People who have been reading the site for a while will remember that last year i had covered a selection of movies from the Japan foundation touring film festival that were shown at a local theatre. there was some amazing movies there and i had a great time getting out to see them all. this year i decided, why not make it a regular thing, especially now that i'm covering things like movies and anime more often, it's a lot more in my wheelhouse than it was back then when i was still new to covering things other than video games regularly. i went to see every movie shown in my local this time and i'll rank them just like i did last year. now it's worth noting this isn't every movie that was part of the festival overall, just the ones my local theatre ended up showing. it ended up being a really solid showcase, there were only two movies i didn't come away from loving and even then i still liked both overall, bar some issues i had with them. it's a far stronger showcase than last year just in terms of the consistancy of the quality and i was really happy to be able to make it out to see them all. it's a nice chance to get some air, see friends and i've been doing it often enough that we even have little traditions now, like always getting bubble tea from my favourite local spot and checking the thrift stores for games and dvds!

ghost killer: this one was the highlight of the event for me. it's a stylish action movie about an angry woman that gets possessed by the spirit of an assassin and fights back against the men making the lives of her and her friend hell. it's funny, it has a great energy, some fantastic action scenes and even managed to get me pretty emotional at times, it's the whole package and it's easily the best film of the programme. the action is the main reason to watch, admittedly and it is so damn good. the stunt team for both the male and female leads gave their all and it results in some of the best action scenes I've seen in a movie like this, they're high energy and creative and usually pretty funny too with the bar fight being the highlight of both for me. the final fight and the face-off with the assassins rival are solid too though. the movie is easily the funniest movie here and it had me laughing for almost its entire runtime. even outside of the action scenes it's super well written and the characters are a lot of fun to be around. the two leads, akari takaishi and masanori mimoto, especially have amazing chemistry and carry the whole movie almost on their own, both just super charming and they play really likable characters that bounce off of each other super well. the side cast is great too, the villains don't have the most presence but i love the rival hitman and fumika's friend both, the latter has one of my favourite scenes when they're trying to figure out how the whole possession thing works. i'm always a fan of these kind of "very clear power fantasy for women very sick of being treated like shit by men", there's a catharsis there that you just don't get in real life and it's nice having that vicarious fantasy. for me a movie could be kind of lame otherwise but if it gives me what i want there i still will usually like it a lot. this is one of the better of those though, it feels so good to see her fight back against the skeevy elitist influencer that tries to drug women or the scumbag abusive boyfriend making her friends life hell. it gives those fight scenes such a better feel and payoff to them (plus hey we get to see some rapists die, that's enough for me to rank this at number one alone) . rank it at number one i did, this is easily the best one of the lot. it had me smiling for its entire run. i had a blast from start to finish and once the screening ended and i had time to reflect i instantly went online and grabbed the import DVD for this, zero regrets, if you watch any movie from this bunch it would be a good idea to make this the one you go for.

the last blossom: i adored this movie, this was the sleeper hit of the show and is an easy shoe-in for my second favourite. it's an animated Japanese crime movie mixed with a very sweet love story. the main character spends his dying days talking to a plant about his regrets in life and it goes back and fourth between eras as you learn more about his life in and outside of the yakuza. it's a really sweet and sentimental movie that has a lot to say and i loved every second of it. the cast are majorly interesting and likable but the main couple stole the show, they were both so interesting and likable and it makes you really wish things turned out differently for them. i'm a big fan of "yakuza with a heart of gold" storylines and this is one of the better ones I've seen it's a heartbreaking movie because you kind of know the ending going in and you end up dreading the direction of it, especially when things start to get genuinely violent and tense in the movies final half when it confronts you with the reality of the job the lead does. it's also super pretty! most of it is set in two rooms, the apartment and the prison cell, but it's interesting seeing the apartment change as time goes on with tech and stuff and seeing the world outside it change too. stuff like how the sea view eventually gets covered up by apartments as the city becomes slowly gentrified. it's a running theme in the movie, like how it tackles things like the yakuza itself growing and changing over time with some of the cast there dealing with it and struggling to adapt, it's neat. the music is good too, it has a super catchy rendition of stand by me using household items that had me smiling while the rest of the movie had me in tears, this made me cry more than anything else this festival. the final act is brutal emotionally and the movie delivers some really heavy hitters, the entire section with the map had me bawling. it's a must watch i feel, everything about it i loved and i will be buying it on whatever physical media it ends up on! special mention goes to the movies OP "moving still life" by "cero", very solid song. all of this makes it easily my second favourite of the year, in most years this might have even been first which is a testament to how good the lineup was this year.

sham: this years festival started with a bang with one of the best of the year in "sham" by takash mike. this one I was excited for ever since I got a trailer for it in front of a different movie earlier in the year. the movie follows two perspectives in a court case, one side is a teacher being accused of bullying a student to suicide and the other being the parent of the child accusing. it's a very serious subject matter and the movie handles it with a lot of maturity and grace. it's a tough sit though and has some really difficult to stomach scenes, helped by some amazing performances by both gou ayano and kou shibasaki. the former especially steals the show here, his performance had me in tears a few times. the scene in the rain and a few minute stretch in the ending are both heart-rending and had half of the screening weeping. the soundtrack fits and it has some really nice shots of urban Japan so it both looks and sounds great, I love the ways the movie is shot changing depending on who is telling the story too, it's interesting seeing things like tone and lighting change in scenes depending on the narrator. the way the story unfolds through the two perspectives is really interesting too, seeing these characters in so many different lights is interesting, a character can be a sadist in one scene and a saint in another, or seeing one character go from emotional and loving parent to a cold and emotionless psycho is some impressive range in terms of both writing and acting. it's an easy movie to recommend if you can handle the subject matter, the story Is great, the characters interesting (I didn't mention them but the lovable lawyer character and the scummy journalist guy are both really interesting and well written too, the journalist is pretty cute too) and it's consistently good throughout. I might even go so far as to say it's one of miike's best, up there with personal favourites of mine like the ryu ga gotoku movie or ichi the killer. it's ranked third but i wouldn't consider it the overall third, that's mainly because third is a three-way tie this year along with our next two movies.

conflagration: this was one of the most exciting movies of the festival for me. the director: one Kon Ichikawa directed one of my favourites of last years festival with "the inugami family". I'm not sure if i ranked it as the best of last years or not but it's since been the one that stuck with me the most so naturally i was really interested in this one. it's also the only movie of this years festival that i went out of my way to see alone, which i think worked for this. it's a very introspective movie and seeing it in a quiet theatre alone really enhanced it for me. that said i don't think i liked it as much as inugami family, that movies pace and atmosphere just worked for me better but conflagration was still one of the best of this years festival and well worth watching, for a lot of people i imagine it would have been the show stealer in a year that was really damn solid for movies. it's a very character focused movie about an apprentice monk in post-war Japan struggling with family issues and disillusionment with religion and the hypocrisy of the monks who practice it at a temple in Kyoto. it's a very slow burn story but it's one with some of the most interesting characters of the festival and some of the best writing too. everyone has depth and they're all interestingly awful in their own ways but the movie never feels miserable to watch like a lot of "bad people doing bad things" stories tend to be. the standouts for me would be the head monk and his disabled friend who both have some of the movies best writing and acting. you really want to see how these people push goichi into doing what he did. goichi himself is the most interesting of the cast, he's complex and quiet because of his stutter. in some ways he might even be one of the worst people in the movie but he's convinced he's above them all, religiously devout in a way i think is really interesting to watch unfold as he slowly unravels. it's also really pretty, the temple that most of the movie takes place in has a real sense of place to it and it's beautiful to see all the sides of it. the pavilion that the movie is based around is the main star though, it's beautiful enough that it's easy to see why people revere it so much, just makes you wish you could have seen it in real life when it was at its peak. it's worth noting that the movie is based on a novel by "Yukio Mishima" who I'm admittedly not the most familiar with, this is more or less my first experience with his work. it didn't mean much to me but i imagine for some that alone might be reason to seek this out, which i do recommend doing. it's a very interesting watch.

bad summer- another one of the most exciting movies of the event. this one had a trailer in front of every other movie before it and it looked amazing. the trailer had a great energy to it and every time i saw it i got even more excited to see it. when it came to actually watching it, the movie kind of surprised me. the trailer wasn't the most accurate in the world since the movie wasn't as chaotic or comedic as the trailer made it look for most of its runtime. it was pretty dark and hard to watch but i think i actually liked it even more because of that. it's a crime thriller that mainly focuses around the Japanese welfare system and the people who do and don't deserve it. it focuses mainly on a few small narratives with the male lead trying to help a single mother who's being exploited, scenes from the mothers POV, a skeevy yakuza trying to take advantage of the system and an only partially related side-plot about another person that does need the systems help but can't get it. they all interact and you see them cross paths at points and it's really neat. the movie has it all lead up to a final night where those paths all do come together and it does get as crazy as the trailers made it seem in one of the more fun movie ending sequences I've seen. it reminded me a lot of the ryu ga gotoku movie or boiling point but on a smaller and less violent scale. it made for a pretty memorable movie i think. the cast helped with that, some of the most fun and interesting characters of all the movies here. the prettyboy office clerk mc with his really cute romantic storyline, the hot yakuza guy, the *spoilers* yandere co-worker and the cool looking love interest, though she doesn't really have much of a personality and tends to be quiet for a lot of it. it's commentary on the Japanese welfare system was interesting too, it's naturally not a topic i was well versed in before watching but i enjoyed learning about it in a way that's a lot more entertaining than reading about it on the net would be. in general it's an entertaining watch, though it's one of the more content warningy movies here, do a little research going in if you think some of the topics might be a lot to handle. the movie does have things like sexual coercion and some very vaguely non consensual sexual stuff going on, better to know what you're getting into with this one.

adabana: one of the bigger surprises of this year was adabana, a small scale sci-fi movie about the ethics of clones and organ harvesting. this one was interesting because on top of the showing they also had the director there in person for a live Q&A which was real highlight of the year, it was so nice to be able to hear from the director herself about aspects of the movie. this for sure gave the movie a few bonus points for me, but beyond that it's just a really interesting and beautiful movie that tells a thoughtful story really well. it's mainly about the MC, an heir to a corporation who near the end of the life takes the chance to talk to the clone that's going to give up it's life to save his and it's all about how he reckons with and comes to terms with the life that he has to take in order to prolong his. it's an interesting idea and the movie handles it really maturely, you see both sides of the situation and it helps that the performances are good to carry the very heavy material. Arata Iura nails it especially as both the regretful heir and the hopeful clone, i actually forgot at points that was he same actor in both roles which i think is pretty impressive. it's all shot in one location but the set design is really pretty and there's some really nice shots at a beach at night that stood out as being particularly beautiful. it's got a striking look to it and of all the movies this year it's the one that i think had the most creativity in how it looked. it does have one big issue though. the movie opens with some commentary on how social class plays into the clone system in the world and i think that's one of the most interesting questions it raises, but it doesn't really play much into the overall plot beyond a single way that isn't really explicitly stated. it feels like a waste of one of it's most interesting themes and i do wish it did a little more with it. it's also very slow burn, this worked perfectly for me and it really let the emotions build very well, but it seemed to bother the friend i saw the movie with. i think it's worth knowing that about it going in so you can be in the right mindset. it ranked pretty highly for me but i'm sad i couldn't place it any higher because of just how good this years crop of movies was. it made me cry more than almost anything this season beyond sham and the last blossom, it might be a little cliche at times but i like what it has to say and i think the look alone justifies a watch for me.

she taught me serendipity: this one i feel a little mixed on, sadly. i love romcoms and romantic dramas so i went into this one with pretty high expectations. it's not necessarily that those expectations weren't met since did enjoy it a lot but the movie just felt a little bit muddled, confused and meandering. the thing with it is that it's meant to be a love triangle that focuses more on the women, their lives and their stories. it does do this and it does this well, there's a great moment about half way in where the curtain is drawn on the MC's behavior and it paints the entire first half in a radically different light. i loved this bit! noticing small signs that the MC was a little creepy and stalkerish and that she clearly was awkward and not all that into him and having that pay off was great, it felt refreshing and real. seeing her actually be candid and trashing him for being a total stalker creep felt like nothing i'd seen in a movie like this before. the other confession scene too! with the girl really pouring her heart out only for the asshole MC to not even ay a word to her, it was so raw and real and it felt so meaningful. if the movie ended there i think it would be a lot higher in the rankings than it is, but i just can't do that. the movie falls apart a little after this, it just kind of meanders for a while with semi-related scenes as you watch the MC unravel and pick himself up after the love interest he turned down dies out of nowhere. it doesn't super feel earned though, he's given a redemption arc even though he doesn't change much (like how he still confesses his love to the woman who ghosted him for being a creep right after the both of them had an emotional experience of grief). the entire last chunk with him and the love interest grieving over the sister just didn't work for me fully, it had some great moments and the scenes with the dad had me in tears but it just didn't feel like the kind of ending that made sense to me and the killing off of the other love interest just felt a little out of nowhere. i still liked he movie a lot and it had great moments. i love the friendship between the MC and his genki best friend and i loved the first half and the fun workspace hijinx and the neat cafe scenes and i like what it's trying a lot but the second half does just drag it down for me. i still recommend it overall. It's interesting for most of its runtime and really pretty. it's one of the best looking movies of the event but just know going in that it doesn't entirely stick its landing, which is why it ranks as low as it does here.

ura aka- this one was a nice surprise for me, it's the one I was the least interested in going in and the fact it was showing on valentines made me worried about a packed theatre. neither of these ended up being accurate though as the movie was great and the crowd wasn't actually all that bad for the movie. this one is about "ura aka", anonymous accounts on places like twitter basically where people post nudes and other things that most normal people don't want on their main account. something that is fairly normalized In the west I've found but was always more taboo abroad and it touches on it with a lot of maturity and class in a way that never comes across as too perverted or crass, though the movie is very voyeuristic but in a way that's at least trying to make a point rather than being creepy. sure I think the movie had a little too many gratuitous sex scenes but they're there for a reason and the main guy was hot enough that I really didn't mind them being there, he's a red flag but that's my favourite kind. the cast do a great job, the main girl is really likable and interesting and I got really emotional and invested in her story and the love interest, if you can call him that, plays a hateable scumbag so damn well. it's well written too, when it gets funny it gets really funny and when it gets darker and emotional it hits hard and I was impressed how well it managed to handle both tones side by side. though a late movie twist has left me a little cold, I know it being out of nowhere was probably the point but it still very much blindsides you in a way that I think feels a little cheap and unearned. it's a shame since the movies other twist early on is really clever and well handled, *spoilers* the stark contrast between the almost romcom feeling first date and the cold, cruel aftermath with Yuta is probably the movies best aspect and it's something I think will really stick with me long after I finish writing this, the whiplash and shock had me really taken aback. it's got a ton of great shots of Tokyo too, it's a super pretty movie and some of the shots involving the apartment really stuck with me with how good the lighting looked. I didn't have many issues with it really, good music, the storyline kept me engaged and interested for the entirety and I found it really relatable, that internal struggle between "Net presence" and "the real you" is always a theme that hits me hard when movies tackle it and it's something that's only became more prevalent since the movies release with things like onlyfans being the literal worst thing to happen to humanity in the last decade. it's well worth a watch. this is the case of a movie that's really just last by circumstance, in any other year this would be a lot higher but this year was just so good that it ends up a little lower here.

tetsuo: the iron man: now this one wasn't actually part of the festival but i lumped it in for two reasons. for one it felt relevant and for two it was actually showing at a different festival during that same timeframe, so it feels like i might as well talk about it. i mean it's not like i need a reason to, the movie is rad as hell and deserves to be talked about, though i also just needed something cool to use for the thumbnail and the one shot i used was just too good to not get use out of. it's a cool experimental horror movie from Japan in the 80's and it's the kind of thing that's not the easiest to recommend to everyone. it's violent, sexual and very confusing from start to finish but it has just such a unique artistry and vision that it's hard not to get drawn into it. the whole movie is shot in black and white and it looks really striking especially when it does things like use still frames and quick cuts as a way of conveying motion or some stop motion effects with the metal. it was a movie i was pretty constantly in awe of visually and i think it's the movies strongest aspect. it's an otherwise lower budget movie though but it makes amazing use of what budget it does have with some of the best practical effects of its era on display here. the main characters transformation from salaryman to this gross metal beast is a real sight that i think is worth the price of admission on its own. it helps that the costume for it is one of the best I've seen and the movie does a ton of creative things with it that i really don't want to spoil. it even has a memorable character here with the hermit character who comes in near the end and gives the movie it's best quote "our love can destroy this whole fucking world". it's a short movie too clocking in at just over an hour long so i think if this is one that makes you curious then i think it's worth seeking out. do know what you're getting into though, it's very violent and sexual and it even delves into sexual assault territory at one point. so know that going into it. it wasn't enough to ruin it for me personally but it did hurt how much i liked the movie overall. it's up to you what your tolerance is for that kind of thing though so consider this a recommendation with an asterisk. it's one i ended up picking up a blu ray for almost right after, a neat little set that also comes with the movies sequel, so that'll be an exciting watch.