Memories of His Scent においが眠るまで, by director Kahori Higashi, is a gentle and melancholy tale of a teenage girl searching for her late father through smell and visiting the mini theatres he sold coff…
Mar 3, 2024 • Subscribe
More like this
Memories of His Scent (においが眠るまで, Kahori Higashi, 2024)
A young woman travels Japan looking for the scent of her later father in Kahori Higashi’s gentle summer move.
An Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of Melting Sounds [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of MOOSIC Lab affiliated film “Melting Sounds”. It is available in Japanese and English. [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Melting Sounds ほとぼりメルトサウンズ Director: Kahori Higashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Melting Sounds is a wonderfully incisive yet offbeat MOOSIC LAB film concerned with mortality and human connections. Higashi’s light touch delivers a profound, cute, and deeply humanistic pae…
Melting Sounds ほとぼりメルトサウンズ Director: Kahori Higashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] Rewrite
Melting Sounds is a wonderfully incisive yet offbeat MOOSIC LAB film concerned with mortality and human connections. Higashi’s light touch delivers a profound, cute, and deeply humanistic pae…
The Residents 暮らしの残像 Director: Kahori Higashi [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
The Residents, by director Kahori Higashi, is a snappy ensemble comedy that follows a traditional four-act structure of intro, development, twist, and conclusion. The Residents 暮らしの残像 Director: Kah…
Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Summer Wedding is a unique and strong take on pandemic isolation. Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Boy, Sprouted 少年、なにかが発芽する Director: Yuko Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Boy, Sprouted is an off-beat family film that everyone can watch. 少年、なにかが発芽する Director: Yuko Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Snowdrop スノードロップ Director: Kota Yoshida [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Snowdrop スノードロップ, by director Kota Yoshida, is a socially conscious domestic drama/character study that looks at the welfare system via a woman chased by the trauma of abandonment…
Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] V-Cinema
Summer Wedding is a unique and strong take on pandemic isolation. Summer Wedding 恋がする Director: Azusa Hieda [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024) Director: Sawako Fukuoka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024), sees editor/writer/director Sawako Fukuoka draw upon her own experiences to make a quirky comedy/drama about the everyday pressures and small-scale strangeness experienced b…
City of Wind (2023) Director: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
City of Wind (2023), by director Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, is a perfectly-crafted portrait of Mongolian youth that looks at the way modernity and tradition, social order and individuality affect…
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023) Director: Elene Naveriani [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023), by director Elene Naveriani, is a touching late coming-of-age film about a 48-year-old woman in a Georgian village growing into herself after a near-death…
Suton すとん Director: Rikako Watanabe [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Suton すとん, by director Rikako Watanabe. is a quietly affecting character study where a young woman’s life is marked by the poignancy of aging and separation and also…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023
For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023
For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023
For the second year in a row, the Heroic Purgatory podcast is covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) which took place between March 10 and March 19.…
On a Boat オン・ア・ボート (2024) Director: Heso [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Black comedy and painful humiliation abound as a mismatched couple vie for control in the black comedy On a Boat オン・ア・ボート (2024) Director: Heso [Osaka Asian Film Festival…
The Winter of 1905 (1981) Director: Yu Wei-Cheng [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
The Winter of 1905 (1981), directed by Yu Wei-Cheng, is a solid dramatisation of Li Shutong’s time in Japan and the influences that would lead him to become…
Ito いとみち Director: Satoko Yokohama (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
“Ito” is a heart-warming comedy drama rich in Aomori’s culture where a girl learning to express herself through time spent at a maid cafe and her shamisen skills.…
Lesson in Murder 死刑にいたる病 Director: Kazuya Shiraishi [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]
Lesson in Murder is a fine Kazuya Shiraishi production that adapts a novel for the big screen. Although slow, the performances will enrapture viewers. Lesson in Murder 死刑にいたる病 Director: Kazuya Shir…
Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
A refreshing sci-fi short from Japan, Out of TOKYO202x takes the time-slip formula and uses it on the summer Olympics of 2021! Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival…
Side by Side サイド バイ サイド 隣にいる人 (2023) Dir: Chihiro Ito [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]
Side by Side サイド バイ サイド 隣にいる人, by director Chihiro Ito, is a visually sumptuous film with a light supernatural story. Side by Side サイド バイ サイド 隣にいる人 (2023)…
Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024) Director: Sawako Fukuoka [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024] Second Draft
Sumiko 22 スミコ22 (2024), sees editor/writer/director Sawako Fukuoka draw upon her own experiences to make a quirky comedy/drama about the everyday pressures and small-scale strangeness experienced b…
POP! Director: Masashi Komura (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
POP! provides a slightly surreal, slightly sweet existential crisis. POP! Director: Masashi Komura (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
Perfect Nervous (2024) Dir: Masaru Sano [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Perfect Nervous (Dir: Masaru Sano, 2024) is a gorgeous short film with fantastical elements as it tells a life-affirming story wherein two young women with incurable body-altering diseases…
Inch Forward 走れない人の走り方 (2024) Director: Su Yu-chun [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Inch Forward 走れない人の走り方 (2024) Director: Su Yu-chun [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Joint ジョイント Director: Oudai Kojima (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
Joint ジョイント Director: Oudai Kojima (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021] is a refreshing take on the yakuza genre thanks to the depth of its world building and…
Masaru Sano on Capturing Good Images for His Phantasmagorical Film Perfect Nervous (2024) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 Interview]
“We meticulously took photographs during the location scouting and created storyboards based on the photos, with the intention of making all the shots as beautiful as possible.”: Masaru…
Wash Away うぉっしゅ Director: Ikunosuke Okazaki [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Wash Away うぉっしゅ, the sophomore feature by director Ikunosuke Okazaki, may have an unlikely premise but it works well as an existential examination of loneliness. It plays at…
Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 Director: Noriko Yuasa [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
Performing KAORU’s Funeral カオルの葬式 (Dir Noriko Yuasa) is a heady story of remembering an individual through pulling together memories. Amidst the farce and tears of the funeral lies a…
A Preview of the Japanese Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024
A Preview of the Japanese Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 (March 01 – March 10) – trailers and synopses.
Out of TOKYO202x Director: Akinori Ikuse [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022] V-Cinema
A rewrite of my review of Out of TOKYO202x, a refreshing sci-fi short from Japan that takes the time-slip formula and uses it on the summer Olympics! Director: Akinori…
An Interview with Satoko Yokohama, Director of “Ito” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
An Interview with Satoko Yokohama, Director of “Ito” [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
An Interview with Sae Suzuki, Director of Strangers [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
STRANGERS tackles gender discrimination and sexual harassment in a heartfelt and interesting way. Director Sae Suzuki talks about how she made it in an interview done in Japanese…
An Interview with Masashi Komura, Director of POP! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
An Interview with Masashi Komura, Director of POP! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
A Glimpse at the Films at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024
A glimpse at the feast of films programmed for Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 (March 01st to March 10th)
December 赦し (2022) Director: Anshul Chauhan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]
December 赦し is director Anshul Chauhan’s third feature film. An impressive courtroom drama, it takes us through a harrowing criminal trial that constantly keeps us empathising with and questi…
New Religion ニューレリジョン (2022) Director: Keishi Kondo [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]
New Religion ニューレリジョン is a highly-atmospheric horror film from Keishi Kondo who crafts an original story with distinct visuals. It’s one of the best J-horror films I have seen…
yes, yes, yes Director: Akihiko Yano (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
A powerful drama about reckoning with grief, “yes, yes, yes” is powered by raw performances from its brilliant cast. yes, yes, yes Director: Akihiko Yano (2020) [Osaka Asian…
Sekai 世界 (2023) Director: Marina Tsukada [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]
Sekai 世界, directed by Marina Tsukada, is a rich portrait of two people living in Nagano prefecture. It gently guides us into their inner worlds and exploring them…
Interview with Kahori Higashi, Director of Melting Sounds [OAFF 2022]
Jason Maher talks to Kahori Higashi about her debut feature Melting Sounds.
Onaji Tokoro De Nemuru Made Matte (同じ所で眠るまで待って)
When I originally read Mizuno to Chayama, (水野と茶山) the thing that struck me, not in a positive way, was the lack of joy or humor or happiness. The…
Among Four of Us 4人のあいだで Dir: Mayu Nakamura (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
Among Four of Us 4人のあいだで Dir: Mayu Nakamura (2020) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
A Rainbow-colored Trip にじいろトリップ Dir: Shinji Imaoka (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
A Rainbow-colored Trip にじいろトリップ Dir: Shinji Imaoka (2021) [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021]
It Must Be Love 愛の茶番 Director: Junko Emoto [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
It Must Be Love 愛の茶番, by director Junko Emoto, has actors give fun improvisational performances as egotistic characters driven crazy by love in a film-meets-theatre experiment. [Osaka Asian…
Sojourn to Shangri-la 是日访古 Director: Lin Yihan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
In “Sojourn to Shangri-la” 是日访古, director Lin Yihan uses the tragicomic event of a failed fashion shoot to slip into an exploration of the transcendent and mythological and…
An Interview with Kasho Iizuka, Director of ANGRY SON [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An interview with Kasho Iizuka about the making of his film ANGRY SON, shown as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022.
An Interview with Azusa Hieda, Director of Summer Wedding [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
SUMMER WEDDING is a short by Azusa Hieda that sees a relationship undergo a massive change due to isolation forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. You can read some…
An Interview with Sheikh M Haris, Director of HOWLING [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
Get the background to the Japanese neo-noir black comedy HOWLING in this Interview with Sheikh M Haris, the Director [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An Interview with Yuko Watanabe, Director of BOY SPROUTED [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022]
An interview with Yuko Watanabe, director of the short film BOY SPROUTED. You can read it in Japanese and English! [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022].