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spotlighting unsung individuals in the Japanese independent film scene

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Latest Interview

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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

Yamamoto Hyoe Interview Feature Image

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
Indievisual-Interview-Asakura-Kayoko

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
Indievisual-Interview-Furuta-Wataru

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
Ogata-Takaomi-Interview-FeatureImage

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

PLAN 75 Screening

PLAN 75 Screening

Plan 75 opens with a vague image of a dark place. There is a report from a shotgun. A shadowy figure runs in fear. Another shadowy figure emerges, on the prowl. After a moment, another shot is heard. Before long, the perpetrator can be seen relaying their manifesto either on audio or video–something about ending […]

“Swallow” Screening

“Swallow” Screening

SKIP City INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL and Nakanishi Mai graciously allowed me to watch “Swallow”. Here are my thoughts.

The 2022 Festival Season Thus Far

The 2022 Festival Season Thus Far

The curtains have closed on the first half of the 2022 film festival season. Check out the Japanese movies which were presented at a number of these events.

Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75 Quietly Devastates Cannes

Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75 Quietly Devastates Cannes

Rachel Handler at The Vulture has praise for Hayakawa Chie’s debut feature starring Baisho Chieko.

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Top 10

Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Top 10

The Criterion Collection asked Hamaguchi Ryusuke to name his Top 10 films. Find out which titles he chose.

Swallow

Nakanishi Mai’s follow-up to Hana will be world premiering at the Kaohsiung Film Festival. Take a look at the trailer.

Eye On

My Small Land feature image
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
Intimate Stranger feature image
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
Nighthawk's First Love feature iamge
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
Ito feature image
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
Aristocrats feature image
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
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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
Until Rainbow Dawn Feature Image
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
I Quit Being Friends Feature Image
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
On the Road to Love Feature Image
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
The Sower Feature Image
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

Main Image for Story

25 Japanese Directors Talk Pandemic and Looking Ahead

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 do so under strict safety protocols issued by labor unions and respective film commissions in the locales filming takes place. Meanwhile, the exhibition industry which bore the brunt of damage is still facing challenges of delayed release schedules, being circumvented by digital releases, and local safety protocols. Similarly, film festivals have had to adapt to the pandemic by formulating new ways to hold their events–those which could–though it remains to be seen whether they will be able to return to pre-pandemic operations in the near future. Reflecting on these as well as learning about movies which were filmed about or around the pandemic led to a desire to ask Japanese filmmakers two questions: 1.How did the pandemic in 2020 impact the work with which you are involved or productions you are or will be working on? 2.Moving forward, in other words a world “post-COVID,” has...

2021-07-04
Special Report
Main Image for Story

25 Japanese Directors Talk Pandemic and Looking Ahead II

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 a new normal film industry.

2021-07-04
Special Report

Side Stories

2021 Year-In-Review Main Image

2021 Year-in-Review

by Ben Dimagmaliw

Instead of publishing a year-in-review article at the outset of 2021, I wrote an article compiling together information which had gone neglected over the previous year, but were still worthy of attention. My workload in 2020 necessitated putting Indievisual on the back burner so often the article was warranted. The only interview published then was for Nakano Ryota which has now graced the “Latest Interview” splash at the top of the site for two years! Unfortunately, with 2021 being similarly busy (a little less than 2020) no new interviews were published last year though one had been scheduled before the director had to cancel for personal reasons. I still do hope to interview this director sometime in the future. I did, however, manage speak with director Nakanishi Mai and write a feature about her experience shooting her latest horror short movie, Swallow. Ms. Nakanishi’s ability to speak English negated the necessity to translate our dialogue thus allowing for a quick production of the article which went live in October. 2021 was also the year I...

2022-01-31
Latest, Side Story
Swallow Backstory Main

Serving Up Horror: Nakanishi Mai shares the backstory of her sophomore short Swallow

by Ben Dimagmaliw

In Swallow a striving actress is invited to a private, gourmet club only to discover her competition has prepared a horrifying banquet which devours her. Writer-director Nakanishi Mai follows up her haunting and atmospheric short Hana with a tale of the horrific depths to which human rivalries will go. Though she has worked for large companies such as Kadokawa, the bonafide genre fan has also dedicated time abroad collaborating with international genre stalwarts particularly in the realm of horror movies. Additionally, she founded the Scream Queen FilmFest Tokyo in 2013, a female-driven genre festival dedicated to sharing the unique and diverse visions that female artists bring to genre movies. With Hana, her directorial debut, she herself has become an exciting new voice in horror. And as with any sophomore effort, building upon the success of the first while continuing to creatively evolve took Nakanishi on a journey of opportunities and interesting turns. The seeds of Swallow first germinated in a short movie script which was scheduled to be shot in Korea that was cancelled. A Taiwanese producer told Nakanishi about a...

2021-10-02
Latest, Side Story
Story Feature Image
2021-02-02

2020 Belated News

2020 has been a year for the books. Aside from the political and social elephants in the room, this...

by Ben Dimagmaliw
Indie Forum 2020 OAFF Poster
2020-04-30

Indie Forum 2020

The 2020 Osaka Asian Film Festival took place under the shadow of COVID-19. Though at the time of this...

by Ben Dimagmaliw
2019 Year In Review Feature Image
2020-02-11

2019: Quality v. Quantity

The third full year of Indievisual brought much improvement in many areas and exciting developments personally for my writing...

by Ben Dimagmaliw
Andrew Kirkham Feature Image
2019-09-24

Andrew Kirkham: Journey to the East

If life is a journey, then the road which has led Andrew Kirkham from his native United Kingdom to...

by Ben Dimagmaliw
Indie-Forum-2019-Feature_Image
2019-05-06

Indie Forum 2019

The 2019 Indie Forum section at the Osaka Asian Film Festival presented 10 movies this year, four fewer than...

by Ben Dimagmaliw
Indievisual-Year-in-Review-Main
2019-02-16

2018: Looking Back & Forward

Indievisual’s first full calendar year (it went live in April of 2017 with a Year-in-Review posted 8 months later)...

by Ben Dimagmaliw

More Interviews

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The Adventuress Spirit – Nishikawa Fumie

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

The poster for Nishikawa Fumie’s The Azemichi Road depicts a young girl in school uniform captured ecstatically jumping mid-air on a country dirt road. It’s a pastoral image processed...

2017-09-01
Interview, More
Supersaurus-OchiaiAtsuko-Feature-Image

Art of Persistence – Supersaurus

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

For many, movies are manufactured reality, a stylized representation of it even if based on factual events. True situations are the purview of documentaries. However, the filmmakers at Supersaurus,...

2017-06-22
Interview, More
Daisuke-Miyazaki-Profile

Entertainer with a Cause – Miyazaki Daisuke

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Yokohama born Miyazaki Daisuke posseses a pensive quality not readily evident in his relaxed gaze and mild-mannered smile. Make no mistake, however, inside burns a well stoked fire for...

2017-04-06
Interview, More
Indievisual-100-Meter-Films-Feature

The Measure of Success – 100 Meter Films

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Synchrony is defined as “simultaneous action, development, or occurrence.” What better word to describe the connection between John Williams (no, not that one) and Shiozaki Shohei, the two principles...

2017-04-03
Interview, More

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