A series of chance meetings and a healthy dose of fantasy lead a collection of wounded souls towards a kind of liberation in Hamaguchi’s whimsical triptych
Oct 11, 2021 • Subscribe
More like this
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) review
“An essential viewing for all who holds the art of cinema dear.”
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Fusako Urabe (left) and Aoba Kawai in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Ryusuke Hamaguchi seems endlessly fascinated by serendipity and fate. His characters’ lives hinge on chance meetings,…
Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
‘Fortune’ is a paradoxical thing. It can refer to a coincidence, or to something that is preordained. A ‘fantasy’ can be imagined – a daydream – or supernatural.…
Storytellers (うたうひと, Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Ko Sakai, 2013)
Ageing residents of the Tohoku region keep the folktales of ancient Japan alive in Hamaguchi & Sakai’s strangely comforting documentary
Drive My Car (ドライブ・マイ・カー, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021)
A theatre director begins to overcome his sense of inertia after bonding with a young woman hired to drive his car in Hamaguchi’s deeply moving drama
Jojune: Stardust Crusaders: Episode 13-The Wheel of Fortune
Episode 13 is by far the most polarizing for me. On the one hand, this episode has one of the most awesome Stand battles and one of the…
Evil Does Not Exist (悪は存在しない, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2023)
A glamping invasion threatens the equilibrium of a small rural town in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s haunting drama.
Wheel of Death
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Touching the Skin of Eeriness 不気味なものの肌に触れる (2014) Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Touching the Skin of Eeriness” turns from coming-of-age drama to supernatural mystery and is packed full of absorbing physical performances. 不気味なものの肌に触れる (2014) Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi…
Touching the Skin of Eeriness 不気味なものの肌に触れる (2014) Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Touching the Skin of Eeriness” turns from coming-of-age drama to supernatural mystery and is packed full of absorbing physical performances. 不気味なものの肌に触れる (2014) Dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi…
2025 Wheel of Love
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! It’s that time of year again for the second annual Wheel of Love! I did this movie wheel for the…
2024 Wheel of Love!
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! It’s about that time again for a movie wheel! I first did this in October with horror movies and had…
Love and Fortune, a Review
Love and Fortune is a Netflix and TV Tokyo live-action series that focuses on the life of Wako Taira and her love for a 15-year-old high school student.…
Love and Fortune, a Review
Love and Fortune is a Netflix and TV Tokyo live-action series that focuses on the life of Wako Taira and her love for a 15-year-old high school student.…
All About My Sisters (家庭錄像, Wang Qiong, 2021)
Wang Qiong’s often raw doc explores the destructive legacies of the One Child Policy and entrenched patriarchy through the lens of her own complicated family
![Featured image for Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (2021) [Fantasia Film festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20210822/1629592395.19866.45630.jpg)
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (2021) [Fantasia Film festival]
“A great animation film that offers an emotional and moving celebration of the strength of the bond between a daughter and a mother.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi at MCM Comic Con London October 2025
The good folks from MCM Comic Con London send us details of Final Fantasy VII Remake director Naoki Hamaguchi's appearance on Friday 24th Oc...
My Father’s Tracks (僕と彼女とラリーと, Renpei Tsukamoto, 2021)
A struggling actor rediscovers his sense of purpose on returning to his home town in the wake of his father’s death in Rempei Tsukamoto’s heartwarming drama
Review: Daily Fantasy (2021)
Daily Fantasy 日常幻想指南 China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 97 mins. Director: Liang Dong 梁栋. Rating: 4/10. Ambling, pointless fantasy about a professional thief who suddenly has the ability to…
Nichijou - My Ordinary Life: Episode 0, Nichijou - My Ordinary Life
October 2023 Wheel of Spooks!
Hi friends, I hope you’re all doing well! Today I’m going to be boasting a project that I’ve been stirring up for the entire month of October to…
Fortune Arterial
Title: Fortune Arterial: Akai YakusokuGenre: Drama, Fantasy, RomanceRating: 5.5/10 Summary: Fortune Arterial’s story revolves around the male protagonist Kohei Hasekura, who transfers into a prestigious public school in the style of an…
Outrageous Fortune
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Leave Me Alone (不想一個人, Fan Yang-chung, 2021)
A lovelorn gallery owner and ambitious pimp embark on a steamy affair but find themselves bound by their shared yet opposing desires in Fan Yang-chung’s steamy urban drama
Promo 3- The Wheel of Manga!!!
Check out this promo that was made by Kent from Up a Paddle podcast. I like it very much
Ryusuke Hikawa Interview 2024, Part 1
Published irregularly by Gentosha, Spectator magazine is a “cultural journal” that examines social trends across a wide range of topics. The theme for the August 2024 issue volume…
Fantasy and Record of Lodoss War
I finished the OVA series of Record of Lodoss War recently. It was fun, but that’s all I have to say about it. It was a solid fantasy…
5-Wheel Rover
General Information Unit type: rover Lineart Cabin Rear view
The Nighthawk’s First Love (よだかの片想い, Yuka Yasukawa, 2021)
A young woman begins to regain a sense of self-confidence in the face of social prejudice when invited to consult on a film in Yuka Yasukawa’s adaptation of…
Cue! – Episode 4 – Airi and Her Fortune Woes
Episode impressions of Cue! Episode 4 as Yuuki, Chisa, Airi, and Yuzuha finally starts their training to become idols. Of course, Airi is struggling for some reason. I…
Dogpiling on the Protagonist for Fame and Fortune
Perhaps the most maligned main Tales of game, which happens to be one of my favorites, is Tales of the Abyss. Abyss gets a ton of my praise…
Anime Like Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
Thrown into a foreign land with no memory of their previous life, a group of strangers must try and survive in a brutal world filled with dangerous monsters.
GOBLIN SLAYER, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, Handyman Saitou in Another World, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Log Horizon
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
By Andrew Osmond. Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko is a rare kind of anime, a stand-alone film that presents daily life in the manner we’re more used to in…
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko feels like more of a character study and a series of slice-of-life sketches than a feature-length film. Its depiction of the life of a…
Fortune Favours Lady Nikuko
By Shelley Pallis. As her name inadvertently suggests, Nikuko is a creature of fleshy delights – passionate, enthusiastic, bubbly and obsessed with foods. She works in a small-town…
Ito (いとみち, Satoko Yokohama, 2021)
A shy young woman with a talent for Tsugaru shamisen grows in confidence after getting a job at a maid cafe in Satoko Yokohama’s warmhearted drama
6-Wheel Buggy (2)
General Information Unit type: rover Lineart Rear view
6-Wheel Buggy (1)
General Information Unit type: rover Lineart Rear view
(Some Early Thoughts) The Wheel of Time TV
This holiday season has suddenly become a pretty busy time for me when it comes to Live Action shows. Besides that one anime live action adaptation that people…
Summer 2021 First Impressions – Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy
Streaming: Crunchyroll Episodes: 12 Source: Light Novel Episode Summary: Makoto Misumi leads a decent life. He’s good at archery and his parents are pretty interesting people. But it’s…
Love and Murder of Sheep and Wolf 羊とオオカミの恋と殺人 (2020) Director: Kayoko Asakura
Love and Murder of Sheep and Wolf has a great concept about dating a hitwoman but a dull final result in its execution. Love and Murder of Sheep…
This Week in Games - Final Fantasy and Cotton Fantasy
This week Heidi has all the latest gaming news, from the Sonic movie to Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin PLUS an interview with Cotton Fantasy's Shinya Nagatomo…
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko: Review
Morbid obesity (classified as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of above 40, where normal is below 25) is a growing health emergency in Western…
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko Review
We have seen countless numbers of stories and styles of stories in anime shows and movies, but I think if there is one style that can still stand…
Chads of Fantasy Anime
One Chad to rule them all. Actually, we've got four fantasy Chads for the price of one video today. Himmel the Hero inspires you to be a better…
![Featured image for Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (漁港の肉子ちゃん, Ayumu Watanabe, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20210817/1629159794.19544.45240.jpg)
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko (漁港の肉子ちゃん, Ayumu Watanabe, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]
A resentful teenage girl comes to realise that she really does love her larger than life mum after all in Ayumu Watanabe’s anime adaptation of the Kanako Nishi…
This Week in Anime - The Wheel of Anime Adaptations
Chris and Lucas look at where anime series come from when you get down to the nitty-gritty of adaptation from other mediums.
Episode 355 - Rem vs The Wheel of Revisits II
This week, Shaun brings back the Wheel of Revisits with a twist: Rem gets one free re-spin!Meanwhile Remington rewrites history and this story.Be sure to check out ShonenFlop.com…
MADOX W.D.S. (Wheel Drive System)
General Information Unit type: ground combat slave trooperEquipment: W.D.S. (Wheel Drive System) Lineart Rear view