Tag Archives: movie

Japanese movie review: 陽だまりの彼女 (The girl in the sun)

This time I’d like to review a movie I just finished watching, “陽だまりの彼女”, which I would categorize as an offbeat romance. To start off with a linguistic note, the word 陽だまり is a little tricky to translate to English because there really isn’t a good match, at least using a single word. Here 陽 (hi) means… Read More »

Japanese movie review: Hula Girls (フラガール)

Me and my wife decided to buy this movie’s DVD from Amazon since it had quite good reviews and we were glad we did. This film is partially based on real events, where several girls from a small mining town, Iwaki (Fukushima prefecture) began learning hula dancing after discovering a spa resort (Joban Hawaiian Center) is… Read More »

Japanese Anime Movie Review: Wolf Children (おおかみこどもの雨と雪)

Although Japanese anime was the first thing that got me really interested in Japanese culture, the more I studied Japanese the more I learned to appreciate other media such as Japanese novels, dramas, and (live action) movies. Having said that, once in awhile I still get in the mood to enjoy some high-quality anime from Japan,… Read More »

Japanese movie review: 「そして、父になる」 (Like Father, Like Son)

Since I speak to my son in Japanese most of the time, I’m always looking for more ways to increase my vocabulary in the area of natural phrases that I can use when playing or interacting with him. This is one of the reasons I was eager to watch this film, which my wife found… Read More »

Review: “Arakawa Under the Bridge” (荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ)

“Arakawa Under the Bridge” is a manga series created by Hikaru Nakamura (中村 光)  in 2004, which was eventually turned into an anime, TV drama, and movie. I’ve only seen the drama and movie so will be focusing on those in this post, though I imagine the story is much the same. This story starts out… Read More »

20 Century Boys: An amazing Japanese comic series

When reading fiction in Japanese, I usually stick to novels over manga (comic books) for several reasons. One is that manga is typically very expensive, with a single episode typically costing 10 dollars or more. Depending on the difficulty level, I can read through one of those in a few hours to a few days.… Read More »

Oblivion Island: Haruka and the magic mirror

I stumbled upon this Japanese CG movie by chance, having picked it up from a store credit received due to faulty headphones. The title sounded interesting, and the screenshots on the back of the box, while small, looked pretty good quality. It was produced for Fuji TV’s (a major Japanese broadcast company) 50th anniversary, and… Read More »

Japanese Anime Movie Review: The Garden of Words (2013, Blu-ray)

Japanese anime is great – it’s filled with enough action, fighting, emotion, and creative stories to make any fantasy lover do a double take. I tend to like long running anime series (like the popular “Naruto”), but with a child now my time is limited, so I prefer shorter series or movies. “The Garden of… Read More »