In 2023, Japanese movies made achievements at international movie festivals held in many countries. At the Cannes Film Festival, the movies "MONSTER", which was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, scripted by Yuji Sakamoto and with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, won the Best Screenplay award as well as the Queer Palm, and Evil Does Not Exist directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi won the second-place Grand July prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

How did movie experts in the world see Japanese movies? 7 movie connoisseurs, such as critics or movie festival programmers, listed 5 movies each that they think are ‘the works that represent Japanese movies in 2023’.

Editor:Miho Moriya(CINRA, Inc.)　Main Cut:(c)STUDIO GHIBLI

"Along Together" that shows the world after the pandemic, conveying Japan’s restart (Sanghyun Hong)

On May 5, 2023, WHO finally ended the COVID-19 Pandemic Declaration. It was surprising that Japanese movies seemed to have set this as the ‘re-start’ day.

The documentary movie by Yukio Mishima, “Along Together” said goodbye to the days with sorrow. The records of Pandemic by each creator became aesthetic achievements.

Shinsuke Sato, who gathered an unbeatable number of viewers with "Kingdom 2 : Far and Away" last summer maintained his stardom this year as well, giving a hope for movie industry with another film from the series: "Kingdom -Flame of Destiny".

Isao Yukisada showed his ability to harmonize anti-war and pro-peace messages and the entertaining aspect of action movies with "Revolver Lily".

The big name, Masato Harada showed his power with his newest work "BAD LANDS". He completed Japan’s neo-classic by depicting Nellie, who experiences sad love, from Dostoevsky’s "Humiliated and Insulted" in Osaka, which is the capital of desire in the movie.

"The Innocent Game" by Yoshihiro Fukagawa takes advantage of 'actors' power’, which is unique to Japanese movies. Ren Nagase, who showed his elaborated performance, will grow into an actor who touches people’s hearts.

These movies make us think about the future of Japanese movies.

Japanese movies, which keep their dynamic creativity at this time, when movies are said to be in danger with increasing use of streaming services and less audience in theaters, may appear as a role model in the world's movie industry.

Depicting connections and loves of people through queer love（Mark Schilling）

Japanese films had a stellar year in 2023, with Takashi Yamazaki’s "Godzilla Minus One" and Hayao Miyazaki’s "The Boy and the Heron" becoming record-breaking hits in North America and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s "Evil Does Not Exist" winning the second-place Grand Jury prize at Venice. But other films not as much in the international spotlight demonstrated the continuing vitality of contemporary Japanese cinema.

"Egoist". Daishi Matsunaga’s drama about a gay relationship begins with graphic sex, thus its R-15 rating, but segues into a moving depiction of the main protagonist’s search for connection and self-acceptance that goes beyond categories of sexual orientation to the simply human.

"She Is Me, I Am Her". In Mayu Nakamura’s incisive four-part anthology set during the pandemic, the singled-named Nahana delivers an acting tour de force playing four radically different women in segments that could function as standalone playlets.

"December". India-born Anshul Chauhan’s courtroom drama about a young woman on trial to shorten her sentence for first-degree murder delivers taut suspense, features a finely layered performance by rising star Ryo Matsuura and proves again that non-Japanese creators are making important contributions to Japanese cinema.

"Okiku and the World". Junji Sakamoto’s period drama about the sensitive, strong-willed daughter of a samurai (Haru Kuroki) who finds love with a shy-but-handsome manure collector (Kanichiro) shows that Japan’s oldest domestic genre is still capable of humor-inflected invention and originality.

"#Mito". Daisuke Miura’s satire on the turbulent life and career of the title Internet influencer (Tina Tamashiro) offers a sharp, funny commentary on our present moment, with Mito’s image trumping her reality to her millions of fans, until they turn on her to surreal but all-too convincing effect.

"The Dry Spell" directed by Masaya Takahashi, assistant director of Shunji Iwai and Shinji Somai（Alex Oost）

Experienced film-makers still got it.

2023 was a good year with work released by three mavericks of Japanese cinema, each with their own distinctive style and flavour. Naoko Ogigami’s "Ripples" might be a tad less quirky compared to her previous films but it still retains the director’s trademark tropes of people in slightly less ordinary settings coming to terms with what life has to offer them.

Shinya Tsukamoto’s latest also resembles previous work in which mood and cinematography are done brilliantly in his very timely anti-war film "Shadow of Fire".

It has been a while since his previous feature film, but Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s intense claustrophobic thriller titled "#Manhole" is his return to form. The basic premiss of a man stuck at the bottom of a sewer who has to re-invent himself works quite well and at the same time pokes fun at the superficiality of social media.

Despite having only two feature films under his belt, director Ryo Takebayashi is hardly a rookie having worked in different formats and his inventive time-loop film "Mondays: See You ‘This’ Week!" shows his breadth of experience.

Much of Masaya Takahashi’s film-making experience was gained as an assistant director to such as Shunji Iwai and Shinji Somai and their works’ sensibilities shine through in Takahashi’s "The Dry Spell". Set during a heat wave the film initially seems to focus on the right of access to clean water but is as much about regaining one’s humanity. And that is what ties these films together, regaining oneself and rediscovering one’s sense of humanity, besides being wonderful films.

“The Boy” and the Heron, that leaves satisfying feeling afterwards（Seo Ho-jin）

Concerning the expansion of Japanese movies to the world, 2023 is definitely a year of ‘breakthrough’. In the first half of the year, “Suzume” and “The First Slam Dunk” became big hits in China. “Suzume” largely exceeded the highest box office revenue of Japanese movies in China, with the final figure being 808 million RMB (approximately 16.9 billion JPY), which exceeds the figure in Japan (approximately 14.79 JPY/as of January 8, 2024). Further, “Godzilla Minus One” attracted attention in North America, updating the box office of Japanese live action films.

Additionally, “The Boy and the Heron”, the latest film by Hayao Miyazaki, already was his biggest hit in the US on the fifth day after its release. I still cannot forget the satisfying feeling after seeing “The Boy and the Heron” that had ‘no promotion’. The big name Hayao Miyazaki reminds me of Akira Kurosawa’s “Dream” (1990). Miyazaki released his best film to the world. Also, along with commercial success, the movie earned high reputation at the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival. There is a possibility of winning an Academy Award as well.

Japanese movies actually did well at international film festivals in many countries in 2023. Yuzuru Tachikawa, who made big hits with the movie series of "Detective Conan", transformed the popular jazz-themed manga “BLUE GIANT” into a movie where you can feel you are in a concert. The movie set the mood for the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market.

"Yoko" is a movie in which director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri and actress Rinko Kikuchi collaborated after 20 years since "Hole in the Sky". By depicting a long journey of hitchhiking, the movie shows the ‘pain’ of the main character and Japan well. It won 3 awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival including the Best Actress Award.

Also, "GREAT ABSENCE" directed by Kei Chikaura carefully depicted the 'father figure' unique to East Asia, making the movie a masterpiece beyond "The Father" directed by Florian Zeller, through the keyword 'memory'.

Finally, the world-famous Hamaguchi did not fail to impress us. His newest film “Evil Does Not Exist” philosophically analyzed ‘evil’ and again broke his new ground.

“THE FIRST SLAM DUNK,” in which the reality of the game touches your heart（Maggie Lee）

"THE FIRST SLAM DUNK" sets viewers’ hearts on fire, even those unfamiliar with the sport or the manga. The key to its record US$267 million worldwide gross(As of January,2024) lies not only in director-writer Takehiko Inoue’s absolute audacity to strike a new path from his own legendary 90s manga series but also in choices such as making side character Ryota Miyagi into the protagonist. The 3DCG used in the court scenes is so dynamic, that viewers feel as if they’re dribbling the ball themselves or staring straight down a hoop.

Made in loving homage to the golden age of jazz, "BLUE GIANT" is an animation for adults with taste to burn. Composer-pianist Hiromi Uehara’s exhilaratingly versatile and richly emotive score, and the sublime recordings by top-notch musicians are in a class of their own, but director Yuzuru Tachikawa’s choice of stunning colour palettes and 3DCG to capture the intensity of the musicians’ solos elevates the film to the level of classics like "Round Midnight" (1986) and "Bird" (1988).

"Monster" is the first work Hirokazu Kore-eda directed without writing since "Maborosi" (1995). TV drama veteran Yuji Sakamoto’s Best Screenplay honour at Cannes is truly deserved, made possible by the auteur director stepping back to let the delicately entwined story and characters breathe, in the masterful style of "Rashomon" (1950).

On the opposite end of the spectrum to these box office heavyweights, There Is a Stone radically overturns presumptions about storytelling and human nature. The premise is deceptively simple: a Tokyo girl visiting a small town plays a game of skipping stones with a local man. Working on a minuscule scale, director Tatsunari Ota is nonetheless eloquent with his cinematic vocabulary, ratcheting up tension with pregnant pauses and unique body language.

The ultra-cool production design and eerily seductive sound scapes of "NEW RELIGION" belie how this sci-fi horror was made on a shoestring budget by director Keishi Kondo, with the contribution of Nagoya-based artists. Reviving the chilling psychological vibes of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s classics like Pulse and Cure, and David Cronenberg’s existential body horrors, the work is a Kafka-esque vision of human isolation and the emotionally numbing effects of our digitized world.

“Ichiko,” a movie of surprise that betrays audience’s expectations（Marion Klomfass）

After three years of the pandemic, Japanese cinema is on the upswing again. There were many strong films in 2023, most of which dealt with profound themes, while lighter topics are still rare.

One movie that really touched me was "Dreaming in Between". In a slow-paced narrative, Ryutaro Ninomiya tells the story of a teacher who is about to retire and tries to change his bleak life despite the onset of dementia.

With "Ichiko", Akihiro Toda has certainly made one of the most surprising films of 2023. He jumps between different time levels and skillfully plays with the audience’s expectations. Gradually, a captivating story unfolds that remains exciting right to the end.

In the documentary "The Making Of A Japanese", Ema Ryan Yamazaki accompanies primary school pupils for a year and shows how formative and important the school years are for later life in Japanese society. For me, the best documentary of 2023.

I was very fascinated by the mystical historical drama "Mountain Woman", which we showed as a European premiere at the Nippon Connection Film Festival 2023. In dark images, Takeshi Fukunaga tells the story of a young woman who sacrifices herself for her family.

I was particularly pleased that a film by a German director that was shot in Japan opened the Tokyo International Film Festival 2023. "PERFECT DAYS" by Wim Wenders is a poetic homage to Tokyo, but also to the beauty of the everyday. The wonderful actor Koji Yakusho (winner of the Nippon Honor Award at our 2017 festival) convincingly plays a toilet cleaner who finds happiness in the daily routine of the here and now.

“Kubi,” Takeshi Kitano’s unique interpretation of Japan in later 16th century（Chris Fujiwara）

Two films at opposite poles delineate Japanese cinema in 2023. In Takeshi Kitano’s bold and inventive "Kubi", historical figures who played major roles in the late-16th-century unification of Japan are shown as a bunch of satyrs and knaves, interested only in self-aggrandizement and survival. The conclusion to be derived from Kitano’s telling of history is that the development of Japan into a modern nation must have happened by sheer accident.

In Takashi Yamazaki’s "Godzilla Minus One", which takes place during the American Occupation, the Japanese are, improbably, left to fight Godzilla by themselves—in which mission a former kamikaze pilot who survived the war by cowardice is given a chance at redemption. It would be interesting to see Godzilla moved further back in time to the Sengoku period of "Kubi", but such a film ought to disrupt national myths as Kitano does rather than prop them up as Yamazaki does.

Two interesting films of the year depict countercurrents in Japanese culture. Akihiko Shiota’s "Picture of Spring" takes an amusing look at a milieu of genteel erotica fanciers.

"A Spoiling Rain", Haruhiko Arai’s sleek and hard-bitten adaptation of Hisaki Matsuura’s prize-winning novel, mourns the decline of the pink-film industry.

Filmmaking is also a theme of Kiyoshi Sugita’s "Following the Sound". This absorbing and delicate work sees cinema not as a distinct cultural or industrial activity but as part of the mainstream of life.