Shikoku (1999)
Oct 14, 1999Japanese 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
Chiaki Kuriyama
MPD Psycho (2000)
Feb 23, 2021Split-Personalitied Detective vs a Body-Hopping Killer
Takashi Miike tv mini-series with a mind-bogglingly confusing plot involving a split personalitied detective, possession, a terrorist pop star and barcodes imprinted in eyeballs
Battle Royale (2000)
Jun 28, 2003Deadly Elimination Game
An entertainingly violent Japanese comic-book of a movie in which a classroom of school pupils is abandoned on an island with weapons to eliminate one another. Frequently cited as the inspiration for The Hunger Games
The Great Yokai War (2005)
Dec 15, 2007War in the Realm of Japanese Spirits
Takashi Miike jumps aboard the mid-00s fad for secondary world fantasy films, creating a realm of spirits where he and his makeup and creature effects team go absolutely wild
Exte: Hair Extensions (2007)
May 29, 2015Killer Living Hair Extensions
An earlier effort from Shion Sono that concerns itself with hair extensions that take over and kill their host. More straightforward than many of Sono's other works but the outlandish of the effects make the film
Battle League Horumo (2009)
Jun 13, 2012Combat Tournaments with Miniature Creatures
Japanese film about teams that engage in combat tournaments with hordes of Smurf-like creatures. This spends too much time on its high school drama cliches but eventually finds the dementia of its concept at the climax
Library Wars (2013)
Dec 30, 2015Future War Between Libraries and Censors
Set in a future where libraries have armies fighting against the militarised forces of censorship. The social scenario strains credibility but this Japanese Young Adult film works well