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Directed by the legendary producer/publisher/director Haruki Kadokawa, Mio's Cookbook (Mio-Tsukushi Ryouri-Chou) is an intimate film starring Honoka Matsumoto as Mio. Honoka Matsumoto starred in a film in 2019 called "Mio On The Shore" another quiet intimate film where she also played a character named Mio.

Japan makes a lot of narrative feature films about food, I'm not sure if there's a name for this genre, I just call them FOODIE movies. They are a bit like Western evangelical films but instead of Jesus it's food that brings salvation and people together. Set in the Edo Era young Mio has come from Osaka after surviving a tragic childhood and has settled in Edo (Tokyo). She works as a cook for a kindly resturaunt owner but the Edo patrons are not fond of her style of regional cooking, and this leads Mio to doubt herself. Mio's dish is chawamushi, a kind of egg custard filled with goodies like seafood.

This is definitely a slice-of-life film, a bit coming-of-age with most of the drama in the form of ghosts from the past. A subplot concerns Yoshiwara, Edo's red-light pleasure quarters. Mio has gentleman suitors but Mio's main goal is to create a delicious meal. Honoka Matsumoto commands the screen even though Mio is a very inward, quiet character. It is not the type of role that asks for dramatic fireworks but a calm soulfulness and Honoka Matsumoto pulls it off well. It is an old fashioned film, pleasant yet bittersweet and visually looks great in an old-fashioned wide screen way with many candle lit scenes. Kadokawa directs with a steady hand.

(It's been a while since I saw this film and it's hard to find , or was, I think it can be found streaming now.)

While Osamu Tezuka is beloved and his presence is still very much in Japanese pop-culture 2020, even most Japanese are not aware that there was a live-action version of Tezuka's manga Hi No Tori (The Pheonix). Hi No Tori opened the same summer as Star Wars (which opened one year later than the US in Japan).

Kon Ichikawa's film is an oddball mix - an epic, violent, meditation on the meaning of existence yet also seems to be a kids movie. It's as if Disney made "Apocalypto" as popcorn movie. I haven't fully read the manga but have browsed thru it and from what I can tell the movie is quite faithful to the source material.

It's a huge cast and a sprawling story. The core story is of Sarutahaiko (Tomisaburo Wakayama) who takes under his wing instead of killing him, Nagi (Toshinori Omi ) a boy belonging to the tribe whose village he has just pillaged. In a plot twist usually not seen (at least in modern films) Sarutahaiko becomes Nagi's father figure even tho he killed Nagi's own father. Later they are joined by Kaoru Yumi as Uzume, who becomes Sarutahaiko's love interest. The trio is tossed about thru turbulent times trying to survive all kinds of tribal factions and obstacles. Later Uzume becomes the object of desire for Jingi the Conqueror played by Tatsuya Nakadai.

Throughout all this is the hunt for "Hi No Tori" a mystical bird whose blood can give eternal life. A powerful Queen lusts for the blood of the bird. The tone shifts wildly, there is light hearted humor yet the theme of death lies strong under the surface. Feels and looks like an epic historical drama, but then we even get an animated sequence for laughs. Imagine a live-action Disney movie for kids but with scenes of genocide, mass murder, torture and war. Beautiful cinematography in rugged locations in that old school cinematic style we just don't see any more and fascinating costumes of a pre-samurai era Japan, more akin to the Jomon Era Japan.

JAWS IN JAPAN (PSYCHO SHARK) While America has produced 100's of killer shark B-movies Asia surprisingly hasn't. Shark attacks are actually very rare in Japan and this is the only J-shark movie I've been able to find.

Have you ever wanted to watch a film that captures that feeling of boredom of sitting, sleeping in a hotel room with nothing to do? Then this movie is for you! Unfortunately for most who seek out this movie they weren't searching for an Asian or Euro Art film. NO they came for a shark film. And if it weren't for the title you'd be forgiven to think you were watching an incompetent J-horror found footage film, a student film attempt a psychological thriller OR more likely you'd think you were just watching someones raw video footage of their Okinawa beach vacation.

The protagonists are two young women on vacation in Okinawa. They aren't your scrawny Japanese types but full bodied, vivacious women. They're hard to distinguish from each other as they both have similar facial features, body types and long hair. Even tho there's lots of scenes of them bantering with each other we learn nothing about them and we're given no distinct personality traits to tell them apart. Tho we do get lots of cleavage shots.

All the scenes last way too long - with no story points or plot and many scenes are repeated adding more padding to the movie. Most of the movie is video 'found footage' but the movie also switches to locked off omnipresent-view shots. 30 minutes in nothing much happens, it's honestly like watching someones unedited vacation footage. There is a serial killer Psycho POV type shower scene (is it a land shark? the spirit of the shark?). About 36 min we finally see a bad CG shark fin indicating that indeed this is supposed to be a shark movie (filmmakers using VFX pay attention to EYELINE! Where is your actor looking at)

One of the main characters then spends much of her time watching a video tape she finds in the room and in RINGU like scenes watches another group of young Japanese beach vacationers who also become main characters - tho none of the characters are given any personality traits.

The women are seduced by a young local guy named Kenji and we are hinted this has something to do with a shark. Watch out for those charming local beach boys! There's some evil afoot but did the filmmakers really want to make a shark movie?

At 1 hour 10 min JAWS IN JAPAN could prob be re-cut into an artsy 5 min psychological thriller short.