The Spiral (1998)
Mar 26, 2008Ring Sequel
The black sheep among the Japanese Ringu films. A sequel released the same time as the first film, this lacks the other's uncanny atmosphere and was ignored as the other film launched a franchise
Imagica
Pulse (2001)
Jul 24, 2007Japanese Ghost Story
From Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa, a ghost story that creates an incredibly haunted atmosphere. As with most of Kurosawa’s work, dazzling ideas sit alongside a murky and impenetrable plot where you are baffled trying to make sense of what is happening
Summer Time Machine Blues (2005)
Jul 6, 2012Japanese Time Travel Comedy
Witty and enormously clever Japanese time travel film. This readily homages Back to the Future but has a great deal of original fun of its own creating a series of hilarious temporal conundrums. One of the most entertaining films I have seen in some time
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
Sep 7, 2011Anime TV Series in Live-Action/Space Opera
A live-action remake of the 1970s anime series Space Cruiser Yamato made with stupendous effects, although now much of the plot has been rendered familiar by assorted Star Wars copies
Real (2013)
Aug 19, 2014Dreamscape Film
A Japanese-made variant on the dream incursion theme of Inception. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is noted for his bafflingly surrealistic horror films but in working in a genre like science-fiction that requires an implied explainability, he makes a far less interesting film