Sadako (2019)
Ring Sequel
The thirteenth film in the Ring/Ringu franchise. The question is whether the return of original director Hideo Nakata can revitalise the series
Japanese Cinema
Sadako vs Kayako (2016)
Ring/Grudge Series Crossover
The two most popular Japanese horror franchises of the last 15 years come together to fight it out. Both series work on the provision of intensely uncanny effect but brought together the result is diluted at best, while aspects have to be altered in order to make the two merge together in one story
Sakuya, The Slayer of Demons (2000)
Demon Slaying Girl Samurai
Japanese film about a demon-slaying girl samurai. The creatures effects and world-building mythology gone into this is quite extraordinary
Scary True Stories (1991-2)
Japanese Ghost Stories
A trio of Japanese tv movies that retell supposedly true life ghost stories
Seance (2000)
Medium/Kidnap Thriller
Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa conducts a remake of the British thriller Seance on a Wet Afternoon. Where the original was a mundane film that depicted a kidnap scheme involving a fake medium, Kurosawa builds this out as an actual ghost story
Secret of the Telegian (1960)
Teleporting Super-Villain
Toho Films of the 1960s are best known for the Godzilla films and assorted monster bashes. This is one of their non-monster films, part of a spate of mutant supervillain films concerning a villain who has invented a teleportation machine and is using it to exact revenge
Sharing (2014)
Premonitions of Disaster
I went to see this on the description that called it a horror film about premonitions of disaster but far less interestingly it is a fictional attempt to analyse people’s attempts to grieve over the Fukushima Disaster – not uninteresting but with little interest in being a fantastic film
Shikoku (1999)
Japanese Ghost Story
Spookily effective Japanese ghost story about a mother’s pilgrimage around a series of shrines to raise her daughter’s spirit from the dead
Shin Godzilla (2016)
Giant Atomic Monster
The 29th of the Japanese Godzilla films. Coming after the longest gap in the series to date, this functions as a complete reboot of the original. Godzilla is reconceived as a fearsome creation amid epic mass destruction and what are hands down the best effects of any film in the series
Shin Kamen Rider (2023)
Japanese Superhero Reboot
A reboot of the classic Japanese tv series about a superhero who goes into action on a motorcycle using a suit to transform into a grasshopper being
Shin Ultraman (2022)
Japanese Superhero Reboot
Reboot of the old Japanese superhero series, conducted with the epic scale, mass destruction and dazzling effects of the more recent Godzilla films
Short Peace (2013)
Anime Anthology
An anthology of short anime pieces from various directors, including creator Katsuhiro Otomo, the cult creator of Akira. The four episodes vary from historical to fantasy to futuristic warfare and, as with any anthology, vary in quality from the okay to the watchable
Sinking of Japan (2006)
Japanese Disaster Movie
Big-budget modern Japanese remake of a 1970s disaster movie in which Japan starts to catastrophically sink into the ocean. Despite revisiting the original with CGI spectacle, this is a film in which hardly anything interesting happens
The Sky Crawlers (2008)
Anime/Cloned Flyers
From Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame, an anime that seems a mix of Biggles and Never Let Me Go, all taking place in an alternate world. The film is exquisite in its detail
Slit Mouth Woman in L.A. (2014)
Japanese Horror Anthology
Another version of the popular figure from Japanese urban legend, which has appeared in a number of films. This is an anthology where four Japanese directors have come to L.A. to shoot a series of strictly average short horror tales, not all of which feature the Slit Mouth Woman
Solar Crisis (1990)
Space Mission
Ambitious SF film about a space expedition to save the Sun, this bombed at the time but is not uninteresting
Son of Godzilla (1968)
Japanese Monster Bash
The eighth Godzilla film featuring the introduction of his son Minya in a shameless pitch for juvenile audiences. The series is no longer taking itself seriously, although ends up more likeable than some of the other entries of this period
Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
Anime Space Opera
The great Osamu Dezai makes a colourful anime that jumps aboard the Stars Wars space opera fad
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
Anime 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
Space Cruiser Yamato (1977)
Anime Space Opera
Anime film spun off from a popular Japanese tv series. Despite crude animation, this has a colourful vigour and taps the same space opera vein as Star Wars, which came only three months earlier
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013)
Anime/Space Opera
The brooding space pirate Captain Harlock is one of the famous anti-heroes in manga and anime. Harlock gets a big screen revamp here from Shinji (Appleseed) Aramaki, one of the most amazing of modern anime directors, who delivers a series of epic space battles with a breathtaking beauty
The Spiral (1998)
Ring 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
Spirited Away (2001)
Anime/Afterlife Bathhouse
One of the masterpieces of Hayao Miyazaki, a gentle, beautiful work of anime set in an afterlife bathhouse where Miyazaki’s range of extraordinary creatures and quiet tenderness finds something that Western fantasy rarely ever comes near
Spriggan (1998)
Anime/Alien Artefact/Psychic Kid Amok
Katsuhiro Otomo overseen anime about the discovery of Noah’s Ark, an alien artifact that gives a child vast psychic powers in a swathe of destruction not dissimilar to Akira
Stacy (2001)
Schoolgirl Zombies
A bizarre Japanese film about hordes of schoolgirl zombies
Starship Troopers: Invasion (2012)
War with Aliens/Anime
The importation of anime director Shinji Aramaki to helm the latest Starship Troopers film provides dazzling animation and hardware, along with some hard, furious military action that easily outstrips all the other films. On the other hand, the film never goes beyond being about soldiers shooting up bugs
Steamboy (2004)
Steampunk Anime
Sixteen years after making Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo returns to direct a full-length anime, making a Steampunk work that is dazzling in its epic quality and vistas of mass destruction
Strange Circus (2005)
Twisted Disfigurement Story
Japanese director Shion Sono has emerged as an increasingly worthwhile name in recent years. This is an admirably twisted and perverse work that leaves you flabbergasted
Submersion of Japan (1973)
Disaster Movie/Japan Sinks Into the Ocean
A thinking person’s disaster movie depicting Japan’s sinking into the ocean
Suicide Club (2002)
Programmed Mass Suicides
Japanese horror film that launched the name of Shion Sono and is attention grabbing but proves an unfathomable mix of mass suicides, mysterious websites that predict the deaths and a pop band seemingly controlling it all
Summer Time Machine Blues (2005)
Japanese 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
Summer Wars (2009)
Anime/Amok A.I./Family Saga
Beautifully made Mamoru Hosoda film about a rogue A.I. taking over a social media network. A film that is also a heartwarming work about family togetherness
Suzume (2022)
Anime/Quest to Close Portals
Beautifully made anime about a young girl and a three-legged chair on a quest to close a series of portals across Japan and prevent unimaginable chaos emerging
Sweet Home (1989)
Gonzo Japanese Haunted House Film
Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa has developed a reputation for his intensely uncanny and deeply unfathomable horror films. This is one of his earlier works, a much more straightforward haunted house film that in its more bizarre moments attains the whacked-out dementia of the cult Japanese film House
Tale of a Vampire (1992)
Vampire Romance
Part of the 1990s fad for dark romantic vampire films with vampire Julian Sands lurking around a library and fixating on Suzanna Hamilton
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)
Anime/Japanese Fairytale
Studio Ghibli adaptation of a classic Japanese folktale from Hayao Hiyazaki’s mentor Isao Takahata. This is a slower, very different film than Hayao Miyazaki’s, the animation designed like a traditional Japanese woodprint. Never quite soars like Miyazaki’s films do but not without its charms
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Anime/Epic Fantasy
Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro more than capably takes up his father’s mantle in a beautiful adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea books
Tamala 2010 (2002)
Demented Anime/Girl Cat's Space Adventures
Grungy low tech anime that comes out like a sarcastic version of Hello Kitty
Taro, The Dragon Boy (1979)
Anime/Young Boy's Adventures
Likeable and charming Japanese anime for children about a young boy of hubris who sets out on a series of adventures
Tekkonkinkreet (2006)
Anime/The Lives of Street Kids
Anime about two homeless boys living in an inner city neighbourhood. The background artwork has a stunning degree of detail such that the city almost becomes its own character
Terra Formars (2016)
Mutated Insects on Mars
Takashi Miike delivers a completely madcap film about evolved cockroaches on Mars being fought by astronauts who take doses of mutagenic serum to give them insect-based super-powers
Terror Beneath the Sea (1966)
Amphibian Cyborgs
Japanese movie made for international sales where a scientist has built a race of amphibian cyborgs to take over the world
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1976)
Japanese Monster Bash
The fifteenth Godzilla film, the last of the classic series, featuring a return of Mechagodzilla from the previous film. Original director Ishiro Honda returns to the series and reclaims it from the juvenile focus it had taken over the last few films to make the best entry of the 1970s
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992)
Man-Machine Fusion
Shinya Tsukamoto makes a better budgeted sequel to his breakthrough hit. The first film was a masterpiece of guerilla filmmaking but the same frenzied fetishism is missing here
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009)
Man-Machine Fusion
Shinya Tsukamoto’s third Tetsuo film is a disappointingly commercial concession that waters down all of the surrealism and wild sexual fetishism that made the first film so amazing
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Man-Machine Fusion
Extraordinary directorial debut from Japan’s Shinya Tsukamoto, a frenetic, fetishistic and surreally deranged vision of man-machine fusion that feels like David Lynch having gone away and done a crash reading course of William Gibson
Three … Extremes (2004)
Asian Horror Anthology
Standout horror anthology designed to highlight episodes from three Asian directors – Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan, South Korea’s Park Chan-wook and Japan’s Takashi Miike – all of whom are on top form
Time of Eve (2010)
Anime/Cafe for Androids
Fascinating anime about a cafe for androids. Imagine a cross between an Isaac Asimov Robot story and Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes. The film opens up in a series of episodes that tell stories of human-robot relations that hold a lovely tenderness
Time Slip (1981)
Soldiers Thrown Back in Time to Feudal Japan
Highly entertaining Japanese film about modern soldiers thrown back to feudal Japan and deciding to overthrow the shogunate
The Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010)
Japanese Time Travel Film
A live-action film based on a popular Japanese young adult novel that has been filmed multiple times before. This is a rather dull film that fails to do anything terribly interesting with its time travel premise
To the Solitary Me Who Loved You (2022)
Multiverse Film/Anime
Multiverse films are all the in-thing in superhero films right now. This anime is a treatment of multiverse themes far away from superheroics that works beautifully in its sophistication of ideas
Tokyo Fist (1995)
Boxing, Body-Piercing and Masochism
Shinya Tsukamoto returns to the repressions of his earlier Tetsuo: The Iron Man in this frenetic, ultra-violent work about a downtrodden salaryman who reconnects with life by allowing himself to be beaten up in the boxing ring. This feels like Raging Bull remade by David Cronenberg
Tokyo Ghoul (2017)
Manga Adaptation/Secret World of Ghouls
Live-action adaptation of a manga about a teenager who becomes part of a secret world of flesh-eating ghouls. The set-up comes with some imagination but the film suffers from an uninvolving story and a reliance on unconvincing CGI
Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film/Cops vs Bio-Mechanoid Mutants
One among the 00s spate of gonzo Japanese splatter films. The film exists as a series of outlandishly over-the-top and absurdly entertaining splatter and bizarrely cartoonish bio-mechanoid transformation
Tokyo Tribe (2014)
Near-Future Gang Warfare
Shion Sono is a director who has gained cult acclaim in recent years. This astonishes with the brashness of his approach, set among the street gang warfare of the near future where all of the dialogue is delivered in rap. On the other hand, the film lacks the budget to sustain such energy
Tomie (1999)
Japanese Ghost Story
Another Japanese horror film that stands heavily in the shadow of Ringu. Directed without much style and often uninteresting to the point of being dull, it is hard to tell from this that you are watching a film that inspired eight sequels
Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
Japanese Ghost Story
Classic Japanese kaidan eiga (or ghost story). Made not long after Akira Kurosawa’s new realism in Japanese cinema, this comes with a superb formalism as it slowly moves over into the supernatural
Unico (1981)
Anime/Young Unicorn Boy's Adventures
aka The Fantastic Adventures of Unico Japan. 1981. Crew Director – Toshio Hirata, Screenplay – Masaki Tsuji, Based on a Story by Osamu Tezuka, Producer – Shintaro Tsuji, Music – Ryo Kitayama, Art Direction – Akio Sugino. Production Company – Sanrio. Plot The gods are jealous of the young unicorn boy Unico who can bring […]
Urotsukidoji II: Legend of the Demon Womb (1989)
Anime/Perverse Demon Wars
The first of two OVA sequels to the anime classic Legend of the Overfiend, this lacks the perverse imagery of the original
Uzumaki (2000)
Spiral Obsession and Mutations/Japanese Horror Film
Surreal Japanese horror film in which the world is taken over by spiral patterns. A strange and trippy film.
Vampire (2011)
Serial Killer with a Blood-Drinking Fetish
Technically not a vampire film at all, rather about a kind and caring serial killer with a blood-drinking fetish who frequents suicide support boards looking for victims. A remarkable film, shot in a plain, unaffected manner and managing to discover an extraordinary intimacy between the characters
Vampire Bride (1960)
Vengeful Creature/Japanese Horror
Rather drab and cheap Japanese horror film about a disfigured actress who returns to life as a hairy vampire creature to exact vengeance. Not without its schlocky appeals, the hairy vampire bride looks more funny than threatening
Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009)
Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film
Completely insane Japanese film that wades in gore while playing everything up at a level of demented cartoonish absurdity. Possibly the most delirious movie-watching fun it is possible to have
Vampire Hunter D (1985)
Anime/Post-Holocaust Vampire Hunter
Cult anime about a monosyllabic vampire hunter moving across a hallucinatory post-apocalyptic dispatching mutants and vampires
Vampire Hunter D (2000)
Anime/Vampire Hunter
Yoshiaki Kawajiri, director of Ninja Scroll and Wicked City, steps in to make a sequel(?)/reboot(?) to the cult 1985 anime with visually enthralling regard
Varan the Unbelievable (1958)
Japanese Monster Movie
Japanese monster movie from the same team that created the original Godzilla. The English-language version has simply kept the effects scenes and cut everything else, replacing it with scenes of the US military ordering the Japanese about
Versus (2000)
Yakuza Zombies/Splatter
The directorial debut of Ryuhei Kitamura. A film premised on the idea of mashing the John Woo-styled gangster film up with the gore-drenched George Romero zombie film.
Vexille (2007)
Anime/Future Android Japan
Anime film about an android-overrun future Japan that resembles another episode of the Appleseed franchise
Village of Dreams (1996)
Mischievous Twins' Childhood/Magical Realism
Japanese Coming of Age tale about two mischief-making twin brothers growing up in the 1940s
Visitor Q (2001)
Catalogue of Perversions/Mysterious Visitor/Black Comedy
One of the key films in the cult of Takashi Miike that has been frequently banned for its taboo-defying outrages in which a mysterious visitor causes a family household to descend into perverse extremes
War of the Gargantuas (1966)
Japanese Monster Bash
From Ishiro Honda, the creator of Godzilla, this bizarrely features two giant Frankenstein monsters battling it out. A fairly typical Japanese monster movie of its era featuring cheesily ridiculous rubber monsters, copious mass destruction and a largely irrelevant human element
Warning from Space (1956)
Japanese Alien Visitors Film
The first Japanese entry in the great alien invader fad of the 1950s. Nothing great but it does boast the awesomeness of starfish-shaped aliens
Weathering With You (2019)
Anime/Girl Who Can Control Weather
From Makoto Shinkai who made Your Name., a lovely anime about a girl who can control the weather
What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? (2022)
The Aftermath of a Giant Monster Attack
An amusing take on the Japanese Monster Movie that takes place in the aftermath of a monster battle as various government agencies debate what do with the carcass of a giant monster lying in the countryside
When Marnie Was There (2014)
Anime/Ghost Story
A ghost story from Studio Ghibli – although rather than any Western equivalent that sets out to scare the pants off us, this is a sweetly tender story of friendship between two girls. The result more than capably approaches some of Hayao Miyazaki’s best
A Whisker Away (2020)
Anime/Girl Transforms Into a Cat
A sweet and quite lovely anime where a girl befriends the boy she pines after being offered a mask that transforms her into a cat body – only to then have her own body stolen
Wicked City (1987)
Anime/War with Demon Dimension
Anime from Yoshiaki Kawajiri about a war with a demon dimension that falls halfway between H.P. Lovecraft and a hard-boiled detective thriller and brims over wit fascinatingly pathological sexual imagery
Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965)
Children's Time Travel Film
Likeable puppet animated film about a time-travelling boy and his monkey companion
The Wings of Honneamise (1987)
Anime/Alternate World Spacelaunch
Little-seen but beautifully made anime set in an alternate timeline where a young man becomes the volunteer for the first space launch
Wolf Children (2012)
Anime/Werewolf Children
Mamoru Hosoda proves himself as one of the major directors in anime with this tender, lovely and enormously affecting work about a mother raising two werewolf children.
World Apartment Horror (1991)
Strange Apartment Building Comedy/Haunting
After making the groundbreaking anime Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo then chose to direct this oddity – a live-action comedy about a frustrated Yakuza enforcer trying to evict an apartment of foreigners that turns into a horror film in its last third
X (1996)
Anime Superheroics
Anime involving a superheroic battle for the fate of the world. Dazzling eye candy but too many characters and subplots make things confusing
The X from Outer Space (1967)
Japanese Monster Movie
A wannabe entry in the Japanese monster movie, this has the distinction of featuring possibly the most ridiculous monster to ever turn up in one of these films
Yakuza Apocalypse (2015)
Gonzo Yakuza Vampire Film
Japan’s Takashi Miike gained a cult with a series of films that went to extremes or crossed way over taboo lines; his films from the mid-2000s have become more experiments that produce a head-scratching “huh?”. Case in point being this Yakuza vampire film that frequently feels like much of it was being made up on the spot
Yakuza Weapon (2011)
Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film/Yakuza With Cyborg Attachments
Another Gonzo Japanese Splatter Film about a Yakuza heir who is blown apart by rivals and then rebuilt with cyborg attachments
YatterMan (2009)
Anime TV Series in Live-Action/Gonzo Giant Robot Heroics
Takashi Miike conducts a live-action adaptation of a 1970s anime tv series with completely madcap results. The effect is like drowning in multi-coloured candyfloss flavoured with LSD
Yog – The Monster from Outer Space (1970)
Japanese Monster Movie
One of the more forgettable films from Godzilla creator Ishiro Honda about an alien entity taking the form of giant animals on a Pacific island
Your Name. (2016)
Anime/Cross-Time Bodyswap
Makoto Shinkai is a rising name of acclaim in anime. This starts as a regular light and fluffy piece about a boy and a girl who keep waking up in each other’s bodies but then expands out into a wholly different story, gaining unexpected emotional depths as it does
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie – Pyramid of Light (2004)
Anime/Playing Card Dueling
An animated film based on the hit playing card phenomenon, which proves largely incomprehensible to anybody not versed in the game
Yuki: Snow Fairy (1981)
Anime/Young Goddess Comes to Earth
A very rare anime film about a fairy who descends to Earth from the heavens and takes the side of downtrodden peasants in standing against a greedy landowner and a demon god
Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010)
Japanese Superhero
Takashi Miike makes a sequel to his earlier superhero film filled with his typically eccentric touches
Zebraman (2004)
Japanese Superhero
Head-scratching effort from Japan’s Takashi Miike about a schoolteacher who gains superpowers after putting on a costume from his favourite superhero tv series. Miike never seems to be mounting a parody, while the film is too low-budgeted to ever work in terms of kick-ass superheroic action
Zombie Ass: The Toilet of the Dead (2011)
Gonzo Japanese Horror/Zombie Ass Parasites
Completely insane gonzo Japanese horror that feels like it is made by a mad scat fetishist involving parasites that emerge out of people’s asses. The film is driven by its outrageously perverse imagery but for all that is haphazard and incoherent when it comes to explanatory rationale