Tetsuya Chihara proves the spiritual link between design and filmmaking in Ice Cream Fever.

Rinko Kikuchi goes all-in with Yoko and raises the question: Why isn’t she a giant star?

Sho Miyake delivers another thoughtful drama for adults about adults in All the Long Nights.

52-Hertz Whales takes the voiceless metaphor a bit far, but as J-melodrama goes it’s better than most.

Japan dives into YouTube as a source for movies with The Floor Plan. There’s a reason stuff on YouTube is 15 minutes.

Ado-rom! That’s it. 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days is a better adolescent romance than most.

It’s not as dark ast Kitaro, but Totto-Chan tells The Boy and the Heron’s story better.

Koda Gou goes there in his Kitaro origin story, The Birth of Kitaro: Mystery of GeGeGe. Brace.

Yuya Ishii’s The Moon has a whole lot to say, just not entirely coherently.

Huang Ji’s contemporary China trilogy wraps with Golden Horse winner Stonewalling.

Hey, at least this My Missing Valentine is a little less pervy than the original.

Wim Wenders takes us to the toilet in Perfect Days, and what a trip it is.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi cuts it short for Evil Does Not Exist, but still manages to pack a wallop. A cryptic one.

If Hayao Miyazaki is going out after The Boy and the Heron, it’s not quite with a whimper, but it certainly isn’t a bang.

Tstuomu Hanabusa wraps up the Tokyo Revengers live action adaptation in flat style.

Shunji Iwai strikes again. If you dig Iwai, have at it.

Yoji Yamada’s latest could probably warm the ice coldest of hearts.

Daishi Matsunaga takes on seminal Japanese LGBTQ+ novel Egoist and does not embarrass himself.

If you don’t already know Kenji Miyazawa, you won’t know him after Father of the Milky Way Railroad.

People, we have a contender for 2023’s biggest turkey. I give you: Onpaku.