Set amongst the bustling crowds and underground karaoke clubs of Tokyo, WEST NORTH WEST explores themes of gender, sexuality, nationality, and religious identity through the complex desires of three women. The film is now featuring on PeccadilloPOD, a new On-Demand platform for LGBTQ+ cinema. Beautiful Kei (Hanae Kan) works at a cocktail bar, … Continue reading
In London this week and at a loose end? Our tip for trying something new would be to take the bus to Walthamstow for a Sashiko+Boro – Japanese Mending Workshop. Well, it may be new to you but Boro is the age-old Japanese art of mending textiles and is literally translated as rags or scraps … Continue reading
Japanese writer Haruki Murakami enjoys a cult status among the readers of the 21st century. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi undertook the mammoth task of adapting his short story ‘Drive My Car’ into an eponymous film. The result is soul-feeding and visually breathtaking. The film has an unmistakable life force in it that is contagious. … Continue reading
Toka (Honoka Matsumoto) is an unhappy young career woman in Tokyo who meets her estranged husband once a week even though they seem to have very little common. They only married three years ago and she is too ashamed to share the news of its failure with family. As it is the 3rd year … Continue reading
Writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda’s extraordinary and brilliant new film about a disparate Japanese makeshift family may start in a gentle and slightly confusing manner, but by the time the final credits role you will be totally engrossed in the movie that won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes last summer. The family live crammed into a small dilapidated … Continue reading