Japan Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘AUM: The Cult at the End of the World,’ starring Yoshiyuki Kono, Mika Hosokawa, Fumihiro Joyu, Hiroyuki Nagaoka, Eiko Nagaoka, David Kaplan and Andrew Marshall

March 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World”

Directed by Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto

Some language in Japanese with subtitles

Culture Representation: The documentary film “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” features a predominantly Japanese group of people (with some white people) talking about the Aum Shinrikyo cult, based in Japan and led by Shoko Asahara.

Culture Clash: Aum Shinrikyo started in 1983 as a yoga/meditation group, but by 1995, several members of the cult were convicted of murdering others for cult-motivated reasons.

Culture Audience: “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in finding out more about a sinister cult that might not be well-known outside of Japan.

Shoko Asahara (fourth from left) in “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” (Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment)

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is an expected cautionary tale about a group that started out as harmless and turned into a dangerous and deadly cult. This grim and somewhat tedious documentary adequately tells the disturbing story about the Aum Shinriko cult but doesn’t give much new information. It would be a better documentary with tighter editing and more original investigations from the filmmakers.

Directed by Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto, “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is their feature-film directorial debut. “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary sticks to a standard formula of mixing archival footage with interviews that were done exclusively for the documentary. “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” is at least partially based on the 1996 non-fiction book “The Cult at the End of the World,” written by David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, who are both interviewed in the documentary.

The Aum Shinriko cult was launched in Japan in 1983, by a self-proclaimed guru named Shoko Asahara, whose birth name was Chizuo Matsumoto. The group’s purpose was originally yoga and meditation. The group began calling itself Aum Shinriko in 1987. Aum Shinriko attracted mostly young people and lived in communes. The group eventually bought land in a remote town near Mount Fuji called Kamikuishiki in 1989, when Aum Shinriko had about 3,000 followers.

As far as cults go, Aum Shinriko checked a lot of boxes because this was yet another cult that isolated its members in a remote area, where the members were supposed to live in a commune-like setting. Asahara encouraged members to have a lack of sleep, lack of food, and lack of personal hygiene. Over time, Asahara began to make wild claims about himself and the cult, such as saying that joining the cult would give people superpowers.

“The Cult at the End of the World” co-author Marshall is a London-born journalist who lived in Japan and was a deputy editor at Tokyo Journal in the late 1980s. In the documentary, Marshall describes the cult’s living quarters as looking like a cross between “factories and prison camps.” And although the cult was in a rural area, the cult members were disruptive enough to be considered “bad neighbors” because the cult members would chant loudly during all hours of the day and night. The cult also would leave a lot of garbage strewn around.

In other words, Aum Shinriko was a cult that did not keep a low profile. Aum Shinriko also had books and graphic novels to promote the cult. Cult leader Asahara sought out publicity and often gave media interviews. Asahara called himself a messiah and the reincarnation of Buddha. He was also preaching doomsday prophecies and had bold political ambitions for himself and his cult.

A turning point for Aum Shinriko was in 1990, when the cult formed its own political group. Asahara and 24 other members of the cult were political candidates for Japan’s House of Representatives, but these cult members lost in all of these elections. This humiliating defeat apparently set Asahara over the edge. Instead of wanting to join the Japanese government, the group changed its agenda to wanting to destroy the Japanese government.

By 1991, after Russia switched from a Communist regime to a democratic-resembling government, members of Aum Shinriko went to Russia to recruit new members. Aum Shinriko also began to amass weapons and illegally purchased nerve gas called Sarin. What started out as a seemingly benign lifestyle community had turned into a full-fledged terrorist group.

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” begins with Aum Shinriko’s most notorious crime: On March 20, 1995, Aum Shinriko instigated a Sarin attack on five subway cars on a subway train going to Kasumigaseki Station in Tokyo. The attack murdered 13 people and injured thousands.

Asahara was arrested on May 16, 1995. By October of 1995, Aum Shinriko disbanded. Asahara and several Aum Shinriko members were eventually convicted of murder. Asahara was sentenced to death in 2004. He and other convicted Aum Shinriko murderers were executed in 2018. All of this information is dutifully chronicled in the documentary.

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” also takes a closer look beyond the 1995 nerve gas attack and examines the human toll taken on people who went up against the cult. People tried to get loved ones out of the cult but did not get much help from authorities because the people in the cult were considered adults who were there of their own free will. Journalists, lawyers and other people who were investigating the cult found themselves on the receiving end of harassment or worse from cult members.

Although it’s impossible to know how many murders are linked to Aum Shinriko, the documentary mentions three particular murders that are definitely linked to Aum Shinriko. A Yokohama-based attorney named Tsutsumi Sakamoto represented family members who wanted their loved ones to leave the cult. Sakamoto was investigating the cult when he, his wife and their son disappeared in 1989. An Aum Shinriko badge was found in the family’s apartment. Their murdered bodies were found in 1995, after an Aum Shinriko member provided authorities with a map to find the bodies.

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” has an interview with a former member named Mika Hosokawa, who joined the cult in 1988, when she was 22 years old. At this time in her life, she describes herself as “spiritually stalled” and looking for a change in her life. Married couple Hiroyuki Nagaoka and Eiko Nagaoka say in documentary interviews that they spent a fortune trying to get their unnamed son out of the cult. They describe their son as being lured into Aum Shinriko by the cult’s book “How to Develop Psychic Powers.”

One of the most compelling interviews intthe documentary is with Fumihiro Joyu, who was a high-ranking member of the Aum Shinriko cult. Joyu spent time in prison for his Aum Shinriko crimes and was released in 1999. He currently leads a group called Hikari no Wa, which is Japanese for Circle of Light.

Joyu says that his father abandoned him as a child. And when Joyu was in the cult, he says that Asahara became a “real father” to Joyu, who joined the cult in 1986. At the time, the cult was still presenting itself as a yoga/meditation school. Joyu majored in artificial intelligence in college. He was interested in yoga and spiritual enlightenment. And he says that in Japan, there was an “occult boom” at the time.

According to Joyu, the hierarchy in the Aum Shinriko cult was that cult members who were scientists, chemists and engineers were on the second-highest level of the hierarchy and were treated like priests. It explains why this cult used chemical warfare for its heinous subway attack in 1995. At the time Joyu joined the group, he worked at JAYA, which is a Japanese outer-space agency that is similar to NASA.

Joyu doesn’t seem particularly remorseful about all the destruction caused by Aum Shinriko. He tells his story matter-of-factly. And he clearly has fond memories of his time in the cult. The documentary could have done a better job of asking Joyu about his thoughts about the people who were harmed by the cult, or at least asked him what he thinks about cult warning signs that people need to know about to avoid a cult such as Aum Shinriko.

The documentary’s most heart-wrenching interview is with Yoshiyuki Kono, who was falsely accused in the Japanese media of being the perpetrator of the Mastumoto subway attack in 1995. During this ordeal, his wife went into a coma for 14 years after having a heart attack. Even after experiencing all this trauma, Kono says, “I’ve come to realize that even in the toughest of circumstances, you can look for joy in life.”

Other people interviewed in “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” are journalist Shoko Egawa; attorneys Yuji Nakamura and Taro Takmoto; and Seiich Takeuchi, a Kamikuishiki villager who took photos of the cult members. Takeuchi gives his opinion on why the Aum Shinriko had a reign of terror for so many years: “I think the [government] administration and the police are responsible for it. So many red flags, and they barely investigated them.”

“AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” does what a lot of documentaries do when they are satisfactory but not outstanding: They rely heavily on reports that journalists have already done and sometimes interview those journalists. This documentary is obviously very well-researched. But more insight probably would’ve been in this movie if the people interviewed for the documentary were asked more probing questions beyond the basics.

Greenwich Entertainment released “AUM: The Cult at the End of the World” in select U.S. cinemas on March 19, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on March 28, 2025.

Review: ‘The Colors Within,’ an anime drama about a rock band, friendships and music

January 30, 2025

by Carla Hay

“The Colors Within”

Directed by Naoko Yamada

Available in the original Japanese version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: The Japanese animated film “The Colors Within,” which takes place in an unnamed city in Japan, tells the story of three very different teenagers who form a rock band together.

Culture Clash: All of the teenagers have different reasons for hiding their band activities.

Culture Audience: “The Colors Within” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in anime films about the subtleties human relationships.

Kimi Sakunaga in “The Colors Within” (Image courtesy of GKIDS)

“The Colors Within” is a lovely and low-key anime drama about three teenagers who become friends when they form a rock band together. Each band member has different reasons for keeping the band a secret. “The Colors Within” might bore some people who are expecting this anime film to have more action. It’s a movie that’s geared more to viewers who want to see a story about this friendship evolves between the three teenagers.

Directed by Naoko Yamada and written by Reiko Yoshida, “The Colors Within” takes place in an unnamed city in Japan. The three teenagers don’t know each other very well when they decide to form a band, but they share a passion for music. The music they want to perform is pop-rock.

The three teenagers at the center of the story are all in their late teens. They are’

Totsuko Higurashi, a religious student at an all-girls Catholic boarding school, where the students are not allowed to hang out with boys.
Kimi Sakunaga, a dropout from the same school, who now works as a sales clerk in a used bookstore.
Rui Kagehira, a student in his last year of high school, who is expected to become a medical doctor like other members of his family.

Totsuko, Kimi and Rui all meet at the bookstore and almost instantly decide to form a band. Totsuko (who is obedient and friendly) has the ability to read people’s colors or auras. It’s something that she doesn’t reveal to a lot of people because she doesn’t want to be perceived as weird.

Kimi (who is creative and slightly rebellious) dropped out of school because she was caught having a boyfriend. Kimi is being raised by her grandmother Shino Sakunaga, and Kimi is afraid to tell to tell Shino that she dropped out of school. Meanwhile, Rui (who is shy and nerdy) doesn’t want his parents to know about his interest in being a musician.

The three teens name their group the White Cat Hall Band, named after a campus library called White Cat Hall. Kimi is the lead singer/guitarist. Totsuko is the keyboardist. Rui plays the theremin.

One of the nuns at the school is Sister Hiyoshiko, who is younger and more liberal than some of the school’s other nuns. Totsuko confides in Sister Hiyoshiko that Totsuko is writing a song. Sister Hiyoshiko says this songwriting activity should be okay if the song she’s writing is morally righteous.

The voices of the “The Colors Within Characters” characters are portrayed by different actors, depending on the version of “The Deer King.” The original Japanese version (with English subtitles) has Sayu Suzukawa as Totsuko Higurashi, Akari Takaishi as Kimi Sakunaga, Taisei Kido as Rui Kagehira, Keiko Toda as Shino Sakunaga, and Yui Aragaki as Sister Hiyoshiko. There’s also a U.S. version, with the dialogue dubbed in English, that has Libby Rue as Totsuko Higurashi, Kylie McNeill as Kimi Sakunaga, Eddy Lee as Rui Kagehira, Lani Minella as Shino Sakunaga, and Eileen Stevens as Sister Hiyoshiko.

“The Colors Within” has a pleasant message about seeing and appreciating people for who they really are and not how others want them to be. The voice performances are adequate, and the movie takes a little too long to show the band members’ full musical talent. However, “The Colors Within” is a solid option for people who want to watch an anime film about friendships that begin and grow under unlikely circumstances.

GKIDS released “The Colors Within” in select U.S. cinemas on January 24, 2025. The movie was released in Japan on August 30, 2024.

Review: ‘Black Box Diaries,’ starring Shiori Itō

October 26, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Black Box Diaries”

Directed by Shiori Itō

Japanese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Japan from 2017 to 2019, the documentary film “Black Box Diaries” (based partially on the 2017 non-fiction book “Black Box”) features an all-Japanese group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy who are connected in some way to the rape case of political journalist Shiori Itō.

Culture Clash: Itō, who accused a fellow journalist of raping her in 2015 while she was too intoxicated to consent, faced many obstacles in getting justice, including her accused rapist having a close alliance with Shinzo Abe, who was Japan’s prime minister at the time.

Culture Audience: “Black Box Diaries” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in highly personal documentaries about getting justice for crimes.

“Black Box Diaries” is director Shiori Itō’s courageous and harrowing chronicle of getting justice for her rape case. The documentary is a blistering takedown of a very flawed legal system that Itō battled in her case, against seemingly insurmountable odds. It’s also a story of how rape survivors are further harmed by victim blaming from people who don’t know all the facts and are quick to assume that rape survivors are usually lying. “Black Box Diaries” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (where “Black Box Diaries” won the Human Rights Award) and also screened at the 2024 editions of the SXSW Film & TV Festival and CPH:DOX.

Itō (who was born in 1989) is a Tokyo-based political journalist who says she was raped by TV journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi (who was born in 1966) at the Sheraton Hotel in Tokyo’s Ebisu part of the Shibuya ward, on April 4, 2015. At the time, Itō was a Thomson Reuters intern, and Yamaguchi was Tokyo Broadcast System’s Washington bureau chief. Itō says she was too intoxicated to give consent. Yamaguchi denies the accusations and say that he and Itō had consensual sex that night.

“Black Box Diaries” has hotel security video from that night that gives more credence to Itō’s side of the story. Itō and Yamaguchi are shown emerging from a taxi outside the hotel in the hotel’s front driveway. Yamaguchi is forcefully pulling Itō out of the back of the taxi, while a male hotel employee stands by and looks unsure of what to do. (This hotel employee, who is not named in the movie, later makes an impactful statement to Itō that brings her to tears.)

The video shows that Itō can barely walk and has to be almost propped up by Yamaguchi. Security video from inside the hotel shows Yamaguchi walking Itō trhough the lobby and to an elevator. According to court testimony, Itō says that Yamaguchi took her to his hotel room and raped her while she drifted in and out of consciousness and was too physically weak to fight back. Itō says she didn’t remember much of the encounter until hours later. She suspects that she had been drugged without her consent and gained back her memory after the effects of any alleged drugs wore off.

Itō reported the crime to the Tokyo Police Department, which discouraged her from filing charges because they told Itō that her case would be hard to prove. “Black Box Diaries” includes secret recordings that she made during her interview with an uncaring police investigator who is only identified in the documentary as Investigator A. This callous investigator says a lot of things that aren’t supposed to be said by a responsible and professional investigator of rape/sexual assault, such as suggesting that Itō might be partially responsible for this reported crime because she was intoxicated when it happened. It’s typical victim blaming.

Itō did not have a choice in pursuing justice in a criminal court because Tokyo Police Department decided to close the investigation. Instead, Itō held a press conference to speak out against this injustice. Footage from the press conference footage is included in “Black Box Diaries.”

In the press conference, Itō says she’s using her work as a journalist to protect herself against those who will accuse her of lying. When asked why she’s giving a press conference to talk about this rape accusation, she says the typical expectation of a rape victim is for the victim to be sad and hide from embarrassment. “I had a problem with this norm,” Itō says in the press conference. “I have nothing to hide. If I don’t speak now, the law will not change. That’s why I’m coming forward.

In 2017, Itō wrote a non-fiction book called “Black Box” and to document the ongoing investigation of her rape case as she pursued legal action against Yamaguchi by filing a civil lawsuit against him. Itō also became an activist to change Japan’s outdated rape laws, whch stated at the time that Japan’s legal definition of rape had to include assault and intimidation. The title of the book is based on how a prosecutor stonewalled Itō about her case by making this comment: “Because it’s a black box, we don’t really know what’s happening.” Itō says of this comment: “It tells everything about our justice system and how it’s not working.”

“Black Box Diaries” (which was filmed from 2017 to 2019) is an extension of the “Black Box” book, by having entries from the book (often as handwritten captions on the screen), as well as a lot of behind-the-scenes and personal footage of Itō quest for justice. She also has to deal with bullying and hate from many different people (usually online and in the media), who shame her because they don’t believe she’s telling the truth. Itō keeps her dignity throughout, but there are times when she understandably reaches her emotional breaking point when things look particularly bleak, and there are obstacles in her way. A low point happens when Itō ends up in a hospital for a reason that is revealed in the documentary.

Itō believes that the Tokyo Police Department discontinued the investigation into her rape because Yamaguchi had a close alliance with Shinzo Abe, who was Japan’s prime minister at the time. Abe was a close associate of Itaru Nakamura, who was the acting chief of Tokyo Police Department at the time. Yamaguchi wrote a flattering biography of the politically conservative Abe, and this book was published two weeks before the prosecutors dropped the rape case against him Yamaguchi for “insufficient evidence.” In addition to often getting privileged media access to Abe, Yamaguchi had other high-ranking political connections that Itō believes shielded Yamaguchi from being arrested and prosecuted in criminal court for this case.

Itō couldn’t help but feel paranoid when she found out that she was being spied on and followed by unnamed people. The documentary shows how she temporarily moved out of her apartment because of this stalking. She has some close friends who are her support system. These friends are shown in the documentary but are not identified by name.

Itō admits that her family members (who are not in the documentary) were upset when they found out that she wrote the “Black Box” book, which Itō’s book publisher warns her could be blocked by Yamaguchi from being published if real names are used in the book. Itō admits that by writing this book, “I know I’m putting them [my family] in danger.” Itō also got backlash from strangers who accused her of trying to cash in on her accusations by writing the “Black Box” book.

“Black Box Diaries” has an intimate and deliberate tone that might be too slow and too quiet for people who expect true crime documentaries to be slick and fast-paced. There are no crusading attorneys or tabloid media spectacles in this documentary. It’s a vividly candid look at one woman’s emotionally painful journey to seek justice, which involves a lot of suffering—but it’s suffering that is not done in silence, and it’s suffering that can lead to the greater good for any other rape survivors who also seek justice.

MTV Documentary Films released “Black Box Diaries” in New York City on October 25, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cities on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘Touch’ (2024), starring Egill Ólafsson, Kōki and Pálmi Kormákur

July 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Kōki and Pálmi Kormákur in “Touch” (Photo by Lilja Jonsdottir/Focus Features)

“Touch” (2024)

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur

Some language in Japanese and Icelandic with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Iceland, the United Kingdom, and Japan in 2020, with flashbacks to 1969, the dramatic film “Touch” (based on the novel of the same name) features a white and Japanese cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns of 2020, a widowed restaurateur from Iceland travels to the United Kingdom and Japan to search for the Japanese woman he fell in love with in London in 1969.

Culture Audience: “Touch” will appeal primarily to people who are are interested in well-acted dramas about love that transcends different cultures, races and nationalities.

Egill Ólafsson in “Touch” (Photo by Baltasar Breki Samper/Focus Features)

“Touch” has beautifully moving performances in this memorable drama about a man searching for a long-lost love, 51 years after he last saw her. It’s a bittersweet romantic story that also has poignant observations of the traumatic damages caused by war. Although the story in the movie is fictional, many of the scenarios are very realistic, except for how the protagonist’s dementia is sidelined and ignored for almost the entire movie.

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, “Touch” is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s 2022 novel of the same name. Kormákur and Ólafsson co-wrote the movie’s adapted screenplay. “Touch” was filmed on location in Iceland, the United Kingdom, and Japan—the three countries where the movie’s story takes place. The movie has a lot of abrupt timeline jumping between 2020 and 1969. Some viewers might not like that the timeline constantly goes back and forth between these two years, but this narrative structure increases the suspense of what will happen.

“Touch” begins in early 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Kristófer Hannesson (played by Egill Ólafsson), an Icelandic widower in his 70s, is a restaurateur in Reykjavík, Iceland. He is shown looking at boxes of mementos, mostly from his college-age years, when he used to live in London. Kristófer has recently shut down his restaurant because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Certain travel borders will soon be closed because of the pandemic.

It’s soon revealed that Kristófer has been diagnosed with early-stages dementia after his MRI test results have been evaluated. Kristófer says he has vivid memories of things that happened in the past but he sometimes forgets to do simple things such as tie shoelaces. After Kristófer gets this dementia diagnosis, Kristófer’s physician Dr. Stefansson (played by Benedikt Erlingsson) advises him to take care of any unfinished business.

Kristófer looks at a photo of his deceased wife Inga (played by María Ellingsen) and says, “Forgive me.” He then tells his daughter Sonja (voiced by Harpa Elísa Þórsdóttir) in a phone conversation that he’s going to London to look for a missing person he once knew. Sonja is never seen in the movie, but she continues to have phone conversations with Kristófer during his travels. Sonja grows increasingly worried that Kristófer is going to different countries during the pandemic and won’t tell her the details of why this search so urgent for him.

The movie reveals very little about what Kristófer’s life has been like as a family man. There is one flashback scene that shows elderly Kristófer and Inga during a marriage counseling session, which is an indication that they had serious problems in their marriage. The movie doesn’t show or tell what those problems were.

It’s mentioned during this session that Sonja is not Kristófer’s biological child because Sonja is Inga’s daughter from a previous marriage or previous relationship. Kristófer and Sonja decided not to biological children of their own. Inga got married to Kristófer when Sonja was very young. It’s implied that Kristófer adopted Sonja after he and Inga got married.

As already shown in the “Touch” trailer, Kristófer has gone to London because he is looking for the woman he fell in love with in London in 1969. Flashbacks show that in 1969, Kristófer (played by Palmi Kormákur, a son of “Touch” director Baltasar Kormákur) was a London School of Economics (LSE) student who participated in left-wing activist protests. His two closest friends at LSE are also fellow Icelanders: Jónas (played by Sigurður Ingvarsson) and Markús (played by Starkaður Pétursson), who share his political interests.

Kristófer doesn’t consider himself to be a socialist but more like an “anarchist,” he says in a half-joking tone later in the movie. And even though he participates in student protests, Kristófer actually has an introverted personality. An early scene in the movie shows that other student activists look up to him as a leader, but he is reluctant to be the center of attention in a leadership role. In his free time, Kristófer likes to spend time by himself reading and listening to music.

Kristófer drops out of LSE because he “lost interest” in university studies, but he still wants to live in London. Nothing is revealed about Kristófer’s family and what they thought of him dropping out of LSE. Kristófer doesn’t discuss his background in detail in this movie. He is not shown communicating with anyone in Iceland while he is in London. However, he mentions during a restaurant job interview that he grew up in smaller cities in Iceland where he did a lot of fishing.

One day, while hanging out with Jónas and Markús, Kristófer sees a “help wanted” sign at a Japanese restaurant called Nippon. The job opening is a dishwasher position. Kristófer speaks to Nippon’s owner/manager is a widower named Takahashi-san (played by Masahiro Motoki) that he’s interested in the job. Takahashi-san is skeptical about Kristófer’s interest in working at a Japanese restaurant and tells Kristófer that this dishwasher job is full-time. Kristófer assures him that he can work these hours, so Takahashi-san tells him to come back the next day for a job interview.

As Kristófer is leaving, a pretty woman who’s about the same age as Kristófer walks through the front door. They look at each other in a way that people do in movies where you know they these two people will end up falling in love. Kristófer doesn’t know it yet, but the woman’s name is Miko (played Kōki), and she is Takahashi-san’s daughter and only child. Miko is a student at an unnamed university, and she works on weekends at Nippon.

The job interview that Kristófer has with Takahashi-san starts off awkwardly until Kristófer mentions he comes from a fishing village. It’s something that Kristófer and Takahashi-san have in common. Takahashi-san is also an immigrant living in London. Takahashi-san says he moved and Miko moved from Japan to London in 1957.

Takahashi-san is impressed with Kristófer’s knowledge of all types of fish. Takahashi-san mentions that the dishwasher job will also entail helping out doing some cooking kitchen. Kristófer says he’s eager to do it, and he gets the job.

Kristófer is a quick learner and shows great respect for Japanese culture and cuisine. He decides to learn Japanese. After Kristófer find out who Miko is, they mildly flirt with each other but he keeps a polite distance, even though they obviously feel attracted to each other. Kristófer also gets along with his Nippon co-workers. In particular, he has a very friendly rapport with a middle-aged waitress named Hitomi (played by Meg Kubota), who treats him a little bit like a younger brother.

The first time that Kristófer and Miko have a conversation, they’re in the back room of Nippon. The Plastic Ono Band anti-war song “Give Peace a Chance” (written and sung by John Lennon) is playing in the background, Miko says to Kristófer that he reminds her of Lennon—and it’s not just because Kristófer has dark hair, a beard and wears round glasses like Lennon. Miko is often coy when talking to Kristófer and sometimes she is very direct in asking him personal questions.

Kristófer’s hopes of getting closer to Miko are temporarily dashed when she introduces him to her boyfriend Naruki (played by Masaya Mimura), who looks like he’ about five to eight years older than Miko. Kristófer is polite to Naruki but deep down, Kristófer is disappointed that Miko already has a boyfriend. It’s later shown in the movie how romance develops between Kristófer and Miko and what eventually happened to Naruki.

The love story is the obvious center of “Touch,” but the movie also has empathetic portrayals of the generational traumas caused by the World War II atomic bombings in Japan, specifically in Hiroshima. Kristófer also sees firsthand that racism against Japanese people is a lot closer to him than he thought it was, when Jónas and Markús visit Nippon as customers and make racist remarks about Japanese people in front of the employees.

In order for a movie like “Touch” to have its greatest emotional impact, the love story between Kristófer and Miko has to be convincing. Fortunately, Pálmi Kormákur and Kōki give very good performances that will make viewers root for this couple who quickly fall in love but also keep their love affair hidden from Takahashi-san, for various reasons. Kristófer does not want their romance to be a secret, but Miko is very afraid of her father and other people in her Japanese community of find out this secret.

The trailer for “Touch” already reveals that in 1969, Kristófer was shocked to find out that Takahashi-san abruptly closed restaurant and left London with Miko, who never said goodbye or contacted Kristófer again. The Nippon employees were not given any information on where Takahashi-san and Miko went. A flashback in the movie shows that when Kristófer went to the apartment where Takahashi-san and Miko lived, no one there knew any information either.

Now that he is a widower, Kristófer wants to find out what happened to Miko and why she disappeared from his life so suddenly. The movie’s scenes that take place in 2020 consist of Kristófer getting clues and following those clues in his quest to find out what happened to Miko. The movie implies that Kristófer doesn’t know how to use the Internet because he uses other ways to get the information that he needs.

Ólafsson gives a very endearing performance as elderly Kristófer (who is still mild-mannered and gentle), but there are many unanswered questions about Kristófer by the time he goes on the search for Miko. It can be presumed that the filmmakers of “Touch” didn’t want to delve too much into elderly Kristófer’s life as a husband and father because it would perhaps take away from the intention for viewers to anticipate a reunion between Kristófer and Miko.

Aside from having big voids in Kristófer’s backstory from 1970 to 2020, it’s hard not to notice that Pálmi Kormákur is much taller (by about four or five inches) than Ólafsson. It’s somewhat distracting to see how much shorter elderly Kristófer is, compared to young Kristófer. (And it’s not because elderly Kristófer walks hunched over.)

This disparity in physical height is not nearly as problematic as how the “Touch” movie makes a point of mentioning in the beginning that elderly Kristófer has dementia, but then the dementia is never shown for the rest of the movie. It didn’t need to be a dementia sob story, but a little more realism would’ve helped in showing that elderly Kristófer has this serious disease and why he feels like his time is running out to find Miko. During the entire time that he looks for Miko, elderly Kristófer’s mental and cognitive abilities seem perfectly fine, with no signs of memory loss, as if his dementia magically disappeared.

Although “Touch” bungles the accuracy in portraying someone with dementia, the movie excels in the emotional aspects of this story. Of course, there are twists and turns in the search for Miko. “Touch” is very effective in showing that this search isn’t about nostalgia but it’s about reconnecting with a loved one and sharing the parts of yourself that never went away.

Focus Features released “Touch” in select U.S. cinemas on July 12, 2024. The movie was released in Iceland on May 29, 2024.

Review: ‘Spy x Family Code: White,’ an anime adventure movie about missing microfilm and just desserts

April 16, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Spy x Family Code: White”

Directed by Takashi Katagiri

Available in the original Japanese version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional countries of Westalis and Ostania, the animated film “Spy x Family Code: White” (based on the “Spy x Family” manga and anime series) features a cast of Japanese characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A male spy and a female assassin, who have an arranged marriage as part of their undercover identities, take their adopted daughter on a school trip, where she is targeted by villains who think the daughter has some valuable microfilm.

Culture Audience: “Spy x Family Code: White” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the manga and anime series on which the film is based and will appeal to people who like family adventure animation with a simple but entertaining story.

Snidel in “Spy x Family Code: White” (Image by Tatsuya Endo/Shueisha/Crunchyroll)

Neither awful nor spectacular, “Spy x Family Code: White” is has enough unique whimsy to not be completely maudlin. Fans of the manga and anime series should enjoy this spinoff film, which has a predictable but entertaining story. The erratic comedy in “Spy x Family Code: White” will be received better by some viewers compared to others. The movie is a spinoff of the “Spy x Family” anime series (which began in 2022), which is based on the “Spy x Family” manga series.

Directed by Takashi Katagiri and written by Ichiro Ohkouchi, “Spy x Family Code: White” has a story that doesn’t require viewers to know anything about the characters before seeing the movie. The main characters and their relationship to each other are described fairly early on in the story. Most of the action is quite formulaic, but the characters’ snappy dialogue can be amusing and can hold most viewers’ interest. “Spy x Family Code: White” also has some eye-catching and stunning animation that unfortunately is not consistent throughout the movie.

In the “Spy x Family” series (which takes place in the fictional rival countries of Westalis and Ostania) a young male spy named Loid from Westalis has gone undercover in Ostania, to spy on Donovan Desmond, leader of the National Unity Party. Loid is an arranged marriage with a young female assassin named Yor. Loid, who is master of disguises, uses the alias/nickname Twilight. Yor, who has extraordinary combat abilities, uses the alias/nickname Thorn Princess. Loid is intelligent and thoughtful. Yor is impulsive and more likely to act on her emotions.

Loid and Yor (who have the last name Forger in their fake marriage) are posing as spouses as their undercover identities. Yor and Loid keep secrets from each other, including their real identities. As part of his phony identity, Loid is a psychiatrist at Berlint General Hospital. Loid and Yor have an adopted orphan daughter named Anya, who is about 4 or 5 years old (but is pretending to be 6 years old), has psychic abilities, and is an energetic child. The male family dog Bond (who is a Pyrenean Mountain Dog) has precognitive abilities.

Loid is part of a mission called Operation Strix, where he has enrolled Anya in Eden Academy same school where the children of Donovan Desmond are also students. The intention for Anya’s enrollment is for it to be a way for Loid to have some connection or gain access to Desmond through these children. Eden Academy has medals called Stella medals that are given to students for various achievements.

In the beginning of “Spy x Family Code: White,” Loid gets bad news from Sylvia Sherwood, also the Handler, who is his supervisor: Someone else is going to replace Loid in Operation Strix. Loid thinks this would-be replacement is too cautious and incompetent. In order to prove his worth, Loid decides that he can infiltrate a Stella medal ceremony, which an Eden Academy ceremony that Desmond is expected to attend.

One of the ways that Anya hopes to get a Stella is by winning a dessert-making contest. Anya finds out that Eden Academy principal (who is also the head judge of the contest) loves meremere, which is a merengue-styled cake. Anya tells Loid and Yor about this contest. The best place to get the ingredients for meremere is a place called Frigis.

And so, the Forger family (with Bond along for the ride) travels by ship to Frigis. While on the ship, Anya finds a storage room, where she opens a stranger’s trunk and sees a ball of chocolate that’s about the size of a golf ball. Anya eats the chocolate, but she will soon find out that valuable microfilm was hidden in that chocolate. Two armed henchmen of a villain named Snidel find out that Anya has eaten this chocolate.

Anya escapes from these military thugs but the hunt is on to find her. Snidel is a military colonel who is a typical scheming and sinister antagonist. The contents of this microfilm could possibly start a major war. The usual “we have the save the world” platitudes ensue.

Meanwhile, Yor is secretly in love with Loid and wishes that they had a real romantic relationship. Before the trip to Frigis, a friend told Yor that there are three big clues that a cheating partner is having an infidelity affair: The cheater (1) wants to take trips away from the betrayed partner; (2) changes style of dressing; and (3) gives gifts to the betrayed partner out of guilt. The most frivolous part of the movie is Yor fretting over whether or not Loid could be dating someone without her knowledge. All of these scenes of Yor worrying and whining about Loid make Yor look immature and ditsy, especially since Loid invited her on this trip. Therefore, the first “infidelity clue” never applied in this situation.

The voices of “Spy x Family Code: White” characters are portrayed by different cast members, depending on the version of the movie. The original Japanese version (with English subtitles) has Takuya Eguchi as Loid, Saori Hayami as Yor, Atsumi Tanezaki as Anya, Banjō Ginga as Snidel, Kenichirō Matsuda as Bond and as the movie’s narrator. There’s also a U.S. version, with the dialogue dubbed in English, that has Alex Organ as Loid, Natalie Van Sistine as Yor, Megan Shipman as Anya, John Swasey as Snidel and Tyler Walker as Bond.

“Spy x Family Code: White” has some comedy involving bodily functions that people will either tolerate or dislike. The movie has a very simple “good versus evil” plot that gets occasionally messy and jumbled, with the expected scenes of chases and fights. The voice performances are competent.

There’s a lurching and manic quality to how many of the scenes go from one scene to the next. “Spy x Family Code: White” is not an incoherent film, but it zips around from scenario to scenario so quickly, people who are unfamiliar with these characters might lose interest. The “Spy x Family” series is probably a better format than this movie to get to know these characters. However, “Spy x Family Code: White” can be considered a fairly good sample of this engaging franchise.

Crunchyroll will release “Spy x Family Code: White” in U.S. cinemas on April 19, 2024. The movie was released in Japan on December 22, 2023.

Review: ‘The First Slam Dunk,’ a thrilling anime film about striving for basketball glory and coping with grief

February 23, 2024

by Carla Hay

“The First Slam Dunk”

Directed by Takehiko Inoue

Available in the original Japanese version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: Taking place in Japan, the animated film “The First Slam Dunk” (based on the “Slam Dunk” manga series) features a cast of Japanese characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 17-year-old basketball fanatic, who is the point guard on his high school team, wants to win the inter-high basketball championships while he is coping with the death of his older brother, who was also a basketball star.

Culture Audience: “The First Slam Dunk” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the manga series and anime films with memorable characters, great action scenes, and emotional resonance.

Takenori Akagi in “The First Slam Dunk” (Image courtesy of GKIDS)

“The First Slam Dunk” is one of the best basketball movies you could ever see. It’s a suspenseful and emotionally gripping film that balances a story of achieving sports greatness and coping with grief. Simply put: “The First Slam Dunk” is an artful cinematic adaptation of the “Slam Dunk” manga series on which it is based. There have also been a “Slam Dunk” TV series (which was on the air from 1993 to 1996), video games and other movies based on the “Slam Dunk” manga series.

“Slam Dunk” manga creator Takehiko Inoue wrote and directed “The First Slam Dunk” (his very impressive feature-film debut), based on his 1990 to 1996 manga series of the same name. “The First Slam Dunk” is an example of how the creator of a manga series can be the best person to also a direct a movie based on the series. Fans of “The First Slam Dunk” manga series will be immensely pleased with this movie version, which should also win over new fans.

“The First Slam Dunk” (which takes place in Japan) is centered on the story of a basketball team’s quest to win a high-school championship and a star player on the team who is dealing wt the death of his beloved older brother. The movie’s main protagonist is Ryota “Ryo” Miyagi, the point guard (#7) of Shohoku High School’s basketball team. Ryota, who is 17 years old, is still grieving over the death of his older brother So-Chan “Soto” Miyagi, who died when Soto was 12 and Ryota was 9. Soto is the one who influenced Ryota to become a basketball player.

Ryota lives at home with his widowed mother Kaoru and his younger sister Anna. A flashback shows that after the death of the children’s father, when Soto was still alive, Soto told his mother Kaoru: “I’ll be the family captain, Ma. Soto tells Ryota that Ryota can be the assistant captain. Coincidentally, Soto and Ryota were born on the same month and date, just three years apart.

Ryota is haunted by the memories of Soto. Winning a championship means more to him than just getting a title. For Ryota, it means making his family proud and honoring Soto’s legacy. Much of “The First Slam Dunk” consists of games that Shohoku High School’s basketball teams on their quest for the championship. They want to unseat the reigning championship team from Sannoh Kogyo High School, which has a star player named Kazunari Fukatsu.

The other members of the Shohoku High School basketball team are team captain Takenori Akagi (#4), three-point shooter Hisashi Mitsui (#14), a former MVP of his junior high school; small forward Kaede Rukawa (#11); and power forward Hanamichi Sakuragi (#10), who is the team’s biggest rebel. In the “Slam Dunk” manga series, Hanamichi is the central character.

The road to the championship isn’t easy, of course. There are crushing defeats, injuries, self-doubt and conflicts among the team members. The basketball scenes are absolutely thrilling and will make viewers almost feel like they’re watching a live-action game. There’s also a little bit of romance, since Haruko Akagi (Takenori’s younger sister, who also plays basketball) is the love interest of Hanamichi.

The voices of “The First Slam Dunk” characters are portrayed by different cast members, depending on the version of the movie. The original Japanese version (with English subtitles) has Shugo Nakamura as Ryota Miyagi, Kenta Miyake as Takenori Akagi, Jun Kasama as Hisashi Mitsui, Shinichiro Kamio as Kaede Rukawa, Subaru Kimura as Hanamichi Sakuragi and Maaya Sakamoto as Haruko Akagi. There’s also a U.S. version, with the dialogue dubbed in English, that has Paul Castro Jr. as Ryota Miyagi, Aaron Goodson as Takenori Akagi, Jonah Scott as Hisashi Mitsui, Aleks Le as Kaede Rukawa, Ben Balmaceda as Hanamichi Sakuragi and Abby Espiritu as Haruko Akagi.

You don’t have to be a basketball fan to enjoy “The First Slam Dunk” movie, which is well-written from beginning to end, with many captivating visuals. Hanamichi has the flashiest personality on the Shohoku High School basketball team, but sensitive and thoughtful Ryota is the most endearing team member and is the heart and soul of the movie. “The First Slam Dunk” is not just the name of this move but it could also describe the triumph that the movie is for Inoue as his feature-film directorial debut.

GKIDS released “The First Slam Dunk” in select U.S. cinemas on July 28, 2023. The movie was released in Japan on December 3, 2022. “The First Slam Dunk” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 28, 2024.

Review: ‘Perfect Days’ (2023), starring Kôji Yakusho

February 15, 2024

by Carla Hay

Kôji Yakusho and Arisa Nakano in “Perfect Days” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Perfect Days” (2023)

Directed by Wim Wenders

Japanese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Tokyo, the dramatic film “Perfect Days” features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with a few white people and black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An elderly sanitation worker, who is a quiet loner, spends his days and nights trying to live a harmonious existence when he’s with other people, but he sometimes battles loneliness and being misunderstood.

Culture Audience: “Perfect Days” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in a “slice of life” movie that focuses on a specific individual.

Arisa Nakano and Kôji Yakusho in “Perfect Days” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Perfect Days” is a “slice of life” movie about an elderly sanitation worker who is a quiet loner. Viewer appreciation will rest entirely on whether or not this person is worth watching. For most people, the answer is “yes.” However, because “Perfect Days” is a slow-paced movie, it won’t have much appeal to viewers with short attention spans or those who have no interest in seeing this insularly focused movie about this type of person.

Directed by Wim Wenders (who co-wrote the “Perfect Days” screenplay with Takuma Takasaki), “Perfect Days” had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where star Kôji Yakusho won the prize for Best Actor. The movie then made the rounds at numerous film festivals in 2023, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. “Perfect Days” was nominated for Best International Feature Film for the 2024 Academy Awards.

Yakusho, who stars as “Perfect Days” protagonist Hirayama, gives the type of performance where he has to do a lot of acting with his facial expressions and body language, since Hirayama doesn’t talk at all for a great deal of the film. When he does talk, he does so sparingly, without saying his inner feelings out loud. It’s the type of performance that will make viewers want to know more about Hirayama—not in a way where the movie feels incomplete, but in a way that indicates there’s a lot more to Hirayama than he shows to the people he sees on a regular basis.

“Perfect Days” shows what amounts to about two weeks of Hirayama’s life. He works for a company called The Tokyo Toilet, and his job is to clean outdoor public toilets in Tokyo, where he lives. He is very responsible, prompt and thorough in his work. It doesn’t take long for viewers to see that Hirayama likes to keep his life uncomplicated and is happy with finding comfort in life’s simple pleasures.

Very little is known about Hirayama before this story takes place. What were his hopes and dreams when he was younger? Has he been married? Does he have children? What types of jobs did he have before his current job? Don’t expect answers to these questions, although because Hirayama lives alone and doesn’t mention having any children, it can be assumed that he’s a bachelor with no children.

A few things become apparent about Hirayama from his interactions with people. He’s kind, he’s generous, and he likes his daily routines. He has a pattern that he sticks to of going to his job, a local park for lunch, his favorite cafe and bar when he’s not working, and then going home. He likes listening to classic rock, reading, and taking outdoor photos. He keeps his photos neatly filed in boxes labeled according to the months that the photos were taken.

Hirayama shows his generosity by lending a co-worker in his 20s named Takashi (played by Tokio Emoto) some money so that Takashi can court a girlfriend named Aya (played by Aoi Yamada), whom Takashi wants desperately to impress. Takashi gets the money by whining to Hirayama that the Tokyo Toilet job doesn’t pay Takashi enough money to take Aya out on the dates that he thinks Aya deserves. At first, Takashi tried to persuade Hirayama to sell off a large part of Hirayama’s music collection (he has mostly cassettes and vinyl albums) to get the money, but Hirayama decides to just give Takashi the wanted cash instead. Takashi shows up late for work sometimes. When Hirayama has to pick up the slack for Takashi’s flakiness, Hirayama does so without complaining.

Music is a big part of “Perfect Days,” since Hirayama listens to classic rock from the 1960s and 1970s for enjoyment, and it becomes a way that he bonds with certain people in the movie. Patti Smith’s breakthrough 1975 album “Horses” is prominently featured in the story. Other music heard in the movie’s soundtrack (which is the soundtrack to Hirayama’s life) are songs such as Lou Reed’s plaintive 1972 ballad “Perfect Day,” Van Morrison’s classic 1967 love song “Brown Eyed Girl” and the Kinks’ 1966 jaunty hit “Sunny Afternoon.” There’s a scene in the movie where Aya asks Hirayama if she can find “Horses” on Spotify. He’s never heard of Spotify before and think it’s a physical retail store, because he doesn’t fully understand the concept of a digital streaming service.

A turning point in the story comes with the unexpected visit of Hirayama’s teenage niece Niko (played by Arisa Nakano), who shows up at Hirayama’s home because she’s having problems with her mother, who is Hirayama’s younger sister. This visit is a catalyst for Hirayama to look at his life from Niko’s perspective, and it opens up some old emotional wounds and certain feelings in Hirayama. “Perfect Days” is not a perfect movie, but it’s a wonderful example of a contemplative movie about someone who usually isn’t the main character of a movie and is the type of person who is often overlooked or forgotten in real life.

Neon released “Perfect Days” in New York City on November 10, 2023, with a wider expansion to more U.S. cinemas on February 9, 2024. The movie was released in Japan and other countries in 2023.

Review: ‘Godzilla Minus One,’ starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki

December 7, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Godzilla Minus One”

“Godzilla Minus One Minus Color”*

Directed by Takashi Yamazaki

Japanese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1945 to 1947, the sci-fi/action film “Godzilla Minus One” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A former World War II military fighter pilot joins forces with a motley crew to fight the ocean-dwelling monster Godzilla.

Culture Audience: “Godzilla” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Godzilla” franchise and crowd-pleasing action flicks about giant monsters.

Ryunosuke Kamiki in “Godzilla Minus One” (Photo courtesy of Toho International)

“Godzilla Minus One” is a welcome return to retro Godzilla filmmaking that puts more emphasis on character development, instead of the overblown visual effects and annoying characters than can be found in Hollywood versions of Godzilla movies. And the movie achieved this excellence with only a reported $15 million production budget, which is a small fraction of the budget of a typical Hollywood “Godzilla” movie.

Written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, “Godzilla Minus One” takes place in Japan, from 1945 to 1947. The movie has subtle and not-to-subtle symbolism of the effects that the atomic bomb had on Japan. The monster Godzilla, in its original iteration, was meant to be a symbol of fear of the type of massive destruction that can come from an atomic bomb or other type of nuclear bomb.

“Godzilla Minus One” doesn’t tease viewers or play coy in showing the monster, since Godzilla appears and kills people in the very first scene of the movie, within five minutes of the movie starting. “Godzilla Minus One” begins in 1945 (toward the end of World War II), at the Odo Island Airfield. Before Godzilla appears, a young fighter pilot named Kōichi Shikishima (played by Ryunosuke Kamiki) first notices that something is very wrong, because there’s a lot of dead fish in the ocean.

Everyone at the airfield dies because of Godzilla’s attack, except Kōichi and a Navy Air Service technician named Sōsaku Tachibana (played by Munetaka Aoki), who blames Kōichi for the massacre because Kōichi froze and didn’t shoot at Godzilla from his plane when he had the chance. Sōsaku thinks that Kōichi could have used his pilot skills to fight Godzilla, but it’s somewhat unfair blame because Kōichi had been knocked unconscious during the attack. Still, Kōichi feel guilty for all of the deaths and has post-traumatic stress disorder.

After returning home to Tokyo, Kōichi (who has no siblings) finds out that his parents died in an air raid bombing that killed thousands of people. A neighbor named Sumiko Ōta (played by Sakura Ando) tells him the tragic news. In her grief, Sumiko verbally lashes out at Kōichi (who was a kamikaze pilot), by scolding him for being a disgrace to Japan. Sumiko says that if he had done his kamikaze pilot job properly, he would have died for his country.

Kōichi has a secret that he tells to only a few people: When he was a kamikaze fighter pilot, and he knew that Japan was coming close to being defeated in World War II, he pretended that there was a malfunction in his plane, in order to temporarily get out of fighting in the war. He was at Odo Island Airfield to get his “malfunctioning” plane “fixed” when Godzilla attacked. The war ended shortly after this attack.

There is chaos in the streets of Tokyo, where one day Kōichi sees a woman, who’s about the same age as he is (mid-to-late 20s), frantically running away from some men who are calling her a thief. She’s carrying a baby, whom she quickly hands to Kōichi before running away. A shocked Kōichi spends quite some time looking for the woman, who comes out of hiding in a nearby alley when she sees that he is alone.

The woman says her name is Noriko Ōishi (played by Minami Hamabe), and the baby is a girl named Akiko. Noriko explains that Akiko is not her biological child. The baby was given to Akiko during an air raid attack by a dying female stranger, whom Noriko assumes is Akiko’s mother.

Noriko doesn’t know the woman’s name and has decided to take care of Akiko. Noriko also says that her own parents were killed in the air raid bombings and she has nowhere to live. Kōichi is a kind person and invites Noriko and Akiko to live with him. Noriko has an outspoken and independent streak.

By March 1946, the relationship between Kōichi and Noriko has blossomed into romantic love, but they are reluctant to express their true feelings to each other. They have settled into a happy domestic life as an unmarried platonic couple and are raising Akiko (played by Sae Nagatani) together. Their living arrangement is unusual, but not unexpected in an area devastated by war and where many people have formed familial bonds with people who aren’t biologically related to them, after their own biological family members died in the war.

Kōichi works as a minesweeper, while Noriko has an office job. Noriko is worried about the dangerous nature of Kōichi’s job, but he assures her that he probably won’t get killed from being a minesweeper. Their neighbor Sumiko, who is no longer angry at Kōichi, sometimes helps take care of Akiko. Kōichi is kind to Akiko, but when she becomes old enough to speak, he doesn’t want her to call him “daddy” or “father.” He repeatedly tells Akiko that he’s not her father, and she looks sad every time he says that, because Kōichi is the only father she has ever known.

In his minesweeper job, Kōichi works with three other men on a ramshackle wooden boat called Shinsei Maru. The three other men are a former Navy engineer named Kenji Noda (played by Hidetaka Yoshioka), who is logical and even-tempered; boat captain Yōji Akitsu (played by Kuranosuke Sasaki), who is commanding and has a somewhat stubborn personality; and junior crew member Shirō Mizushima (played by Yuki Yamada), who has an eager-to-learn personality and wants the respect of his more experienced colleagues.

Since this is a Godzilla movie, it’s only a matter of time before Godzilla makes another appearance to attack. Without going into too many details, it’s enough to say that by 1947, Kōichi finds himself in the Pacific Ocean fighting Godzilla with his colleagues, as already shown in the movie’s trailer. Kenji has come up with a plan to destroy Godzilla. But will this plan work?

A former Navy air service technician named Sōsaku Tachibana (played by Munetaka Aoki) has a pivotal role in the fighter planes that are used in the intense battles against Godzilla. It should come as no surprise that Kōichi would eventually use his fighter pilot skills instead of being stuck on a boat firing cannons. The action in the movie is easy to predict but still thrilling to watch.

“Godzilla Minus One” also makes the most of its relatively small budget with convincing visual effects and sound design. In addition to writing and directing “Godzilla Minus One,” Yamazaki co-led the movie’s visual effects department with Kiyoko Shibuya. This is a Godzilla movie where viewers can feel as terrified as the characters in the movie. The pacing and editing of the movie in the battle scenes also add to the suspense.

Visual effects and action scenes are empty without engaging characters. No one is going to win any major awards for acting in “Godzilla Minus One,” but the movie does a very good job at showing the emotional stakes that the principal characters have in the story. Like many of the characters in the movie, Kōichi and Noriko lost their families to a massacre. Kōichi and Noriko have created a unique family of their own that viewers will be rooting for to survive and stay together. Godzilla is the namesake and star attraction for this franchise, but the best Godzilla movies are the one that have human characters whom viewers care about the most.

*January 26, 2024 Update: Review of “Godzilla Minus One Minus Color”

“Godzilla Minus One Minus Color” is the same movie as “Godzilla Minus One,” but in black and white instead of color. On the plus side, the black-and-white imagery makes the movie look more like the 1940s time period in which the story takes place. However, iconic hue images, such as Godzilla’s glowing blue spine, aren’t there. The heart of the story remains, which is why it’s still an impressive monster movie. But the color version is a more immersive experience that makes Godzilla slightly more terrifying.

Seeing the movie in black and white makes it look like a time capsule, almost like a documentary. The psychological effect on viewers is that Godzilla looks like a monster stuck in a past century. Seeing the movie in color makes it look more convincing that Godzilla is a monster that could live for centuries and could be part of the present day. And that’s why the ending is more effective when seeing the movie is color.

Toho International released “Godzilla Minus One” in U.S. cinemas on December 1, 2023, with a sneak preview on November 29, 2023. The movie was released in Japan on October 18, 2023. A black-and-white version of “Godzilla Minus One,” titled “Godzilla Minus One Minus Color,” will be released in Japan on January 12, 2024, and in the U.S. on January 26, 2024.

Review: ‘The Boy and the Heron,’ a fantastical adventure anime movie from filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki

November 26, 2023

by Carla Hay

“The Boy and the Heron”

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Available in the original Japanese version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: Taking place in Japan, mostly in 1944, the animated film “The Boy and the Heron” features a cast of Japanese human and animal characters representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash: A lonely adolescent boy, who’s grieving over the accidental death of his mother, befriends a half-heron/half-man, who leads the boy to fantastical world inside a mysterious tower, where he encounters past versions of various people and a power-hungry group of parakeets.

Culture Audience: “The Boy and the Heron” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and time-traveling anime movies that can be enjoyed by various generations.

Himi in “The Boy and the Heron” (Image courtesy of GKIDS)

“The Boy and the Heron” artfully blends heavy issues of grief with the escapism of a thrilling adventure. It’s a beautifully told and moving story that is as much about being a legacy to departed loved ones as it is about establishing one’s own identity. “The Boy and the Heron” had its North American premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, “The Boy and the Heron” is inspired by but not connected to Genzaburō Yoshin’s 1937 novel “How Do You Live?,” which is the Japanese title of the movie. “The Boy and the Heron” has elements of Miyazaki’s childhood in the movie, which has an original screenplay. Miyazaki (who won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for 2001’s “Spirited Away”) has been synonymous with among the best of what Japanese animation company Studio Ghibli has to offer. “The Boy and the Heron” ends a 10-year gap between Miyazaki’s movies. His previous movie was 2013’s Oscar-nominated “The Wind Rises.”

“The Boy and the Heron” begins with a tragedy. In 1943, in Tokyo during the Pacific War, 12-year-old Mahito Maki is woken up from his sleep to the sound of chaos. His businessman father Shoichi Maki tells him that the hospital where Mahito’s mother Himi works is on fire. The hospital and the fire can be seen from the Maki family home. Mahito (who is an only child at this point) wants to go with his father to the hospital to help save Maki, but Shoichi insists that Mahito stay at home. Unfortunately, Maki does not survive the fire. It’s implied that the fire was caused by a bomb during this war.

The following year, 13-year-old Mahito and Shoichi move to Grey Heron Mansion, in an unnamed city in the countryside. Shoichi, who owns an ammunition factory near the estate, is now married to Himi’s younger sister Natsuko, who is described as a look-alike to Himi. The first time that Mahito meets Natsuko, he finds out that she is pregnant with his younger sibling. It’s a lot to take in for introverted Mahito, who is deep in grief over his mother’s death.

The mansion has seven elderly maids, who dote on Mahito and often work together in a pack. The maids’ names are Kiriko, Aiko, Izumi, Eriko, Utako, Oyuki, and Kazuko. Kiriko is the unofficial leader of the maids. She is often stoic and less talkative than the other maids in the group. Natsuko and all of the maids treat Mahito with kindness. Shoichi is a caring father, but he is very preoccupied with his work.

One day, Mahito notices that a grey heron has flown up to him, as if to try to get his attention. Mahito is told that his grey heron has lived on the property for quite some time. The grey heron will visit Mahito more times over the next several days.

Shortly after moving to this new home, Mahito goes exploring in the estate’s wooded area. He finds a tower that is somewhat sealed off, but Mahito finds a way to peek inside. He’s later told by Natsuko that the tower was built by her granduncle, who had a mental breakdown and disappeared. However, this granduncle left behind a book of his writings. Natsuko also tells Mahito that when Himi was a child, Himi disappeared for a year, but reappeared a year later with no memory of having been gone.

Quiet and shy Mahito has a hard time making friends with other students at his school. The students mostly ignore him or give him hostile stares. Out of frustration and to get out of going to school, Mahito hits himself on the head with a rock. It causes him to bleed profusely. Mahito tells people that he fell down, but his father Shoichi doesn’t believe Mahito. Shoichi thinks that Mahito was assaulted by a bully and is determined to find out who it is.

While Mahito is recovering from his injuries, he gets an unusual visit from the grey heron, who flies to Mahito’s window and squawks, “Mahito, save me!” The heron tells Mahito that Mahito’s mother is still alive and living in the tower. Around the same time, Natsuko goes missing. Through a series of events, Mahito, the heron and Kiriko find themselves trapped in the tower, which is actually a magical place inside that has past versions of some of the people whom Mahito knows.

The grey heron also reveals himself to be half-pelican, half-man, who can wear the pelican part of his body like a costume. It’s best not to go into further details in this review, but it’s enough to say that the story in “The Boy and the Heron” also features pelicans, a parakeet kingdom, and beings called warawara that look like white-colored stars and have a purpose that’s connected to life forces. Some of the scenes in this movie are visually stunning and very immersive.

The voices of “The Boy and the Heron” characters are portrayed by different cast members, depending on the version of the movie. The original Japanese version (with English subtitles) has Soma Santoki as Mahito, Masaki Suda as the Grey Heron, Takuya Kimura as Soichi, Yoshino Kimura as Natsuko, Kô Shibasaki as Kiriko, Aimyon as Himi, Jun Kunimura as the Parakeet King and Kaoru Kobayashi as a wise old pelican. There’s also a U.S. version, with the dialogue dubbed in English, that has Luca Padovan as Mahito, Robert Pattinson as the Grey Heron, Christian Bale as Soichi, Gemma Chan as Natsuko, Florence Pugh as Kiriko, Karen Fukuhara as Himi, Dave Bautista as the Parakeet King and Willem Dafoe as a wise old pelican.

“The Boy and the Heron” explores themes of life, death, and what it might mean to change one’s destiny by going back in time and possibly doing things differently. There are also some sociopolitical observations about how much control people should give leaders over who lives and who dies, as well as some obvious (but not preachy) commentary about the dangers of damaging the environment. There’s a point in the story where Mahito has to decide how much he is going to make his grief control a big decision that he has to make.

The movie has some well-animated and suspenseful action scenes and gives each of the main characters a distinct personality. The voice actors also give very good but not outstanding performances. With so many animated movies stuck in a formulaic rut, “The Boy and the Heron” can be a viable option for people looking for a well-made and entertaining animated film that also has meaningful messages about humanity’s connections to other creatures, the environment, and the life cycles that are unique to all.

GKIDS released “The Boy and the Heron” in select U.S. cinemas on November 24, 2023, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on December 8, 2023. The movie was released in Japan on July 14, 2023.

Review: ‘That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond,’ an adventure anime film that continues the story after Season 2 of the anime TV series

April 29, 2023

by Carla Hay

“That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond”

Directed by Yasuhito Kikuchi

Available in the original Japanese version (with English subtitles) or in a dubbed English-language version.

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional kingdoms and villages, the animated film “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” (based on the manga series and TV series) features an all-Japanese cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash: Heroes race against time to find a tiara that absorbs a toxin that can save the decimated kingdom of Raja.

Culture Audience: “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the manga series and TV series on which the movie is based, but everyone else might be bored or confused.

Lacua in “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” (Image courtesy of Crunchyroll)

Whenever a movie is made out of a popular book series or a TV series, the question that must be asked is: “Will most viewers who are new to this franchise understand and enjoy the movie, without having seen any of the source material?” Unfortunately, the answer is “no” for Japanese animated film “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond.” The movie’s visuals can be engaging, but the story is too jumbled and told in a trite manner. Most of the characters are also forgettable, unless a viewer is already a fan of the anime TV series and manga series.

Directed by Yasuhito Kikuchi and written by Kazuyuki Hudeyasu (with screenplay contributions from Junichiro Okumura and Otoe Yashika), “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” is based on Fuse’s 2013 to 2016 novel series “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime,” which was turned into a manga series and an anime TV series. The anime TV series’ first season debuted in 2018, while the second season aired in 2021. “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” is a movie that takes places after the second season of the anime series.

In all of these stores, Mikami Satoru is a 37-year-old man who dies and is reincarnated as blue slime that is blind and deaf. But he combines two abilities called Predator and Great Sage to become a blue-haired superhero named Rimuru Tempest, who goes on various adventures. Under the Predator power, he can shapeshift into anything to disguise himself. With the Great Sage power includes several skills involving superintelligence and some psychic abilities.

In “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond,” a mercenary is wounded in a battle in the beginning of the story. He wakes up in the bedroom of the palace of the Queen Towa, the ruler of small kingdom called Raja that mines gold. However, Raja is currently devastated and is a shadow of its former self, because miners depleted one of Raja’s biggest gold dens.

Queen Towa doesn’t know the name of this mercenary, who has partial amnesia and is very concerned about going back to his village to save it. She thinks he’s a hero, so she gives him the name Hiiro. After recovering from his injuries, the newly named Hiiro (who is a survivor of the Ogre race) goes back to his village and finds it empty and looking desolate. He then returns to Raja.

Meawhile, Rimuru Tempest has been told that Geld, an orc who is an ally fighter, is under attack in a forest. Around the same time, Hiiro finds his long-lost best friend from childhood in the forest. His best friend was a like a brother to Hiiro, and he now has a new name: Benimoru, who introduces Hiiro to Geld. Hiiro and Benimoru not only treat each other like brothers, but these red-haired men also have a physical resemblance to each other.

Benimoru and Geld have become friends, even though Geld was part of the invasion that destroyed the village where Hiiro and Benimoru grew up. Geld is remorseful for his involvement, and Benimoru has forgiven him. Other people are not as forgiving.

Hiiro and Benimoru reunite with some of the people from their hometown village, including Benimoru’s pink-haired younger sister Shuna and her purple-haired friend Shion. Hiiro, Benimoru, Geld, Shuna and Shion eventually cross paths with Rimuru Tempest.

Meanwhile, Queen Towa has collapsed and finds out from a minister leader that her collapse came from toxins released from the gold mines of Raja. It’s a curse that will take over her entire body, just like what happened to other previous queens of Raja. The only way that the curse can be lifted is to wear a tiar that can neutralize the toxin. But there’s a catch: The wearer of the tiara will absorb the curse’s poison and is at risk of dying.

Rimuru, Hiiro, Benimoru, Geld, Shuna and Shion team up to help Queen Towa in finding the tiara. They travel to different lands, including the Great Forest of Jeru, which is guarded by a Storm Dragon called Veldora. There’s also a chief villain named Lacua, who does what chief villains usually do in stories like this. Also appearing in the movie is a chief prosecutor named Violet.

The voices of the “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” characters are portrayed by different cast members, depending on the version of the movie. The original Japanese version (with English subtitles) has Miho Okasaki as Rimuru, Yuma Uchida as Hiiro, Riko Fukumoto as Towa, Makoto Furukawa as Benimaru, Subaru Kimura as Lacua, Tomoaki Maeno as Veldora, Miyu Tomita as Violet, Sayaka Sembongi as Shuna, M・A・O as Shion and Taro Yamaguchi as Geld. There’s also a U.S. version, with the dialogue dubbed in English, that has Brittney Karbowski as Rimuru, Jonah Scott as Hiiro, Cherami Leigh as Towa, Ricco Fajardo as Benimaru, Tony Oliver as Lacua, Chris Rager as Veldora, Cristina Valenzuela as Violet, Tia Ballard as Shuna, Michelle Rojas as Shion and Cris George as Geld.

“That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” is not a completely terrible movie. It’s just a movie that wastes a lot of time for a story that is very basic. There is nothing clever or inventive in this predictable tale. And the characters’ dialogue is awfully generic. Most of the characters have bland and forgettable personalities. It’s not a movie that will inspire a lot of newcomer viewers to seek out the source material or anticipate any other movie in the series.

Crunchyroll released “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond” in select U.S. cinemas on January 20, 2023. The movie was released in Japan on November 25, 2022.