Kokuho is straight up one of the best of 2025.

Black Showman is exhausting and exasperating.

Dolls and clowns are inherently creepy so Shinobu Yaguchi experiments with horror in Dollhouse.

Exit 8, strangely, is not about getting lost in the Tokyo subway, a horror all its own.

If ever a movie were critic-proof, it’s Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle.

Dream Animals is better than any movie based on a cookie has a right to be.

A Samurai in Time is the kind of low-budget DIY filmmaking that reminds you why you like the movies.

A power-trio of young Japanese actors headlines Unreachable and is almost entirely wasted.

Black Box Diaries is essential viewing if anything’s goign to change vis-a-vis rape.

Chihiro Amano’s Sato and Sato is absolutely not a workplace drama about a law firm.

Tetsuya Nakashima is finally back behind the camera. The Brightest Sun was worth the wait.

First Kiss sends Takako Matsu back in time to save her marriage in yet another time-bending romance.

You will go in search of a croque monsieur after Grand Maison Paris.

The Solitary Gourmet is one part food movie, one part travelogue, all TV series.

Living in Two Worlds means well, but that doesn’t make it particularly exciting.

What Happyend understands is that a dystopian hellscape never looks like one.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa almost gets there in his grey market, online mob screed Cloud. Almost.

Ghost Cat Anzu proves there’s life after Studio Ghibli.

Tetsuya Chihara proves the spiritual link between design and filmmaking in Ice Cream Fever.

Rinko Kikuchi goes all-in with Yoko and raises the question: Why isn’t she a giant star?