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Masanori Tominaga, known from his documentary “The Echo of Astro Boy’s Footsteps” (2011) about Matsuo Ohno and narratives like “Pandora’s Box” (2009), which was based on a story written by Osamu Dazai, returns to the silver screen with a biopic about Akira Suei, Japan’s famous erotic-magazine editor. Even though the erotic images – including the work of Nobuyoshi Araki – were the main attraction of New Self, Weekend Super, and Shashin Jidai, these magazines also featured articles about various underground cultural phenomena and the work of distinguished writers like Genpei Akasegawa and Shigesato Itio. Now, With Tominaga’s adaptation of Suei’s biographical essay “Suteki na Dainamaito Sukyandaru” (1982), we finally get a chance to explore the life of one of the most controversial editors of the eighties.

Dynamite Graffity is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

It took only one explosion to radically change the subjective trajectory of...

It’s not often that a coming-of-age story revolves around a 29-year-old chronic masturbator who still lives with his mom, but that’s just one example of the many ways Daisuke Miura's Boys on the Run is refreshingly atypical. The film is based on a manga by Kengo Hanazawa which was originally serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits from 2005-2008, and although the adaptation is fairly loyal visually, the overall tone has been changed both in how the characters behave and how the story arc is presented.

When we first meet our hapless hero, Tanishi (Kazunobu Mineta), he’s spending his 29th birthday in a telekura, arranging to meet a woman who turns out to be rather large and extremely disgruntled by his unenthusiastic reaction to her. After surviving a mild beating, he just barely manages to make a run for it down the streets of Ikebukuro.

As...

[Our thanks go out to Chris MaGee and Marc Saint-Cyr at the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow for sharing their coverage of the 2010 Nippon Connection Film Festival.]

On my first day of film viewing at the 10th Nippon Connection film festival, I had the great pleasure of seeing what might turn out to be one of it's strongest entries: "Oh, My Buddha!," the second film directed by Tomorowo Taguchi, who is best known for his acting work in films as diverse as "Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha," "Gohatto," "The Eel" and "Tetsuo: the Iron Man," in which he plays the title character. Though I haven't yet seen his 2003 directorial debut "Iden & Tity," it is clear from "Oh, My Buddha!" alone that he has developed a very confident and mature understanding of filmmaking, maintaining a sharp control over his style and drawing you into a well-told and compulsively watchable story.

The film follows young Jun, a first-year student at an all-boys Buddhist high school in Kyoto. The year is 1974, and Jun is an aspiring musician who lovingly worships...