May 19, 2016 — In the late 1950s, when Shindo chose to create a nearly dialogue-free portrait of a family living on a remote island, he was taking a great chance, putting the fate of his struggling production company Kindai Eiga Kyokai on the...

May 3, 2018 — Two of the earliest films to depict the bombing of Hiroshima show how politics shapes national mourning.

Oct 25, 2024 — An underseen gem of the Czechoslovak New Wave and an ambitious history of Hindi cinema are among this week’s highlights.

Dec 10, 2017 — The 2017 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) have been spread around a good number of films this year. Here's a list of all the nominees with the winners in bold; links from the titles will take you to collections of...

Nov 1, 2017 — The nominations for the 2017 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) are out, and William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth leads with fifteen. Mark Gatiss will host the BIFAs ceremony on December 10 in London. Links from the titles will take you to...

May 17, 2016 — Juxtaposing a vision of a stark, primitive existence on a remote Japanese island with that country’s vast twentieth-century modernization, Kaneto Shindo reveals Japan’s postwar paradoxes and makes a case for its essential, immutable character.

Oct 17, 2011 — Scratch the surface of a contemporary J-horror classic like Ringu (1998) or any of the Ju-on films (2000–03) and you’ll glimpse Yabu no naka no kuroneko (Black Cat from the Grove), released in the U.S. as simply Kuroneko (1968). Shot...

Mar 15, 2004 — This Japanese classic’s guiding passion is hunger, and its central image—a gaping black hole in the earth—is that of an all-consuming maw.