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From Kill Bill to John Wick, movies fueled by revenge are a dime a dozen, each bringing their own flavor of mayhem to the table. In that way, the Japanese gangster thriller Hell Dogs transports viewers into the treacherous world of the Yakuza, with ex-cop Shogo “Tak” Kanetaka (Jun’ichi Okada) at the center of it all. After a tragic loss shakes the foundation of his world, he both recklessly and calculatingly takes on a high-stakes mission to go undercover as a member of the Yakuza. His aim is singular — to dismantle the organization from the inside out.

One thing that Japanese cinema seems to lack particularly lately is tension, with the majority of movies going out of the country following the calm and smooth road the festival-darling directors have paved for the most part. As such, it is always a pleasure to watch movies that do bring much tension in the narrative, with Masato Harada proving once more, after “Hell Dogs” and “Sekigahara”, that knows how to handle the particular aspect. Let us see how the rest of the film fares though.

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Adapted from Hiroyuki Kurokawa's 2015 novel, “Keiso” (“Weeds”) the story focuses on Neri, a swindler who works for Takagi, a local mafia boss with ties to the political world, conning elderly with her group of ragtag “catchers”, as she calls them probably in “underground” slang. Neri tries to lay low as much as she can,...

Adapted from the ongoing manga novel series published in 2020 written by Akio Fukamachi and illustrated by Iizuka Keita, this live-action version stars former member of the Japanese boy band,V6, Junichi Okada. Known for his support acting role as Omura in “The Last Samurai” (2003), Harada also directed Okada in two historical films “Sekigahara” (2017) and “Baragak: Broken Samurai” (2021). Furthermore, Okada was in “The Fable” (2019) and its sequel “The Fable: the Killer Who Doesn't Kill” (2021).

The plot of “Hell Dogs” centers around Goro Idejuki (Junichi Okada), a young rookie cop. Devastated and traumatized after the brutal killing of the supermarket girl he loves during a robbery, he turns rogue and with only vengeance planted on his mind, he seeks the murderers out one by one and kills them. A killing spree which took him over ten years to complete. After turning himself in to the police, Chief Anai of the Metropolitan Criminal...

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 46th edition of its awards ceremony on March 10, 2023. The nominees are selected by industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2022 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas. Award categories are modelled after Hollywood's Academy Awards®.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards, and leading with 13 nominations in 12 categories, Kei Ishikawa's “A Man” walks away with 8 Japan Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

A Man

Shin Ultraman

Phases of the Moon

Anime Supremacy!

Wandering

Team from A Man Animation of the Year

Inu-Oh

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Suzume

One Piece Film Red

The First Slam Dunk

Director of the Year

Kei Ishikawa – A Man

Takashi Koizumi – The Pass: Last...

The 18th edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival (Oaff 2023) will close with “Side by Side”, the second feature film from veteran screenwriter Ito Chihiro.

After a career of writing hit films like “Crying Out Love in the Center of the World”, Ito Chihiro makes her second film as director, “Side by Side”, a drama with a magical realist twist that follows a young man who can sense the thoughts of other people. Produced by award-winning director Yukisada Isao, it features leading star Sakaguchi Kentaro, together with an excellent cast that includes Saito Asuka, Asaka Kodai, Isomura Ameri, and Ichikawa Mikako.

Story

Miyama (Sakaguchi Kentaro) is a mysterious young man with the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. These thoughts sometimes take the form of a spirit that haunts Miyama. With this power, he can detect and heal people suffering from physical ailments and emotional traumas. He does...

Tokyo-based production executive Bill Ireton is stepping down from his role at Sony Pictures International Productions, Japan, where he oversaw local production, to launch an independent production venture effective January 1, 2023.

The new venture will develop and produce content for multiple platforms, primarily based on Japanese I.P. for audiences around the world.

During his time at Sony, Ireton oversaw production on a slate of Japanese-language features, including Hell Dogs, starring Junichi Okada and directed by Masato Harada; I Am Makimoto, starring Sadao Abe, and Violence Action, which is currently streaming on Netflix.

“Making movies with Sony Pictures over the past four years has been a wonderful experience which has helped catapult this thrilling new chapter of my career,” said Ireton.

Sanford Panitch, President of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, said: “I want to thank Bill for his work the past few years. The making of Japanese films continues to be...