Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001) truly represents a vision of one person – its director, writer, producer, and animator Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki, the most prolific creator at Japan’s Studio Ghibli, was inspired by the 10-year-old daughter of a friend to bring to life a young heroine whom other young girls could…
Kazuo Hara’s The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) is a documentary like few others. Watching Kenzo Okuzaki cut a swath through his old squad mates in search of the truth is unsettling, especially as the process intensifies. Is that because he will resort to violence and deception to get…
I only saw Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) for the first time a few years ago and immediately wondered where this movie had been all my life. I always love it when I discover something like this that blows my expectations into tiny pieces. This pioneering LGBTQ film…