MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

9 Like Someone in Love

     MK2

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami may have created some of the most beloved films in Iranian cinema, but he turned his lens in 2012 to Japan with the feature film Like Someone in Love. Like Someone in Love would be his final movie, as he died in 2016. Akiko (Rin Takanashi) is a sociology student in Tokyo who lives a double life behind closed doors: she is a high-end sex worker. The people around her, including her boyfriend, do not know what her real job is, although they have their suspicions. If they were to find out, Akiko’s life would drastically change. With notes of melancholia, Like Someone in Love is a subtle, Kiarostami movie in its essence.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

8 Norwegian Wood

     Toho

In this adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s novel Norwegian Wood, Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, and Kiko Mizuhara form the main cast. A young man, Toru Watanabe (Matsuyama), has moved to Tokyo for his college education in the 1960s but instead finds himself drowning in loneliness. After meeting his ex-best friend’s girlfriend randomly in a park (Kikuchi), Watanabe finds himself in a love triangle with her and another girl (Mizuhara). With historical unrest lingering in the background, Norwegian Wood is a coming-of-age story saturated with mourning and solitude.

7 Happy Hour

     Fictive

Before there was Drive My Car or Asako I & II, Ryusuke Hamaguchi dropped Happy Hour, a five-hour saga about the lives of four different women. All the women are married and live in Kobe, Japan, and are in their 30s. Deep down, each of them is unhappy with the relationships they have created, causing them to try and seek out a change. But because the movie has such a long run time, each character has the opportunity to tell their story and truly be understood, creating a sense of realism that could only be made with time and a well-done script.

6 Antiporno

     Django Film

Released in 2016, Antiporno seeks to revive a genre in Japanese cinema that seeks to reclaim sexual identity in a strict society. What is unique about this movie, however, is how it provides a more feminist slant to a genre that has a tendency to glorify and objectify women. As it zooms out of its own story to deconstruct the medium of narrative itself, Antiporno critiques filmmaking as a medium perpetuating both the male gaze and their fantasies.

5 After the Storm

     Fuji Television

Hirokazu Kore-eda returned in 2016 with a family story: After the Storm. In life, one cannot always follow their dreams of whom they want to be, and that ends up in After the Storm. A father, once an award-winning author, has burned out and gambled away most of the money he makes. Because of that, he is unable to pay for child support, as his wife divorced him and has custody of their son. As he visits his son and attempts to get back together with his ex-wife, he is given only one night to try and fix the wrongs he has created in his life.

4 A Bride for Rip Van Winkle

     Rockwell Eyes

A Bride for Rip Van Winkle released as two different versions. One edition was longer than the other with almost fifty minutes more content. A high school teacher meets a young man online and decides to marry him. When he asks why her guest list is so small, she contacts an online friend and ultimately ends up hiring paid actors to attend the wedding, creating a complex situation that divides her story between “before” and “after.”

3 Like Father, Like Son

     Amuse

Like Father, Like Son dwells on similar themes as the movie Hirokazu Kore-eda released three years later: After the Storm. A father is successful in his career as an architect, but it comes with a major sacrifice. He has neglected his son and wife in favor of his ambition. One day, he comes home and discovers his son is not actually his son; his real son was switched at birth. The two families then come to the decision that they need to swap the children, leading to some revelations about social class, upbringing, and what it means to be a cohesive family.

2 Your Name

Your Name caused quite a splash when it was released in 2016, and was a commercial success worldwide. The animation of Your Name is gorgeous to watch on the screen, creating a dynamic experience that is quite memorable. A boy and girl wake up one morning and discover they have switched bodies, but there is a catch: she is from the countryside and he, the city. There is much more to the story than that, leading to a tender tale about friendship, dreams, and the significance of fleeting moments.

1 Shoplifters

Hirokazu Kore-eda returned in 2018 with another family tale, but this time with a twist. Shoplifters is the story of a family living in poverty, and to find enough money to survive they must resort to shoplifting. After discovering a little girl abused by her family, they choose to take her in as if she was always a part of their family. The story was developed after he wrote Like Father, Like Son, and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, while landing an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature.