‘Queer Japan’ Film Review: Deliriously Scattered Film Embraces the LGBTQ Universe

Hayao Miyazaki's nearly two-decade reign atop Japan's all-time box office rankings has come to an end. Runaway anime blockbuster Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train became Japan's biggest box-office hit of all time over the weekend, pushing Miyazaki's beloved classic Spirited Away (2001) into second place.

Refresh for latest…: There was a bit more varied action at the international box office this weekend, including the continued rollout of Warner Bros/DC’s Wonder Woman 1984, a sizable start for China’s Shock Wave 2, the debut of Disney/Pixar’s Soul, The Croods: A New Age nearing $100M global, and a brand new milestone for Japan’s Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train which, according to estimates, has overtaken Spirited Away to become the highest-grossing film ever in the market.

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Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefNetflix has announced the greenlight of a second series for Japanese thriller series “Alice in Borderland” barely two weeks after its online debut. The show is a live-action adaptation of a popular manga.The eight-episode sci-fi fantasy is the story of a dissatisfied unemployed man (played by Yamazaki Kento) who follows a mysterious light source and finds that, but for himself and two friends, the population of Tokyo has seemingly disappeared.

Rebecca Davis editorUniversal Music Japan has appointed Rui Suzuki as its Tokyo-based chief financial officer starting on Jan.

Super Nintendo World will be opening at Universal Studios Japan very soon and a new look at the theme park was just unveiled!

EXCLUSIVE: The elaborate escape of former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn as he awaited trial on charges of financial misconduct in Japan made international headlines earlier this year. Now the alleged architect of that escape, private security operative Michael Taylor, is the subject of a feature-length film and television series, developed in tandem by Sam Rockwell, writer Davey Holmes, Vanity Fair Studios and MGM/UA TV where the Rockwell’s production banner Play Hooky has a first-look deal.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” has been sold by Paris-based Bac Films International to further territories. The movie will represent Tunisia in the Oscar race for best international feature film.“The Man Who Sold His Skin” world premiered at Venice, where it won the best actor award for Yahya Mahayni.

It was a frozen Christmas Day in 1949, in the elastic aftermath of World War II, when a dozen U.S. soldiers with the 27th Infantry Regiment "Wolfhounds" accompanied a Red Cross representative to the Holy Family orphanage, tucked into the snowy streets in Osaka, Japan.

Bad Bunny's burgeoning silver screen career will soon include a role in Bullet Train, an upcoming action film starring Brad Pitt, according to a new report from Deadline. Bullet Train is based on the book of the same name by Japanese author Kotaro Isaka and will be directed by David Leitch of Hobbs & Shaw and Deadpool 2.

It’s not going to end well for Japan’s “Twitter killer.”

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefJapanese police on Wednesday formally charged 42-year-old local man Shinji Aoba with murder relating to the arson attack in July last year at Kyoto Animation.The blaze, set using gasoline, killed 33 people on the scene and three more in hospital.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefPolice in Osaka, Japan have begun a legal case against a man who is alleged to have cyberbullied Kimura Hana, the reality TV star who died earlier this year, apparently by suicide.Kimura, a professional wrestler, was one of six cast-members of “Terrace House,” which played locally on Fuji Television and globally on Netflix. The show was subsequently canceled.Police on Thursday referred the case to prosecutors in Osaka.

Japanese prosecutors on Wednesday charged a man with murder for last year’s deadly arson attack on Kyoto Animation, the family-run studio behind a string of internationally beloved anime films and television series. The suspect, Shinji Aoba, 42, was detained in the immediate aftermath of the fire, but local authorities had to wait months for him to recover from serious burns before formally placing him under arrest.

Netflix is adding fantasy film The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity to its pool of high-profile Chinese commercial movies. The feature, directed by youth-favorite filmmaker Guo Jingming, will debut on Netflix on Feb.

Queer Japan (★★★☆☆) reflects the ethos of “live and let live.” Leaving seemingly no LGBTQ+ stone unturned, the movie maps out queer scenes and spaces from Tokyo to Kyoto, Osaka to Okinawa, covering the mainstream and the underground, the artistic, erotic, and unconventional.The film could be accused in its first half of overindulging a taste for the offbeat, focusing exclusively on sex and gender mavericks like gay manga artist Gengoroh Tagame.

The Macao International Film Festival (IFFAM) awarded its best film honor Tuesday to rising Scottish director Ben Sharrock's indie breakthrough Limbo. The film had been considered one of the hidden gems of this year’s coronavirus-hit Cannes Film Festival selection.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFilm Movement has taken U.S. rights to Naomi Kawase’s “True Mothers” which is Japan’s entry for the international feature film race at the Oscars.The affecting family drama was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection and went on to play at Toronto, San Sebastian and Chicago film festivals.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBen Sharrock’s “Limbo” was named the best film at the closing event Tuesday of the International Film Festival & Awards Macao. Japanese auteur Koreeda Hirokazu was bestowed with the festival’s Spirit of Cinema honorary award.The film follows a Syrian refugee in a remote Scottish island as he awaits his asylum application to be processed and his arm to heal allowing him to play his musical instrument.