"Plan 75", which was officially submitted in the Un Certain Regard section of the Official Selection for Cannes Film Festival and won Director Chie Hayakawa the Caméra d’Or Special Mention award, Suzume, the new release directed by Makoto Shinkai that has shown a solid start since hitting the theaters in November, and "Broker" by the global hit director Hirokazu Koreeda. From major motion pictures to independent films, all types of film directors produced outstanding works again this year.

How do cinephiles around the world feel about this year’s Japanese films? Critics, film festival programmers, and others who are extremely knowledgeable about Japanese films take a look back and name their picks for Japanese Movies to Represent 2022.

Editor: Satomi Hara (CINRA, Inc.) Main Cut: (c)2021 "Suzume" Production Committee

Women’s choices on how to live and how to die as depicted by Japanese films (Chris Fujiwara)

Some of the most notable Japanese films of 2022 deal with women’s choices about how to live and how to die. In Sho Miyake’s "Small, Slow but Steady", a deaf boxer (brilliantly played by Yukino Kishii), after winning her first pro match, hesitates over her next steps. This small-scale masterpiece evokes the mystery of everyday places and the freshness of things being seen as if for the first time.

The title of "Plan 75", set in near-future Japan, refers to a government program that provides euthanasia services to the elderly. Director Chie Hayakawa treats the premise in a methodical, naturalistic way, sustaining the delicate tone set by Chieko Baisho’s performance. With "Soup and Ideology", Yang Yonghi completes the documentary trilogy she began in "Dear Pyongyang" (2005). The film teases out, in a patient, close, and direct manner, the threads of both the identity of ethnic Koreans living in Japan and the director’s own family history.

Ryuichi Hiroki’s "Motherhood" is an absorbing study of recriminations and resentments between mothers and daughters. The psychological penetration of the film and the excitement of its storytelling presumably derive from Kanae Minato’s source novel. Atsuko Takahata’s audaciously grotesque performance helps keep the film watchable.

In "For 13 Days, I Believed Him", Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s contribution to the Amazon Prime series Modern Love Tokyo, a journalist (Hiromi Nagasaku) whose professional identity is built on challenging male weakness lets herself be drawn into a relationship with the most unreliable of men. Kurosawa’s mastery of narrative, light, and space makes this modest work a delightful lesson in cinema.

Changing families and the image of a father (Maggie Lee)

Some of this year’s best films inject fresh perspectives into that classic of Japanese cinema: The Family Drama. They reveal the fluidity of concepts like home and parenthood amidst declining support from state and society. A common thread running through them is the redefinition of father figures.

An amiable tale of dropouts who step up to form a surrogate family for an abandoned baby, "Broker"’s message that it takes a village to raise a child is clear. Just as Hirokazu Koreeda chronicled the collapse of traditional family structures in his oeuvre from "Nobody Knows" (2004) to "Shoplifters" (2018), his first Korean production reflects his continual quest for alternative human bonds beyond blood ties. This is also his first road movie, implying that family is not a status quo, but a work-in-progress.

"My Small Land", executive-produced by Koreeda, spotlights a Kurdish family struggling to obtain refugee status in Japan. Director Emma Kawawada frames the tragedy of Kurdish statelessness in the delicate coming-of-age of heroine Sarya, who is torn between assimilation to carefree school life in Saitama, and honouring her father’s attachment to a heritage and homeland that seem intangible to her.

Few Japanese directors can match Lee Sang-il’s devastating strength in depicting tormented pariahs, as his epics Villain (2010), Unforgiven (2013) and Rage (2016) testify. The Wandering Moon dramatises the merciless hounding of a man who takes home a young runaway. Though his repressed instincts are hinted at, the comforting (sexless) cocoon they built is contrasted with the girl’s relationship with a violent and controlling fiance when she grows up. Lee uses sexual deviancy as a metaphor for the outsider, to expose society’s moral hypocrisy, evoking deep melancholia through the lyrical cinematography of Hong Kyung-pyo, who also lensed Broker.

"Inu-Oh" is Masaaki Yuasa’s ingenious re-imagination of Noh as the J-pop of the Heian period (794-1185), and the titular hero as a rockstar who shakes up the ossified music scene. Recalling "Dororo"(2007) through the character of Inu-Oh’s jealous father, this is an electrifying celebration of young rebels overthrowing the old order.

"Suzume" is an important film that imparts a sense of hope for the world (Haochen Xu)

International order that fell into disarray with the pandemic has generally been recovering since the middle of this year. The world of film is also showing a comeback with the return of international film festivals like the Big Three. In Japanese film, while this year has been less prolific than 2021 and lacks a massive hit like "Drive My Car", outstanding filmmakers have continued producing excellent movies.

Director Nao Kubota, who has long been active in the documentary scene, released "Thousand and One Nights" as his first new drama in 8 years since debuting with "Homeland". The idea for this film that won the FIPRESCI Award at the 2022 Busan International Film Festival (South Korea) comes from the list of missing persons with as many as about 80,000 people a year in Japan. Based on the concept of waiting for the return of someone you love, this documentary-style film depicts the pain, suffering, and feeling of helplessness of the main characters and provides a glimpse into the finer aspects of Japanese society. It leaves you with an intense feeling of the impact.

In recent years, diverse filmmakers from around the world have been releasing film after film with the concept of ‘identity’ at their core. Japan is no exception, and a growing number of movies like "Along the Sea" and "My Small Land" are exploring modern-day Japanese society with a foreign resident as the protagonist. Director Kei Ishikawa’s newest release, "A Man", is a multilayered mystery that also perfectly depicts the identity issues seen in Japanese society in an outstanding performance.

Genius Director Keisuke Yoshida followed up "Intolerance"with "Kami wa Mikaeri wo Motomeru" that offers a shrewd look at Japanese society. The demonic transformation of the main characters who are at the mercy of the dark forces in modern Japanese society is already happening near you. At the other end of the spectrum, Director Shuichi Okita, talented creator of "The Fish Tale", has taken his gifts to even greater heights than his previous films like "A Story of Yonosuke", leading the viewer to an innocent utopia to begin a tale of adventure together.

Finally, I must recommend "Suzume", the newest release by Director Makoto Shinkai. Earthquakes, ruins, and the unspoiled Japanese landscape… this unmistakably important film conveys a sense of hope for the world through stunning Shinkai imagery even in this pandemic era when society has fallen to horrible depths.

2022 was a year of many great films dealing with serious topics (Marion Klomfass)

2022 was a very strong year for Japanese cinema. There were rather few comedies, but all the more intense films that dealt with more serious themes such as death and transience.

In Tadasuke Kotani’s fascinating documentary "Origami", which had its world premiere at the 22nd Nippon Connection Film Festival, the director accompanies a painter as he approaches a deceased young man whom he is commissioned to portray by his parents. In her second documentary "I Go Gaga: Welcome Home, Mom." about her dementia-stricken mother, Naoko Nobutomo gives a touching and unexpectedly humorous insight into the last years of the lives of her aged parents. In view of the increasingly aging Japanese society, this is an important contribution.

A special discovery for me this year was the poetic sci-fi anime "The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes" by Tomohisa Taguchi. A boy who misses his deceased sister discovers a mystical tunnel where the laws of space and time are suspended.

I’m very happy to see queer themes being shown more and more in Japanese cinema. In "Angry Son", Kasho Iizuka depicts discrimination against a gay “Jappino” – half Filipino, half Japanese. We screened this coming-of-age drama, which features an outstanding lead actor, as an international premiere at the Nippon Connection Film Festival in 2022.

My personal highlight at the Tokyo International Film Festival this year was Daishi Matsunaga’s "Egoist". With incredible intensity and simplicity, he tells the dramatic love story of two very different men. I was particularly impressed by the virtuoso handheld camera and the excellent actors. In my opinion, this is Matsunaga’s strongest film to date and will certainly be successful internationally.

The highlight of "Lesson in Murder" is the disturbing yet fascinating performance of a bloodthirsty killer rivaling Hannibal Lecter (Mark Schilling)

In 2022 Ryusuke Hamaguchi continued to accumulate accolades for his three-hour drama "Drive My Car", garnering an Oscar for Best International Feature.

But while international attention often seems to focus on one Japanese filmmaker at a time – Hirokazu Koreeda yesterday, Hamaguchi today – a diverse group of directors has made excellent films this year.

One is Yuki Tanada, whose female friendship drama "My Broken Mariko" is searingly real in its depiction of the heroine’s sense of loss and guilt when her childhood friend commits suicide. Mei Nagano gives a breakout performance as the heroine: Emotionally raw, but sensitive and layered.

Also, Mayu Nakamura returned from a focus on documentaries to make her first fiction feature in fifteen years: The psychological thriller "Intimate Stranger". Asuka Kurosawa shines as a troubled woman who, after her grown son goes missing, takes in a handsome young telephone scammer as a kind of surrogate. The climax is both disturbing and intriguingly ambiguous.

By contrast, Naoko Ogigami creates a quirky, funny, but deeply spiritual world in "Riverside Mukolitta". Kenichi Matsuyama plays a just-freed ex-convict whose new home, a crumbling apartment complex, is filled with eccentric characters who draw him out of his shell – and help him deal with his father’s death. As usual with Ogigami, the gags are balanced with a perceptive, accepting humanism.

Another isolated community goes under the microscope in Ryuichi Hiroki’s mystery thriller "Noise". When a prosperous fig farmer (Tatsuya Fujiwara) on a remote island accidentally kills a murderous intruder, he and his friends go into cover-up mode, as a twisty drama of lies and long-buried rivalries unfolds to absorbing and finally cathartic effect.

Even darker is Kazuya Shiraishi’s "Lesson in Murder". Sadao Abe portrays a convicted serial killer who relentlessly probes a young law student seeking the truth about one of the killer’s murders. Comparisons with Anthony Hopkins’ classic turn as Hannibal Lecter are not absurd, though Abe’s chances of winning Best Actor Oscar are unfortunately zero. Both he and Shiraishi have yet to grab Hamaguchi’s international spotlight.

Great films focusing on the lives of the outcasts (Alex Oost)

A great deal of interesting films are revolving around protagonists being outcasts or somehow outside of society, either by choice, circumstance, prejudice or societal conventions. One where both protagonists fit into this category is Yusaku Matsumoto’s "It’s All My Fault" where the orphan Yuta (Hiroto Shiratori) connects with the homeless Sakamoto (Joe Odagiri) especially because both of them are considered outcasts.

Another film where circumstance, or perhaps a choice, has made one an outcast is in "Prior Convictions" by Kishi Yoshiyuki. Though focusing more on probation officer Kayo (Kasumi Arimura) than her parolee, she is desperately trying to find out whether her charge is as guilty as her surroundings think he is.

Set over a century but still, a topic relevant today is the discrimination of burakumin in "Broken Commandment" by Kazuo Maeda. Despite the heavy subject matter, the film is done in such a way that could appeal to a large audience and is a call for good education for all without becoming preachy.

Every year, there is a work with the theme of "making a movie." This year, director Takaaki's "Spotlight on Me!" is a perfect example of this. The film focuses on the filmmaking scene rather than the actual filming of the movie. The crew, who appear to the public as a group of troublemakers, are all connected by a common thread: they are driven by the need to make a movie.

The common thread in "Ribbon" from Non, an actor, artist, and musician who also stars in this film in her directorial debut, is the human need to create something. While the protagonist is not technically an outsider, she finds herself approaching that state as she confronts her own isolation during the pandemic.

By focusing on outcasts, it is possible to highlight struggles people have and to touch upon certain topics. And it often makes for great cinema, as we could see in 2022.

The future of Japanese cinema has already begun (Sanghyun Hong)

I remember a showcase displaying all sorts of sweets in a candy store on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. The blissful agonizing over which ones to put in my gift box. It is exactly how I feel about the film industry this year that is packed with industrial potential and diversity.

At the starting line is Kohei Yoshino’s "Anime Supremacy!" This movie that was a resounding success at the Jeonju International Film Festival (South Korea) is striking for the dynamism shown by the female lead and originality that extends past the live action and into the world of animation.

We cannot forget about the success of Shinsuke Sato’s "Kingdom 2: Far and Away". This movie creates a cinematic experience that harmonizes a highly perfected drama with outstanding technology to bring people back to theaters that had emptied in the pandemic.

"Make-Believers" by Kenjo McCurtain was also notable. McCurtain, born in London to a British father and Japanese mother, debuted in Japan with this film. This movie, screened at the Jecheon International Music & Film Festival (South Korea), could be called an independent film version of La La Land that achieves an extraordinary cost performance.

Koji Fukada was as active as ever. "Love Life" that depicts a family in crisis earned itself a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival for its story and also offers excellent cinematic entertainment.

The pursuits of passionate cinema mogul Masato Harada are suggestive of Richard the Lionheart of England who continued racing through battlefields until his death. You would never guess that he was 73 when releasing "Hell Dogs", a movie that strikes great enthusiasm in all generations with global universality. He proves that biological age means nothing to film creators.

This list generally introduces films in the order of release at theaters in Japan and film festivals. Truly, there is not nearly enough space here to reflect on everything that happened in the past year in cinema. The future of Japanese cinema has already begun.