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Despite the efforts of festivals around the world, releasing and distribution companies, and streaming channels, which have gotten rather more intense during the last few years, the majority of titles produced in Japan, S. Korea and Hong Kong, which number hundreds every year remain unknown, particularly to the Western audience. As such, we decided to focus on this type of films exactly for our April-May tribute. And to be totally sincere, not all will be great just definitely worth watching. Here is the first batch

1. Three Resurrected Drunkards (1969) by Nagisa Oshima (Japan)

“Three Resurrected Drunkards” is an excellent sample of the cinematic tendencies of both Oshima and a whole group that tried to renovate cinema during the end of the 60s and the 70s, by combining new cinematic approaches with pointed sociopolitical commentary. The result definitely demands some knowledge of the climate of the era and the overall mentality of the Japanese towards foreigners,...

Based on the homonymous novel by Hitomi Kanehara, which she wrote when she was 19 years old (just like the protagonist of the book), “Snakes and Earrings” won the Akutagawa Prize, sold more than a million copies in Japan, and has been translated into sixteen languages, before being adapted to a movie by Yukio Ninagawa.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Lui is the epitome of the trendy girl. She dresses only in designer clothes, never goes anywhere without makeup, and has a sophisticated manicure. However, as a character, she stands out from the other girls in her circle, for a number of reasons. One night, while alone in a club, she meets Ama, who is the embodiment of the Japanese punk – red mohawk, piercings all over his face, and tattoos covering his body. What attracts Lui to him, however, is his split tongue. The attraction is mutual,...

Having studied under Yukio Ninagawa, and after producing a series of award-winning shorts, Mikiya Sanada came up with his first feature, a comedy that revolves around the concept of illegal parking, in 2019. The title of the movie, “Dream of Euglena” refers to the parking officers, who, due to the green color of their suit, are frequently referred to as the titular microorganisms.

Dream of Euglena is streaming on TodoiF

A pair of parking guards, Makoto and Shige, are dispatched from a private company and are employed by the country as public servants. The two of them, however, could not have been more different, with Makoto being as strict and relentless as possible in his issuing of tickets, while Shige always tries to help the recipients, particularly when they are beautiful girls. Expectedly, their differences lead to a clash that takes place after they pick the night shift in order to get a bit more money.

One of the many tall, slender, handsome guys who populate (and in some cases over-populate) Japanese TV dramas and films, Hiroki Hasegawa is also not the usual model-turned-actor. After graduating from Tokyo’s Chuo University, he joined the famed Bungei-za theater company, an incubator of acting talent for generations, and appeared in productions by renowned stage director Yukio Ninagawa.

After turning 30, he began to act on TV, and several years later, in films. Now 42, he has worked with such internationally known auteurs as Sion Sono (“Why Don’t You Play In Hell?”) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Before We Vanish”), while winning a 2017 Japan Academy best actor prize for his work in the smash “Shin Godzilla.”

Hasesgawa stars in two films at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival: Junji Sakamoto’s dark drama “Another World,” which screens in competition, and Daishi Matsunaga’s “Hekishu,” the Myanmar-set segment of the three-part omnibus “Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2018: Journey.

With the population of Japan aging more and more, films that deal with the lives of the elderly have become somewhat of a trend, with films like “Sweet Bean“, “Pecoross’s Mother and Her Days”, and many more. “A Sparkle of Life” implements a rather humorous approach to the subject. The film was a huge hit in Japan, and even received praise from late theatre director Yukio Ninagawa who described it as “a movie that makes getting old Ok”.),

Tae Tsurumoto is a 77-year-old widow, who decides that she can still have a chance at love, and signs up with a matchmaking service. Ayako Tachibana, the attendant responsible for her case, is initially surprised a woman her age has decided to seek a matchmaking, but soon realizes that there are many other people Tae’s age in the company’s list. Subsequently, Tae meets a number of suitors, from every aspect of society,...

Exclusive: ICM Partners has signed Alan Rickman. Based on the harsh reviews I’ve seen on the latest Die Hard, they should have found a way to let his character live in that first installment after Rickman delivered one of the best villain turns in an action movie. He’s been working up a storm anyway, on screen and stage. On stage, Rickman’s played Mark Antony opposite Helen Mirren’s Cleopatra in the Royal National Theatre’s production of Antony And Cleopatra, and he starred in Yukio Ninagawa’s Tango At The End Of Winter on London’s West End. His stage breakout came in Les Liasons Dangereuses and he most recently was onstage in the Theresa Rebeck play Seminar. Onscreen, Rickman next plays Ronald Reagan in the Lee Daniels-directed The Butler, along with the Patrice Leconte-directed A Promise, Randall Miller’s Cbgb, and the Michael Hoffman...

Whenever the word hebi (snake) pops up in Japanese film titles chances are you can expect something situated in the margins of society. Notorious examples are Shinya Tsukamoto's Rokugatsu No Hebi and Takashi Ishii's Hana To Hebi (beware!). Compared to these two films Hebi Ni Piasu is actually quite tame, though unsuspecting film fans may still be surprised by what they find behind the warm exteriors of this unusual drama.Yukio Ninagawa never backed away from adding some controversial themes to his films. His comeback title Ao No Hono-o treaded around some delicate issues, Hebi Ni Piasu takes a very similar road. The difference is that the setting of Hebi Ni Piasu may alienate people enough to ease the blow a little. By society's standards the...

Back in November we posted the first trailer for one of two films we'll be seeing from Koji Wakamatsu this year. At the time, we thought the title would be Kaien Hotel Blue; turns out the title will be Petrel Hotel Blue and it'll be seeing its world premiere at New York's Japan Society as part of Love Will Tear Us Apart, "a series of twisted, obsessive, heart-blazing love stories from Japan and Korea."

The series opens on March 2 with the Us premiere of Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko, winner of the Orizzonti Jury Award in Venice last fall. Just yesterday, Todd Brown posted the first trailer at Twitch.

The schedule for the films that follow:

March 3. Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll (2009), Lee Yoon-ki's My Dear Enemy (2008), Tsukamoto's Vital (2004) and A Snake of June (2003).

March 4. Hiroki Ryuichi's Vibrator (2003) and M (2006).

March 7. Wakamatsu's Petrel Hotel Blue and Running in Madness, Dying in Love...

Love kills, at least that’s what New York’s Japan Society tells us - with the announcement of their latest, upcoming film season; Love Will Tear Us Apart, and it set to be a doozie. The press release lists just some of the sights to see. Bad romance, blind love, amour fou! This spring, we screen a series of twisted, obsessive, heart-blazing love stories from Japan and Korea, because, after all, it takes two to tango and at least two to tumble. The 20+ film lineup, mostly from the past decade, includes the U.S. premiere of Shinya Tsukamoto's latest film, Kotoko, and the world premiere of Koji Wakamatsu’s Petrel Hotel Blue, as well as Hirokazu Kore'eda's Air Doll, Nagisa Oshima's arch-classic In the Realm of the Senses, Yukio Ninagawa's Snakes and Earrings, Lee Sang-il's Villain, Lee Chang-dong's Oasis, and Kim Ki-duk's Bad Guy, among other twisted tales.

Programme includes theatre productions starring Juliette Binoche and Cate Blanchett, and major Bauhaus exhibition

The Barbican arts centre in London will celebrate next year's Olympics with an "unparalleled" lineup of international stars, including the actors Juliette Binoche and Cate Blanchett; stage directors Yukio Ninagawa and Peter Sellars; and the first UK performance of Einstein on the Beach, the opera that four decades ago made the reputations of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson.

The centre will host the biggest exhibition in the UK for 40 years on the Bauhaus design school, which flourished in the 1920s and early 30s.

"In 2012, London welcomes the world for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Barbican will be at the forefront of that international moment with an extraordinary range of cultural experiences for all," said Barbican director Sir Nicholas Kenyon.

He predicted that London will "punch above its weight" in the arts festival, and promised...

[Our thanks to Charles Webb for the following review.]

The nearly silent opening of director Yukio Ninagawa’s Snakes and Earrings is unfair to the viewer of this film. The sequence is actually quite beautiful, with a camera panning around a busy Tokyo intersection at night. The camera lingers over the lights and flashing ads before finally settling on an anomaly on a Japanese street: a young black man beckoning the viewer to follow him into the night. It’s an artful sequence that is as measured as it is quiet and introspective. I mentioned above that this sequence is unfair to the viewer: indeed it is, because it promises something far more thoughtful than the actors and story seem capable of delivering.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, A play by William Shakespeare comes to Greenwich Playhouse on Tues February 24. Runs through Sun March 22 2009. Tues - Sat eves 7.30pm, Sun mats 4.00pm Tickets: ?12, ?10 (concs) While this rarely performed classic verges on the outlandish, it also presents us with some of Shakespeare's most touching and beautifully written scenes. Neglected for many years, Pericles hasrecently enjoyed several highly-acclaimed revivals, including Yukio Ninagawa's Japanese-languageversion at the National Theatre and Adrian Noble's swansong production as Artistic Director of the RSC. Fleeing the wrath of King Antiochus, Prince Pericles sets to sea on an epic adventure. Following his marriage to the Princess of Pentapolis and the birth of their first child, it seems Pericles has found happiness, but his good fortune is short-lived. On his return to his home city, he is cruelly separatedfrom his wife and newborn daughter by the tempestuous seas. Devastated, he adopts a hermit-like existence until,...

Alan Rickman's newly released film Bottle Shock, the actor is called upon to create an entrepreneurial and rather uncomfortable life for his character. The film tells the real-life story of Steven Spurrier, a British expat wine purveyor living in Paris in the mid-1970s. Spurrier is someone only Rickman could play: an open-minded snob, ripe for introduction to the upstart California wine industry. Also required by the role: Rickman must eat KFC and drive a Gremlin. Yes, this is the iconic actor with the mellifluous voice and aloof demeanor who elegantly plays 19th-century romantic leads and 21st-century stylized villains. This is the actor who is at home on Broadway and London stages, as well as in cult-inducing goofy film comedies. And yet, to hear him tell it, he found the get-his-hands-dirty work on Bottle Shock inspiring and challenging. Most of us remember our first sighting of the actor. For the lucky ones,...