companies Shirogumi and Robot Communications, as do some actors, notably Anne Suzuki, in a more prominent starring role. Starring alongside her is Takeshi Kaneshiro, who cinephiles may best recognize for his collaborations with acclaimed filmmaker Wong Kar-wai. While “Returner” would be a box-office hit, it was met with generally negative reception.

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In 2084, a young soldier named Milly travels back in time to try and prevent an alien race known as the “Daggra” from raging war against humanity.

While not the strongest film – even within director Jun Ichikawa's oeuvre – 2001's “Tokyo Marigold” is interesting within the context of Japan's ‘lost decades' and the changing face of the metropolis. At the turn of the millennium, the grime and gloom of 90s cinema was replaced by a cleaner, fresher look, as style replaced substance. Clearly a student of Ozu, Ichikawa's Tokyo story shows a Japan of the gloss and sheen of Haruki Murakami novels and Muji furnished apartments; of upwardly mobile young office workers in doomed, short-term love affairs.

Eriko (Rena Tanaka) is a young woman somewhat lost in adult life, working as a clerk for a car dealership, drifting through her days. Around her, colleagues and friends appear surer of themselves, going places with their lives, offering her friendly advice, job opportunities and chances at love: More exciting work comes when she bumps into an old school...

It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.

“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast,...

by John Peter Chua

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or winning film Shoplifters follows a unique family with dark secrets in this extraordinary family-crime drama

Osamu Shibata (Lily Franky) is a day laborer, his wife Nobuya (Sakura Ando) is a hotel laundry worker, and their daughter Aki is a hostess at a peep show club. They don’t make enough to survive and have to rely on grandmother Hatsue’s (Kirin Kiki) monthly pension. To make extra cash, Nobuya steals little trinkets from her clients’ laundry. On the other hand, Osamu, along with his son Shota (Kairi Jo), goes to convenient stores to shoplift for their household needs. On their way home from a successful operation, Osamu and Shota chance upon Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), a little girl left by her parents outside their house in the cold. Deciding it’s unsafe for her to stay there, Osamu takes Yuri home to their rundown house.

Hirokazu Koreeda once more proved his prowess in the family drama genre, directing a film that is genuinely Japanese in its themes, motifs, pace and characters.

Three sisters, Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live in a large house in Kamakura. When their estranged father dies, they travel to the country to attend his funeral. While there, they meet their adolescent half-sister, Suzu. A bond quickly forms and the three sisters invite her to live with them in Kamakura. She accepts immediately and gladly and the sisters begin their life together.

Koreeda focuses on the very different characters of the four sisters and the interaction between them, portraying their everyday lives, feelings and thoughts, and all the little moments that define the human nature. Sachi has the role of the mother and boss of the trio. However, her position is often contested by Yoshino, a white-collar bank worker, who...

Hirokazu Koreeda once more proved his prowess in the family drama genre, directing a film that is genuinely Japanese in its themes, motifs, pace and characters.

Three sisters, Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live in a large house in Kamakura. When their estranged father dies, they travel to the country to attend his funeral. While there, they meet their adolescent half-sister, Suzu. A bond quickly forms and the three sisters invite her to live with them in Kamakura. She accepts immediately and gladly and the sisters begin their life together.

Koreeda focuses on the very different characters of the four sisters and the interaction between them, portraying their everyday lives, feelings and thoughts, and all the little moments that define the human nature. Sachi has the role of the mother and boss of the trio. However, her position is often contested by Yoshino, a white-collar bank worker, who...

The third edition of the Japannual Film Festival takes place from 1st to 6th of October in Vienna. This year, the festival celebrates the 150th anniversary of Austrian-Japanese diplomatic relations with an excellent selection of films, showing the highlights of the bygone year. Besides the modern cinema, Japannual features two movies of the infamous director Koji Wakamatsu accompanied by the short films of video artist Yuri Muraoka.

The opening film “Blue Hour” (2019), a multi-layered comedy about a sudden family visit, is the first feature by female director Yuko Hakota and was already celebrated at the Nippon Connection Festival for its portrayal of strong female characters.

Strong female characters can also be seen in Kosai Sekine’s “Love at Least” (2018) and Momoko Fukuda’s “My Father, My Bride” (2019). Both directors will be present at the festival and so it the actress Shuri, who gives an intriguing performance of a mentally ill...

“I thought she’d return to her home.”

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda has been a guest at many international film festivals, but 2018 might go down as perhaps the most successful of his career. His 13th feature film “Shoplifters” has received not only the Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but as the year reached its end, it was found in many top-ten lists, from critics to general film fans alike. Even though the definition of the family unit with regards to outside factors such as poverty has been at the heart of Kore-eda’s body of work, “Shoplifters” has struck a chrod with many viewers.

But for its director the inspiration came while working on another film. During the production of “Like Father Like Son” (2013), he began to think about what actually makes a family. The film, which is about two families finding out their sons have been...

In times of trouble, people often lend their hopes to untrustworthy options. “Erica 38” by Yuichi Hibi, tells such a fairytail, that turns out to be nothing more than a big scam.

“Erica 38” is screening at Japan Cuts 2019

The story of betrayal starts with Satoko Watabe, a 60-year-old con artist who does not flinch from duping others to get their money. “Erica 38” retells her life starting from her violent childhood with an abusive father and portraits Satoko’s actions as a result of her psychological disorder. Since a teenager, she a disturbed relationship with men. When Satoko meets Hirasawa, a good-looking and eloquent middle-aged man, she falls for him and becomes part of his pyramid scam system with her at the top. From that point on, she has to attract solvent members and benefit from their investments without giving back the promised dividends. Her former hostess lifestyle is no longer necessary...

The narrative of the film begins with an adult and a child entering a supermarket. They are together and appear like a father and son duo. They do not say anything but exchange glances and then proceed into the store only to go their separate ways in different alleys. Then the little boy clasps his hands and plays with his fingers in the manner of a sacred ritual. Seconds later he stealthily slips a packet into his bag and later puts some more packets surreptitiously. That sets the ball rolling for Director Kore-eda Hirokazu's social drama, Shoplifters.

The story revolves around Osamu Shibata (Lily Franky) and Shota (Jyo Kairi), the father-son duo who were out shoplifting at the grocery store. On their way back home, they pick up croquettes and as they are sauntering down the streets on the cold winter night, they stumble upon Yuri (Miyu Sasaki), a four-year-old girl,...

It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.

“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” screened at Japan Cuts 2018

It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets ready...

Tatsushi Omori’s career to date has been steady, if unspectacular, with a series of gentle films over the last decade-or-so, often delivered by a solid cast, culminating in ‘Every Day a Good Day’ starring the late Kirin Kiki. His latest effort, the delightfully titled ‘When My Mom Died, I Wanted to Eat Her Ashes’ based on Satoshi Miyagawa’s manga, again puts together a nice cast in a tale of a son who cannot be without his mother, through sickness, health and even death.

“When My Mom Died, I Wanted to Eat Her Ashes” screened at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival:

Satoshi (Ken Yasuda of Studio Ghibli voice-acting fame) is at his mother’s funeral, alongside father Toshiaki (Renji Ishibashi) and brother Yuichi (Jun Murakami). Alone with her body, he talks to her as if she is still alive.

We are then taken to Satoshi’s childhood and shown...

A strangely addictive film where – apparently – nothing happens is the new work of director Tatsushi Ohmori, also sadly destined to be remembered as the last appearance of Japanese Cinema’s beloved dame, Kirin Kiki. Based on the essay “Nichinichikorekojitsu: Ocha ga Oshietekureta 15 no Shiawase” by Noriko Morishita, “Every Day a Good Day” will surprise those of the public, accustomed to Omori’s previous, more unconventional plots.

“Every Day a Good Day” is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

The film quietly follows 20 years of the life of Noriko (Haru Kuroki). Starting in 1985, we are introduced to Noriko as a 12-year-old girl returning home after attending a screening of “La Strada” with her family. Noriko is bored, predictably she didn’t enjoy the film and Omori will use Fellini’s film again, to highlight her development during the following years. Jump to 1993, she is a 20-year-old college student, still bored and indecisive about her future.

Centrepiece Highlight

World Premiere of “Dance With Me”

Director Shinobu Yaguchi, Lead Actress Ayaka Miyoshi in attendance

Opening Night

North American Premiere of Masayuki Suzuki’s mystery thriller, “Masquerade Hotel“

Special Guests:

Star of “Love’s Twisting Path” – Mikako Tabe

Director of award-winning “Born Bone Born” – Comedian Toshiyuki Teruya “Gori”

Director Tatsushi Omori – “When My Mom Died, I Wanted to Eat Her Ashes” and “Every Day a Good Day”

Star of “The Gambler’s Odyssey 2020” – Takumi Saitoh

The samurai, of the cinematic variety, are set to descend on Toronto this summer. They are joined by reluctant sake brewers, yakuza assassins, tea ceremony sages, deadly mahjong-playing robots, dashing hotel detectives, and calculating masters of “corporate kabuki”.

Now in its eighth year, the 2019 Toronto Japanese Film Festival brings Toronto audiences 28 of the finest contemporary Japanese films recognized for excellence by Japanese audiences and critics, international film festival audiences and the Japanese Film Academy.

Now entering its 13th year, Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film returns to present the best new movies made in and around Japan and the filmmakers and performers who made them, all appearing in New York for the first time, with many North American and International Premieres. Set for July 19 to 28, the 2019 edition will feature nearly 30 feature films, ranging from box-office smashes to breakout indie debuts, and includes spotlights on documentary cinema, experimental animation, short films and recent restorations and rediscoveries of classic Japanese favorites.

The full schedule will be released on June 11, when tickets go on sale to Japan Society members. Tickets will go on sale to the public on June 18.

This year, the festival’s Centerpiece Presentation on Wednesday, July 24 is the East Coast Premiere of Killing, a subversive samurai drama from influential cult director Shinya Tsukamoto that the filmmaker has described as a “scream” in response...

Now entering its 13th year, Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film returns to present the best new movies made in and around Japan and the filmmakers and performers who made them, all appearing in New York for the first time, with many North American and International Premieres. Set for July 19 to 28, the 2019 edition will feature nearly 30 feature films, ranging from box-office smashes to breakout indie debuts, and includes spotlights on documentary cinema, experimental animation, short films and recent restorations and rediscoveries of classic Japanese favorites.

The full schedule will be released on June 11, when tickets go on sale to Japan Society members. Tickets will go on sale to the public on June 18.

This year, the festival’s Centerpiece Presentation on Wednesday, July 24 is the East Coast Premiere of Killing, a subversive samurai drama from influential cult director Shinya Tsukamoto that the filmmaker has described as a “scream” in response...

Shuichi Okita graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s Cinema Course in 2011. He produced his first feature-length film, ‘Kono subarashiki Sekai’ in 2006. In 2009, the highly-praised ‘Chef of the South Polar’ became a national hit. In 2012, ‘The Woodsman and the Rain’ won the Special Jury Prize at Tiff and three awards at Dubai Iff. The following year, ‘A story of Yonosuke’ won Best Picture at the Blue Ribbon Awards. (bio courtesy of Nikodem Karolak)

On the occasion of his “Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” screening at Cine Aasia Film Festival, we speak with him about the Kumagai and the film’s approach, his movies, working with veterans, the Japanese movie industry and other topics.

Why did you choose to shoot a film about Kumagai and what kind of research did you do about him?

When I was shooting “The Woodsman and the Rain”, in which Tsutomu Yamazaki had a small role,...

It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.

“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia 2019

It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he...

by Nathaniel R

Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki in "Shoplifters"

Awards season never truly ends. Someone somewhere in the world is always handing out a prize. The latest are the Japanese Academy film prizes, where Hirokazu Kore-eda thoroughly dominated with the exquisite and also Oscar-nominated Shoplifters. It was nominated in every category it was eligible for. It won 8 awards, including both of the female acting prizes for Sakura Ando and Kirin Kiki. Sadly, Kirin Kiki's prize was posthumous as she died a few months after the movie won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

A list of winners, including (sigh) their choice for foreign film, is after the jump...

It was a good day for both Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winner “Shoplifters” as well as Kazuya Shiraishi’s crime thriller “The Blood of Wolves” who both managed to clean up at the 42nd Japan Academy Awards.

For a second year running, a Koreeda film managed to win most awards on the night, with “Shoplifters” picking up a total of eight awards.

The other big winner of the night was “The Blood of Wolves”, which, despite fierce competition in most of the categories in won in from Shoplifters” and others, managed to pick up an impressive four awards, including two for its male leading duo. The other two films to get a look-in were Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai” and Shinichiru Ueda’s “One Cut of the Dead“.

Check out all the winners below:s

Best Film: Shoplifters (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Best Animated Film: Mirai (Mamoru Hosoda)

Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda...

Cult Japanese director Sabu has completed “Jam,” an action film which features three men from completely different walks of life who find themselves heading for a showdown. One is a do-gooder, another a singer, and the third a Yakuza gangster.

The film heads the slate that sales company Free Stone is unwrapping this week at the European Film Market alongside the Berlin Film Festival. Sabu previously attended the Berlinale with 2015 competition film “Chasuke’s Journey.” Germany’s Rapid Eye Movies is handling sales outside Asia.

Kirin Kiki, the veteran Japanese actress who died in September, will appear for the last time on screen in “Erica 38.” Directed by Yuichi Hibi, the film is a crime drama about a 60-year-old woman (Miyoko Asada) who makes a living as a small-time con artist, and gets sucked into an even larger scam by an older woman (Kirin).

Free Stone is also pitching animation “Violence Voyager,...

Once again a lauded international filmmaker is taking an unfiltered look at family life. You might think that I’m talking about the current awards “darling” Roma from director Alfonso Cuaron, in theatres and streaming on Netflix (really). No, this new film may be giving it some competition in the Best Foreign Film category (it has snatched up the prize in a few festivals and year-end critics group awards). Oh, this film is set in modern times, is in color, and its setting is half the planet away. And the Roma family is, at least, upper-middle-class. These folks, well, definitely lower, much lower. This Tokyo-based clan truly struggles to survive and provide. That’s the main reason (along with misfortunate and misery) this family becomes Shoplifters.

As we meet two of them, the aforementioned crime is well in progress. “Papa” Osamu (Lilly Franky) and nine-year-old Shota (Kairi Jo) are roaming a grocery store,...

Mark Harrison Nov 27, 2018

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winning family drama is terrific and transfixing.

Fresh off a Palme d'Or win at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Shoplifters centers around the Shibatas, a family living in poverty in suburban Tokyo. Cramming seven characters into a bungalow, writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda mounts an absorbing drama about who these people are and how much they mean to one another.

In this setting, the winters are always too cold and the summers are always intolerably hot, with the common problem being that they are almost too poor to get by in any season. That said, the Shibata family seem to be doing better than other local families, and that's partly because Osamu (Lily Franky) is teaching his young son Shota (Kairi Jō) how to steal groceries and other essentials.

Osamu justifies this to himself and his family by saying that if someone hasn't bought it yet,...

Shuichi Okita – graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s Cinema Course in 2011. Produced his first feature-length film, ‘Kono subarashiki Sekai’ in 2006. In 2009, the highly-praised ‘Chef of the South Polar’ became a national hit. In 2012, ‘The Woodsman and the Rain’ won the Special Jury Prize at Tiff and three awards at Dubai Iff. The following year, ‘A story of Yonosuke’ won Best Picture at the Blue Ribbon Awards.

Two films by Shuichi Okita has been presented during the 31st Tokyo International Film Festival:

‘Mori, the artist’s habitat’ – heart-warming, original story of legendary artist Morikazu Kumagai who lived his last 30 years as a recluse, observing and drawing the creatures of his garden. Mori, 94 and his wife, Hideko, 76 have been married for 52 years. Their home is often bustling with people. The film takes place on one such summer day in 1994.

‘The Woodsman and the Rain’ – when a film crew comes to...

“Chosen families,” a group of people who deliberately choose one another to play important roles in each other’s lives–and a vital concept in queer communities–is the central idea of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters.

His Palme d’Or winner depicts the invisible (and growing) segments of industrialized societies that rely on theft to maintain lower class status. In the film, economic hardship gives way to non-family members pairing under the guise of blood ties. Each member of the chimeric Shibata family find themselves performing the role they would among their natural families. Kore-eda’s film follows what happens to this new-nuclear family when an abused local girl Yuri (Miyu Sasaki) is welcomed into the mix.

We spoke with director Kore-eda over the phone during the 56th New York Film Festival and he discusses the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 and how it created a chasm between family and society.

Steady as the beating drums of Drum Tao band whose members proved to be as fast as the lightning storm they brewed at the opening ceremony held in X-Theatre, Tokyo International Tokyo International Film Festival 2018 has to offer one of the most enlightened and enriched programs (almost 200 films beeing screened) ever conceived in its long run of 31 years history.

‘We find ourselves in the rapidly expanding era of digitalization and globalization, but at the same time we must not forget about the true values of film entertainment’ – with these words Mr. Hirai Takuya, Minister of State for “Cool Japan” Strategy and Intellectual Property, opened his speech at the Opening Ceremony.

Soon after, Mr. Ryohei Mirata – Commissioner for Cultural Affairs echoed his words by citing Ken Takakura who once said that movies are beyond borders and languages, they have the power to transform living sadness into hope and courage. ‘We have...

Don’t think, don’t overanalyze, feel what’s around you, absorb rather than learn. These are the teachings of Kirin Kiki’s tea ceremony character in Every Day a Good Day, but they might as well be her own maxims about acting.

In what would be her final screen appearance before her death last month at the age of 75, the veteran delivers a natural and typically effective performance in what is essentially a very static story about rituals and the passing of the seasons.

And to think the actor is a supporting player here, Every Day a Good Day is ...

Don’t think, don’t overanalyze, feel what’s around you, absorb rather than learn. These are the teachings of Kirin Kiki’s tea ceremony character in Every Day a Good Day, but they might as well be her own maxims about acting.

In what would be her final screen appearance before her death last month at the age of 75, the veteran delivers a natural and typically effective performance in what is essentially a very static story about rituals and the passing of the seasons.

And to think the actor is a supporting player here, Every Day a Good Day is ...

The Tiffcom market, a sales event adjacent to the Tokyo International Film Festival, always includes the latest film launches from Japan. This year the selection is especially varied and rich. Arranged by sales company, highlights include:

Kadokawa

“Chiwawa”

Scripted and directed by Ken Ninomiya, this mystery about a 20-year-old Instagram star who ends up dead in Tokyo Bay, is based on a popular comic. It features a cast that includes the internationally known Chiaki Kuriyama (“Kill Bill”) and Tadanobu Asano (“The Third Murder”).

“Hard-Core”

Festival favorite, Nobuhiro Yamashita has adapted a cult hit comic about a pair of misfits who are inseparable friends. They encounter a retro-looking robot with astonishing powers, and together embark on a bizarre hunt for long-buried treasure.

“The Antique: Secret of the Old Books”

Yukiko Mishima, director of the acclaimed 2017 drama “Dear Etranger,” has returned with a literary mystery, based on En Mikami’s best-selling novel.

"Sometimes, it's better to choose your own family." Magnolia Pictures has released the official Us trailer for the Palme d'Or winning film Shoplifters, the latest film from beloved Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. Shoplifters is about a family of small-time crooks, but the story is really about what happens when they take in a young girl they find living on the street one day. The film's cast includes Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki , Kengo Kora, Sosuke Ikematsu, Chizuru Ikewaki, Yuki Yamada, Yoko Moriguchi, and Akira Emoto. This mostly understated, beautiful Japanese drama won big at Cannes, but also won the hearts of cinephiles, earning effusive reviews from some of the toughest critics out there. If you're looking to discover some of the finest filmmaking this year, this should for sure be at the top of your list. It's a must watch film from Japan. Here's the official Us ...

“Still Walking” is an important film in the career of now Palme d’Or winning director Hirokazu Koreeda. One of his strongest films to date and something of a tribute to the works of Yasujiro Ozu, his attention to detail is most evident here, finding the pace that he would find comfort with for his now established brand of cinema.

But, as important, it was also the first collaboration between him and the late Kirin Kiki, whom he would work with on a total of six films over the next decade, helping establish her as Japan’s cinematic grandmother.

On the anniversary of his death, Junpei’s family gather for their annual memorial. The eldest son, an aspiring doctor following in his father’s footsteps, coupled with the fact that he died saving a young boy’s life, paint the image of the ideal man. Fifteen years on,...

Award-winning trailblazing Japanese actress Kirin Kiki died on Sept. 15. Kiki recently appeared in Shoplifters and had been fighting cancer since being diagnosed in 2004, but the official cause of her death has yet to be announced. She was 75.

Kiki was born Keiko Nakatani in Tokyo in 1943. She started her acting career in the ’60s under the name Yuki Chihi in a theater troupe, where she met actor Shin Kishida. They would marry and then later divorce in 1968. In 1973, she married musician Yuya Uchida and they had a daughter Yayako.

She would go on to find success in TV in shows such as Shichinin no Mago (Seven Grandchildren) as well as Terauchi Kantaro Ikka (Kantaro Terauchi Family) and Jikandesuyo (It’s Time).

On the film side, she starred in Tokyo Tawa: Okan to Boku to Tokidoki Oton (Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad) and Chronicle of My Mother. The two...

Actor Kirin Kiki died Sept. 15 after an award-winning career that spanned six decades and saw her work with many of Japan's leading directors. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and had said earlier this year it was beyond treatment, but the official cause of death has yet to be announced.

Born Keiko Nakatani in Tokyo in 1943, she began acting in the early 1960s under the name Yuki Chiho in a theater troupe, before finding success in television comedies, in particular as a grandmother in Terauchi Kantaro Ikka, despite her young age. She married actor Shin Kishida ...

Actor Kirin Kiki died Sept. 15 after an award-winning career that spanned six decades and saw her work with many of Japan's leading directors. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and had said earlier this year it was beyond treatment, but the official cause of death has yet to be announced.

Born Keiko Nakatani in Tokyo in 1943, she began acting in the early 1960s under the name Yuki Chiho in a theater troupe, before finding success in television comedies, in particular as a grandmother in Terauchi Kantaro Ikka, despite her young age. She married actor Shin Kishida ...

Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters continues to impress at the box office.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama has become the highest grossing live-action Japanese film at the Chinese box office, according to co-producer and Japanese distributor Gaga, taking $12.2M (Rmb 83.9M). The previous record was held by Gintama, which was released last year.

Pic was released in China on August 3 through Huayi Bros.

The acclaimed film, whose cast includes Kore-eda regulars Lily Franky and Kirin Kiki, follows a family of small-time crooks who take in a child they find on the streets.

Released in Japan in June, the film has cooked up a mighty $39M (JPY4.31B) from 3.52 million admissions. It currently sits sixth on the 2018 box office chart, a triumphant feat for a non-studio, non-anime independent movie.

It is set for fall releases in the U.S. via Magnolia and in the U.K. via Thunderbird. International sales are handled...

In a career that spans over half a century, Kirin Kiki is the epitome of the late-blooming rose. From wild, comedic parts early in her career, to the wry, scene-stealing elder roles that won her awards later in life, Kirin-san has blazed her own imitable trail through Japanese cinema, her way. At the Japan Cuts film festival to receive its Cut Above award, Kirin-san spoke with Lmd about her feature Mori, The Artists's Habitat, and living life -- and art -- on one’s own terms. The Lady Miz Diva: Mori, The Artist’S Habitat, shows us a couple that made their own life on their own terms; really living the way they want, in a paradise they made. How did you first read...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

It is always a joyful event whenever a new film by director Shûichi Okita is released; you can count on it, you know you will get a gift of beauty and laugh. His latest work, “Mori, the Artist’s Habitat” is no exception. Based on a day in the real life of the eccentric artist Kumagai Morikazu, the film is a loving portrait of a content man.

“Mori, The Artist’s Habitat” is screening at Japan Cuts 2018

It’s a summer day of 1974 and 94-year old artist Morikazu Kumagai (Tsutomu Yamazaki) lives with his wife Hideko (Kirin Kiki) and jolly housemaid Mie-chan (Nobuke Iketani) in an old-fashion house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, surrounded by a lush and rather overgrown garden. He is well known for his reclusive life – not having left the house for decades – and for his routine explorations of nature in the yard. Every day after breakfast, he gets...

Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters became Hirokazu Kore-eda’s biggest film at the Japanese box office as it surged past $29.2M (3.2B Jpy) yesterday after only four weeks in play.

The drama has surpassed the huge number taken by Kore-eda’s 2013 hit Like Father, Like Son, according to distributor Gaga, and the film now ranks seventh among all releases in the territory this year, moving ahead of Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and sitting just behind The Boss Baby and Avengers: Infinity War. After two weeks at number one in the weekly charts it is currently sitting second behind newcomer Solo: A Star Wars Story.

More than 2.6M people have flocked to see the socially conscious picture about an impoverished family who make ends meet by running petty scams and take in a child they find on the street. It’s a remarkable achievement for an art-house movie:...

Jidaigeki (period dramas) films that focus on the lives of women during the Edo period are definitely an exception among the vast number of entries in the field. Masato Harada’s movie is one of these exceptions, in a wonderful production based on the novel “Tokeiji Hanadayori” by Hisashi Inoue.

Kakekomi is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story takes place near the ending of the Edo period (1841), during a time when the divorce rate was two times higher than the current one. The local government, in an explosion of conservatism, has issued an austerity law, actually criminalizing a number of forms of arts and entertainment, making the lives of common people even worse. At the same time, since divorce is a concept forbidden, a number of women find solace at a women’s Buddhist temple in Kamakura named Tokei-ji, where, after two years of servitude,...

Now in its 12th year, Japan Cuts continues to grow as the largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema in North America. Bringing a wide range of the best and hardest-to-see films made in and around Japan today — from blockbusters, independent productions and anime, to documentaries, avant-garde works, short films, and new restorations — Japan Cuts is the place to experience Japan’s dynamic film culture in New York City. Like every year, this thrilling 10-day festival offers exclusive premieres, special guest filmmakers and stars, fun-filled parties, live music and more! Tickets are on-sale now!

The festival programmers Aiko Masubuchi, Kazu Watanabe and Joel Neville Andersonhave highlighted in a note that “perhaps most strikingly, the struggle for dignity and individual rights reverberates throughout the lineup—including Lgbtq advocacy (“Of Love & Law”), reparations for government abuse (“Sennan Asbestos Disaster”) or the plight of refugees (“Passage of Life”). Additionally, multiple films deal with the...

Winner of the Best Documentary of 2017 by Kinema Junpo and produced by Nagoya based Tokai TV, “Life is Fruity” is a quite interesting and very Japanese documentary (if you will allow me the term).

Life is Fruity is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

Through Kirin Kiki’s very fitting narration, we are introduced to the story of 90-years-old architect Shuichi Tsubata and his wife Hideko, who live in Aichi prefecture, in a house surrounded by an enormous garden “featuring” 70 types of vegetables and 50 types of fruits. The documentary takes a very close look at their everyday life, which revolves around caring for the garden, but also highlights the story of both their 65-year-long relationship and Tsubata’s career.

In that fashion, and through photos, videos and interviews, we learn about the time Tsubata was a star of architecture, who was tasked with heading a team that was to build the Kojori new town,...

Cannes Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters has continued its mighty start at the Japanese box office, raking in a further $7M in its second week to take its cume to an exceptional $16.3M (￥1.8B) as of June 17 inclusive.

Admissions are up to a hefty 1,465,052 for Hirokaza Kore-eda’s widely-praised drama, which is handled locally by Gaga. Last week, the film became the fastest live-action pic this year to cross the billion yen mark in Japan, beating out Hollywood titles Deadpool 2 (which is enjoying a strong run, while playing on twice the number of screens) and All The Money In The World to land number one in the charts.

The film, whose cast includes Kore-eda regulars Lily Franky and Kirin Kiki, follows a family of small-time crooks who take in a child they find on the streets. Japan, a big local market, has a strong tradition of family dramas and...

After a brief “stray” with “The Third Murder,” Hirokazu Koreeda returns to what he knows best, the family drama, with “Shoplifters,” one of his best works of the latest years, which netted him the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His brush with crime, though, seems to have affected him somewhat, as we are about to see.

Shoplifters is having its Slovakian festival premiere at Art Film Fest Kosice and later this year it will be distributed in theatres by Film Europe Media Company.

Osamu Shibata and his wife Nobuyo leave in a rundown house with their son, Shota, his sister Aki and her grandmother, Hatsue. Osamu and Nobuyo have some low paying jobs, while Aki works as a sex worker in a peep show club. The money they receive, however, is not enough, and they rely much on Hatsue’s pension, and their constant shoplifting, into which...

Hirokazu Kore-eda is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, with many of his gems screening here over the years. So would Shoplifters live up to our expectations? Abso-blinking-lutely.

The story revolves around a family of grifters, using their ingenuity and thieving skills to make ends meet. Dad is Osamu Shibata (long-time Kore-eda collaborator Lily Franky), a loveable rogue who combines working on a building site with shoplifting to provide for his family. There’s his wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), her sister Aki (Mayu Matsuoka), Granny and the couple’s son Shota (Jyo Kairi). They live piled on top of one another in Granny’s minuscule apartment, and are like a criminal version of the Bucket family in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as beds are shared and cabbage soup is slurped. Like the Buckets, there is much love and tenderness between the family members despite the cramped conditions and frugal means.

Japapese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s much anticipated “Manbiki Kazoku” (“Shoplifters”) has been awarded the top prize – the Palm d’Or – at the closing of the 71st edition of the prestigious Cannes film festival. An important night for Japanese Cinema whose most recent winner of the Palme D’Or was director Shohei Imamura for “The Eel”, back in 1997.

Mr. Koreeda is a regular of the French glamorous festival, “Shoplifters” being his fifth movie to be nominated for an award at Cannes and this year his movie was chosen within a pool of 21 other competitors. In the acceptance speech at the Closing Ceremony the director dedicated the Award to the to the whole production team and crew involved in the movie as well as to young directors.

Written, directed and edited by Kore-eda and inspired by everyday accounts of petty crimes, “Shoplifters” focuses on an alternative family of small-time crooks in Tokyo,...

With Like Father Like Son (2013), Our Little Sister (2015), and After the Storm (2016) all premiering one after the other at the Cannes film festival and The Third Murder getting a berth last autumn in Venice, it seemed as if Hirokazu Kore-eda, now well settled into this mature career groove, was making great films with every other effort. So does Shoplifters — which has the director once again competing for the Palme d’Or — adhere to this pattern? It would seem so.

After the peculiar courtroom detours of Murder, Kore-eda returns to familiar ground — and returns to form — with Shoplifters, yet another story of unusual family setups and one that, once again, ponders questions of what exactly constitutes normal or even healthy choices when raising a child.

The story focuses on one such unconventional family, this time made up of an older matriarch named Hatsue (played by Kore-eda regular Kirin Kiki); Nobuyo and...

Depicting a non-conventional Japanese family that survives by running petty scams, Hirokazu Koreeda’s modern day Oliver Twist story offers “poverty porn” of a most unconventional sort. On the one hand, the protagonists’ rough-and-ready lifestyle demonstrate that people can find comfort even in the worst economic conditions. On the other hand, the devastating conclusion exposes how the existing state system fails its neediest individuals. This marks a return to the socially-conscious mode of the Koreeda’s “Nobody Knows,” but also continues his ongoing examination of what constitutes a family, and whether it can still provide cohesion in Japan’s rapidly devolving society. At once charming and heart-wrenching, this exquisitely performed film will steal the hearts of both art-house and mainstream audiences.

On a cold winter’s day, Osamu Shibata (Lily Franky) brings pint-sized Shota (Jyo Kairi) along for their usual shoplifting rounds, coming upon a shivering young girl on their way home.

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s movie, Shoplifters, has a newly-released international trailer for those wanting a deeper glimpse of the film. As there are no subtitles available yet, below is a synopsis of the story.

Shoplifters, Kore-eda’s latest project, and one that’s highly anticipated at this year’s upcoming Cannes Film Festival, is the story of a poor family that scrapes by through stealing for a living. They take in a girl who was living on the streets and who quickly becomes like family to them. They then come to find that she’s at the center of a nationwide missing person’s case, and have to make the choice of their lives.

The film’s cast includes Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki , Kengo Kora, Sosuke Ikematsu, Chizuru Ikewaki, Yuki Yamada, Yoko Moriguchi, and Akira Emoto.

Although there is no U.S. distribution set for the film as of yet,...

Another first look at another highly anticipated Cannes film this year. A full official trailer for the new film from beloved Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda, titled Shoplifters, has debuted online. The film is premiering in-competition at the Cannes Film Festival next month, and looks like it will get some big buzz at the festival. Shoplifters is about a family of small-time crooks, but the story is really about what happens when they take in a young girl they find living on the street one day. The film's cast includes Lily Franky, Sakura Ando, Kirin Kiki , Kengo Kora, Sosuke Ikematsu, Chizuru Ikewaki, Yuki Yamada, Yoko Moriguchi, and Akira Emoto. This looks really wonderful, it has such a charming, heartwarming feel to it. The trailer has been updated with English subtitles - you can watch below. Definitely worth a quick look. Here's the international trailer (+ poster) for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifters, from YouTube...