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e Blog About Interviews Side Stories Eye On Indievisual Digital Magazine spotlighting unsung individuals in the Japanese independent film scene MenuLatest Interview A Student of Contrasts – Nakano Ryota by Ben Dimagmaliw Greeting visitors of Nakano Ryota’s homepage is a photograph of the director standing with a resigned expressionlessness in an ankle deep river though his trousers are cinched up mid-thigh. Depending on the size of device display it is being viewed, a wider image reveals he is on location which only enhances the tragicomic quality of the photo. The image was undoubtedly chosen for concisely encapsulating the credo at the filmmaker’s core. Nakano was not, as many of his peers and forerunners may have, particularly enamored with movies or television when he was young. He was, however, conscious of a need to express himself and was attracted to the feedback received from entertaining people around him. In university, this manifested as a foray into music before setting on the road toward a filmmaking career post graduation. His award-winning early short movies as well as his debut feature wrapped somber themes or situations in a unique humor, and at their heart is the portrayal of family which has been central to all his movies perhaps a... 2020-01-07 Interview , Latest Featured Interviews Insider Looking Out – Yamamoto Hyoe by Ben Dimagmaliw Becoming a filmmaker requires specific skills. An understanding of and practical experience with film production techniques is a matter of course, however a non-English speaking filmmaker will also need to become English proficient if they aspire to the world stage. Unfortunately, the language barrier is still a daunting and significant obstacle for a large majority of Japanese filmmakers in 2019. Yamamoto Hyoe perhaps innately... 2019-07-20 Featured , Interview Killer Smile – Asakura Kayoko by Ben Dimagmaliw There is a perceptual problem in cinema that women are not suited for or interested in directing genre movies. Making such an assumption about Asakura Kayoko based on her model-esque stature and charming smile would be a disservice to the well-versed director and passionate fan of genre fare. At the 2014 Etheria Film Night where Asakura’s slow burn horror short HIDE and SEEK screened, feminist... 2018-12-23 Featured , Interview All In Due Time – Furuta Wataru by Ben Dimagmaliw If taken just on face value, the career of Furuta Wataru might seem inapplicable to a magazine about independent film directors. After all, the Shizuoka Prefecture native studied economics and computer programming at a Canadian university and upon graduation landed a job as a programmer for a computer company before being transferred to manage sales, advertisement, and promotion there. Only upon joining a production... 2018-02-13 Featured , Interview Through a Theater Darkly – Ogata Takaomi by Ben Dimagmaliw The role of media in society has changed significantly over the last several years. It’s becoming more difficult to tell if media influences the masses or if the masses influence the media. Ogata Takaomi was becoming aware of this blurring of lines between sensationalism and journalism almost a decade ago. An avid lover of cinema since childhood, the Fukuoka native speaks of movies with... 2017-11-09 Featured , Interview Backstory Canary” Screening In Taka Tsubota’s post-apocalyptic short, four high school boys are stuck together holed up in a forest cabin after most of the world has been overrun by giant, spider-like creatures. Despite the horrors outside, one of the boys named Alan has to contend with the monsters with whom he shares the cabin. And there is […] BORDER Nakanishi Mai’s economical but effective new horror short is coming to the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2023. Read my impressions. NO NO GIRL Trailer for this drama about Japanese Americans wrestling with their family’s connection to the internment of their ancestors at the onset of the Pacific War. HIDARI Trailer for this fusion of analog stop-motion puppets carved out of wood and the thrilling action of Japanese anime. PLAN 75” Screening Impressions of Hayakawa Chie’s thought-provoking debut feature starring Baisho Chieko which world premiered at Cannes. Swallow” Screening SKIP City INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL and Nakanishi Mai graciously allowed me to watch Swallow”. Here are my thoughts. Eye On Eye On My Small Land Sarya has lived in Japan since she was five. She pretends to be German to her friends, which is easier than telling the truth. In reality, Sarya’s parents are... 2022-05-23 Eye On Intimate Stranger 46-year-old Megumi is a single mother who works at a baby clothing store. Her beloved 17-year-old son, Shinpei went missing a year ago, and she has desperately been looking... 2022-05-09 Eye On The Nighthawk’s First Love Graduate student Aiko has a conspicuous facial birthmark that made her a target of bullying as a child and sapped her confidence as a woman. When a book partly... 2022-05-09 Eye On Ito Ito Soma is a high school student in Hirosaki City, Aomori. Her hobby is playing the Tsugaru shamisen, a three-string instrument that is popular in her home prefecture. She... 2022-05-09 Eye On Aristocrats Hanako and Miki come from different walks of life. While Hanako has enjoyed a privileged upbringing and a luxurious lifestyle, filled with social functions among Tokyo’s wealthy elite, Miki... 2022-05-09 Eye On Secret Breaths Yuriko had been violently hurt by love and has given up on everything. She ends up wandering around an island where she meets a strange man, Iwai, who is... 2022-05-09 Eye On Until Rainbow Dawn Takahashi Hana and Hoshino Ayumi are two deaf women who meet at a sign language society. Though bewildered by her attraction to someone of the same sex, Hana begins... 2021-12-12 Eye On I Quit, Being Friends” What is common sense to you, makes no sense to me. What is ordinary to me, is off-putting to you Worn out from reading too much into different situations,... 2021-12-09 Eye On On the Road to Love One day, film director Ishii Tatsuya (now Tatsujo Kuya) began documenting his life, spurred by a phone call he received from Fukuda Mei, his girlfriend of two years who... 2021-12-09 Eye On The Sower Mitsuo suffered debilitating mental trauma after volunteering to clear out the debris in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. After spending three years at a... 2021-12-09 Special Report 25 Japanese Directors Talk Pandemic and Looking Ahead Published by Ben Dimagmaliw As 2021 opened much of the entertainment industry was still reeling from the impact brought on by the pandemic. Though productions are once again ramping up, they have to... 2021-07-04 Recent , Special Report 25 Japanese Directors Talk Pandemic and Looking Ahead II Published by Ben Dimagmaliw Following are more intriguing and candid responses by filmmakers who are striving to tell stories without compromise, but have had to take stock of what that will mean in... 2021-07-04 Recent , Special Report Side Stories 2022 Festival Season: Latter Half by Ben Dimagmaliw The first half of the festival season will often set trends (see the first part published on the blog site). Some of the movies featured at festivals early in the year will filter their way through various events held in the second half. Meanwhile, Japanese filmmakers will also be seeking entry into the late year festivals which are also searching to premiere yet undiscovered works, particularly many key domestic events as well as ones throughout Asia. There was a distinct celebratory air at many of the festivals which were putting their best foot forward toward a return to pre-COVID pageantry. 2023-06-27 Latest , Side Story 2023-04-03 2022 Year-in-Review 2022-01-31 2021 Year-in-Review 2021-10-02 Serving Up Horror: Nakanishi Mai shares the backstory of her... 2021-02-02 2020 Belated News 2020-04-30 Indie Forum 2020 2020-02-11 2019: Quality v. Quantity 2019-09-24 Andrew Kirkham:...