The Japan Society Review

Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo and written by Katsuhiro Otomo Focusing on the problem of Japan’s ageing population, the film satirically reproduces the mech-orientated glory days of Japanese animation, placing this camp and overblown genre within a serious moral construct. Review by Chris Corker

Directed by Scott Hicks This is a story about the trial of a Japanese American, Kabuo Miyamoto, accused of murdering a white American, Carl Heine, over a land dispute. Review by Michael Sullivan

Directed by Jonathan Teplitzy The Railway Man is a powerful film based on Eric Lomax’s book of the same name, featuring particularly wonderful performances by Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine as, respectively, the young and older Lomax. Review by Susan Meehan

Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura The movie begins with a newsreel about the ‘Projects,’ a housing estate where people can live, work, shop and go to school without ever leaving the local area. Happy families and housewives are shown living and [...] Review by Mike Sullivan

Directed and written by Shuichi Okita In The Woodsman and the Rain the interaction of a film crew and the inhabitants of a small village are shown through the eyes of a widowed lumberjack and a young director. Review by Mike Sullivan

By Shinya Tsukamoto The premise of the movie takes on a subject which is taboo in Japan, mental illness, and presents the plight of a single mother trying to raise a baby while [...] Review by Mike Sullivan

Directed by Akira Kurosawa This movie is an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the story is focused around Washizu who is a general for the lord of spider web castle. The movie brings together [...] Review by Mike Sullivan

Directed by Goro Miyazaki This production follows a common theme in Studio Ghibli movies of innocent romance and the coming of age of teenagers, this time set in 1960s Yokohama. Review by Mike Sullivan

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki The story is based on a Japanese children’s book written in 1985 by Eiko Kadono and was adapted by the master of animation Hayao Miyazaki in 1989. The English release [...] Review by Lucy Searles

Directed by Akio Kondo The film is based on the autobiographical book written by Shigeru Nishimura in 1975, telling the story of an orphaned boy sent to [...] Review by Mike Sullivan