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Japan’s Nikkatsu has secured key sales of Cloud, the upcoming suspense thriller by acclaimed auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The feature has been acquired for France (Art House Films), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Minerva Pictures) and Taiwan (Sky Digi Entertainment).

Cloud will play out of competition at Venice, which runs from August 28-September 7 and revealed its line-up today (July 23).

It will mark a return to the Lido for Kurosawa, who won the Silver Lion for best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy.

The story, written by Kurosawa, centres...

Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who won best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy, is working on a new suspense thriller titled Cloud, which will be introduced to buyers at the EFM by Japanese studio Nikkatsu Corporation.

The feature is in post-production with a Japanese release set for September 2024. A first look at the film can be seen above.

Written by Kurosawa, the story centres on Ryosuke Yoshii, an enigmatic young man who tries to make money by reselling shrewdly obtained goods on the internet under the pseudonym ‘Ratel’.

The film stars Masaki Suda, who won best actor...

Top Japanese director Kurosawa Kiyoshi is in post-production of “Le Chemin du Serpent,” a French-language adaptation of his own 1998 film “The Serpent’s Path.”

The story sees a mysterious woman team up with a man whose daughter was killed and who is now seeking revenge. Together they kidnap members of an organization and torture them to find out what really happened.

With Damien Bonnard and Shibasaki Ko in the leading roles, the picture is the anchor title of the Tiffcom sales slate of major Japanese studio Kadokawa.

Production is by Kadokawa and Jean-Luc Ormieres’ Cinefrance Studios. The Japanese company is handling world sales on the picture outside France and Belgium.

Kurosawa, who has been a regular visitor to Cannes with titles including “Pulse,” “Bright Future,” “Tokyo Sonata,” “Journey to the Shore” and “Before We Vanish”, is preparing to complete the new film in time for a summer 2024 release.

Kadokawa’s...

Marks the first title of Monar Films since being appointed international sales representative for Hkiff Collection.

Hkiff Collection has added Tokyo’s competition title Who Were We? by Tetsuya Tomina to its sales catalogue through its new sales representative Monar Films.

Hkiff Collection has picked up worldwide rights to the Japanese film, excluding Japan, which is set to have its world premiere in the main competition at the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival (October 23-November 1).

Set in a gold-mining town on Sado Island, the film explores the relationship between a night guard and a female cleaner who have no memory of their past.

Art House Films has taken distribution rights for France.

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who won best director at Venice in 2020 with Wife Of A Spy, has wrapped shooting French thriller Serpent’s Path starring Ko Shibasaki and Damien Bonnard.

The film, now in post-production, is an adaptation of Kurosawa’s 1998 Japanese feature of the same name, in which a man enlists a friend to help him exact revenge upon his daughter’s murderer. The original was written by Hiroshi Takahashi, co-writer of iconic horror Ring, and starred Teruyuki Kagawa and Show Aikawa.

In the French-language remake, the main character is...

We can expect a new Kiyoshi Kurosawa oeuvre in 2024 as the Japanese filmmaker has set up shop in Paris for his next feature. Details are next to nil at this point but we’ve learned that production begins this month and will roll into May on a France-Japan co-production. We’ll likely find out in the weeks to come who he might have lassoed for the project which so far is untitled. It’s also unclear which genre the filmmaker will step into next – he has slowly been moving away from his horror roots with his recent filmography: Before We Vanish (2017), To the Ends of the Earth (2019) and Silver Lion winning Wife of a Spy.…...

Hong Kong’s Haf adds 15 Wip projects ahead of first in-person edition since 2019.

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society has announced 15 work-in-progress projects, completing the full line-up of the 21st Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF21).

A total of 43 projects will be presented at Haf, including 28 in-development projects announced last month, which is set to run from March 13-15 alongside the 27th Hong Kong Film & TV Market (Filmart). It will mark the first in-person edition for both events since pre-Covid 2019.

Scroll down for full list of projects

Emerging and established actors who lead the cast of the 15 Wip projects include Fish Liew,...

Fifteen additional work-in-progress films are set to join the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) that takes place next month alongside the FilMart rights market. They join 28 previously announced in-development projects.

The 21st edition of Haf runs March 13-15 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and will be the first physical, in-person edition of the project event since 2019. All the work-in-progress projects will take part in a public pitching session on the first day.

The work-in-progress selection skews heavily towards Chinese language titles, with three originating in Hong Kong and the majority of the others from mainland China.

Leading names attached to the selected work-in-progress titles include producers Stanley Kwan (“Centre Stage”), Mai Meksawan (“Manta Ray”) and Ram Krishna Pokharel (“The Red Phallus”). Emerging and established actors including Fish Liew, Austin Lin, Ma Chih-Hsiang, Matsuda Ryuhei, Wang Xuebing, Wu Kang-Ren, and Zu Feng grace various projects.

The Exchange has acquired the sales rights for North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and other remaining territories for superhero movie “Shin Ultraman,” a blockbuster hit in Japan when it was released on May 13. The Exchange is introducing the movie to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival.

The movie, produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Toho and Khara, grossed 31.2 million in Japan, building on the fanbase of the “Ultraman” TV series, which was first broadcast in 1966.

The movie was directed by Shinji Higuchi and was written by director and screenwriter Hideaki Anno, who also acted as producer alongside Takayuki Tsukagoshi and Minami Ichikawa.

“Shin Ultraman” stars Hidetoshi Nishijima, who was in the Academy Award winning movie “Drive My Car,” Takumi Saitoh, and Masami Nagasawa. The cast also includes Daiki Arioka (“Innocent Curse”), Akari Hayami (“Forget Me Not”), and Tetsushi Tanaka.

In the movie, the appearance of giant unidentified life forms,...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Wife of a Spy is exclusively showing on Mubi in many countries.Late in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, a gripping espionage thriller set in Kobe on the eve of World War II, the film’s titular heroine Satoko Fukuhara (Yu Aoi) and her well-to-do merchant husband Yusaku (Issey Takahashi)—whose clandestine activities have aroused the suspicion of the Kempeitai, Japan’s feared military police—go on an outing to a local cinema, as if to evade their surveillance and to keep up a veneer of normalcy. There, at the downtown movie house, the couple catches a screening of Sadao Yamanaka’s historical drama, Kochiyama Soshun (1936).This minor, seemingly inconsequential detail in Kurosawa’s latest conceals a hidden subtext that hints at the ominous shadow of a grinding military campaign Japan was engaged in at the time in China.

In “Wife of a Spy”, Kiyoshi Kurosawa once again proves that his bag of tricks can be matched by only a few other directors in the business. The choreographed camera movements, jarring editing, playful use of artificial and natural lighting all exhibit Kurosawa’s unique boldness and creativity. Luckily in this case, the director’s panache was followed by a well thought-out and haunting story, which has not necessarily been the case with his most recent works. The science fiction duology “Before we Vanish” and “Foreboding” were embarrassing ventures into the metaphysical themes that verged on the ridiculous. A return to a more down-to-earth story in “Wife of a Spy” thus proved to be a welcome change.

This article is part of the Asian Cinema Education Film Criticism Course 2021

Although with “Tokyo Sonata” he has successfully fought off the reductionist stereotype, for many years Kurosawa was strongly associated with the j-horror movement.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s big-screen adaptation of Rokuro Inui’s novel A Perfect Day for Plesiosaur marks the director’s slow transition from horrors like “Cure” and “Retribution” to more recent dramas including 2017’s “Before We Vanish” and “To the Ends of the Earth.” In this genre mashup of thriller, science fiction, drama, romance, and monster movie, Kurosawa creates an experience which is bound to be bizarre and disorienting, even for viewers who are accustomed to his surreal style.

The story revolves around Koichi Fujita, a neurologist with access to new and innovative technology, trying to access the depths of his comatose lover’s mind. Atsumi Kazu is a manga artist who had attempted to kill herself the year before, after a negative experience with writer’s block, and has been unconscious ever since. Alongside his assistants Aihara and Yonemura, Koichi spends hour-long sessions in the mind of Atsumi through a...

After leveraging his success in J-horror into a string of grounded social dramas that culminated with the 2008 masterpiece “Tokyo Sonata,” Japanese auteur Kurosawa Kiyoshi seemed to hit the ceiling of his talent or grow bored of himself. Possibly both. The years that followed told the story of a restless artist who was desperate for something — anything — that might live up to the prescient chill of “Pulse,” or the disquieting uncertainty of “Bright Future.”

Kurosawa’s search led him down an increasingly esoteric path that saw him zig-zag from a pair of lifeless ghost dramas (“Journey to the Shore” and the French-language “Daguerreotype”), to an interminable alien invasion throwback (“Before We Vanish”), a toothless “return-to-form” (the psychological thriller “Creepy”), and even the godforsaken wilds of television. By the time last year’s odd and comparatively entrancing “To the Ends of the Earth” found the director trawling for purpose in the arid sands of Uzbekistan,...

Set in 1940 in Kobe, Japan, with an epilogue during the bombing of the city in 1945, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s intriguingly titled Wife of a Spy (Spy no Tsuma) bookends the Second World War in an absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror. Its spot in Venice competition is a well-earned promotion for the director after his many accolades for films like Kairo, Tokyo Sonata and Before We Vanish.

As Kurosawa’s first historical picture, Wife of a Spy will win no awards for imaginative period creation — in fact the sets, costumes and lighting sport the distanced look of an old movie ...

Set in 1940 in Kobe, Japan, with an epilogue during the bombing of the city in 1945, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s intriguingly titled Wife of a Spy (Spy no Tsuma) bookends the Second World War in an absorbing, exotic, well-paced thriller with moments of disconcerting realism and horror. Its spot in Venice competition is a well-earned promotion for the director after his many accolades for films like Kairo, Tokyo Sonata and Before We Vanish.

As Kurosawa’s first historical picture, Wife of a Spy will win no awards for imaginative period creation — in fact the sets, costumes and lighting sport the distanced look of an old movie ...

Kurosawa is a Cannes regular with films such as Tokyo Sonata (2008), Journey To The Shore (2015) and Before We Vanish (2017).

Paris-based distributor Art House Films has acquired French rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s war epic Wife Of A Spy, which is being sold internationally by Japan’s Nikkatsu.

Art House Films specialises in Japanese cinema and has previously released films including Kurosawa’s Foreboding (Yocho) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour and Asako I & II, which played in Cannes competition in 2018. Launched in 2018, the company has also acquired films such as Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo’s Ramen Teh and Israeli director Yaron Shani’s Chained.

“To the Ends of the Earth” was jointly commissioned by Japan and Uzbekistan to commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the 70th anniversary of the Navoi Theater in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was constructed by Japanese prisoners of war after World War II. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose filmography boasts of various genres but is probably most well-known for his earlier J-horror films like “Cure” and “Pulse”, was hired to write and direct the film.

“To the Ends of the Earth” screened at San Diego Asian Film Festival

Yoko is in Uzbekistan as a reporter to shoot a travel documentary about the country for a variety show, but it’s not going as smoothly as her team or she expects. A rare, almost mythical fish apparently native to a lake there which they want to catch and film won’t bite, the rice in...

The Japanese filmmaker started shooting in Japan in October.

Japan’s Nikkatsu has picked up international rights to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s next project, an ambitious as-yet-untitled war drama that he will shoot with 8K Super Hi-Vision.

Kurosawa has co-scripted the film with Ryusuke Hamaguchi, whose Asako I & II played in Cannes Competition in 2018, and Tadashi Nohara, co-writer of Hamaguchi’s Happy Hour. Yu Aoi (Birds Without Names) will head the cast.

Set in Kobe, Japan in 1940, the film follows a merchant who witnesses a conspiracy whilst travelling and decides to take action to reveal it to the world. His wife...

“To the Ends of the Earth,” the story of a young Japanese journalist’s experiences in Uzbekistan filming a report for a Japanese TV travel show, was originally commissioned to celebrate 25 years of cordial diplomatic relations between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s hyper-developed island homeland and the less affluent, landlocked Central Asian nation. As such we might have expected a straightforwardly celebratory, mildly quirky travelogue, but Kurosawa’s discreetly offbeat approach makes it much more rewarding and, in its way, revealing than that: an insightful and ambivalent interrogation of the strange and often compromised experience that is cultural tourism in the mass media age.

A great deal of Kurosawa’s recent output has been disappointingly wan, blending thinly plotted sci-fi or melodrama with stock elements of the J-horror genre he quietly, creepily revolutionized in the late ’90s and early aughts in films like “Pulse” and “Cure.” But in the most surprising...

A loser salary man escapes in alcohol causing everything around him to collapse. Kenji Katagiri’s second feature film surpasses his theatrical debut “Room Laundering” (2018).

“A Life Turned Upside Down” is screening at Camera Japan 2019

In the middle of the chaos stands Saki, played by 22-year-old actress Honoka Matsumoto. She wants to be a Manga artist and her identity crisis is portrayed with fitting speech bubbles that share her inner monologue with the audience. The sad fairy tail is comedy and drama at the same time. Narrated by Saki, the story may appear simple, but is well elaborated. Heavy subjects like alcoholism, suicide, and existential fear are presented light-hearted, but not in a naive way. Unlike Katagiri’s debut “Room Laundering” (2018), “A Life Turned Upside Down” manages to hit the right tones and keeps the balance between the mix of genres.

Besides the story elements, the stylistic approach also contributes a lot to the movie.

Photo by Ottavia Bosello

From the mezzanine level of Caffè Verbano, Locarno’s Piazza Grande glitters under the scorching sun, the army of black and yellow chairs sprawling below the festival’s biggest screen and iconic open-air theatre. At a table overlooking the piazza, Kiyoshi Kurosawa sits for the last few interviews ahead of the premiere of his new feature, To the Ends of the Earth.

It’s the Japanese horror master’s second time in Locarno–in 2013, his Real found a slot in the Swiss festival’s international competition–though the first in the non-competitive sidebar for which the fest is possibly best known for, the programme named after the square where, every night, an 8,000-strong audience enjoys some of the best in the year’s world cinema.

Assuming one can still find a leitmotiv in an oeuvre that’s as vast as it is growing increasingly protean, To...

A dose of 21st century attitude mixes nicely with other winning ingredients in “Kingdom,” a thoroughly entertaining adaptation of Yasuhisa Hara’s hugely popular manga set in China, 245 B.C. Centered on two orphan boys who dream of becoming “the greatest generals on Earth,” this Japanese take on a Chinese wuxia is overwrought at times and too simply plotted at others, but wins through with colorful characters, top-class swordplay and snappy dialogue that’ll especially connect with younger viewers. Energetically directed and co-written by manga-to-screen specialist Shinsuke Sato, “Kingdom” grossed a whopping $50 million in local cinemas earlier this year and ought to perform strongly in limited North American release from August 16.

Taking its thematic cues from literary classics including “The Prince and the Pauper,” and adopting the high-spirited story-telling of action-adventures such as Akira Kurosawa’s “The Hidden Fortress,” “Kingdom” refreshes a familiar tale of heroes emerging from poverty to...

“She is Alone” is the first feature film of Natsuko Nakagawa. The young filmmaker, who studied cinematic arts and contemporary psychology, tells the story of the suicidal girl Sumiko. Her destructive traits and revenge fantasies cause a lot of chaos within the social construct that goes by the name “high school”.

“She is Alone” is screening at Nippon Connection

After losing her mother to suicide, Sumiko tries to kill herself, too. But the attempt fails and she is under the suspicion of her father, friends, and teachers from then on. Everybody feels responsible and Sumiko is surrounded by an overbearing network of people. “She is Alone” reveals the hypocrisy of this network.

The female lead is characterized by apathy. Having come back from the edge of death, Sumiko spends her days aimlessly as she begins to blackmail her classmate Hideaki, who is dating a teacher at school. Akari Fukunaga (“Unten...

French distributor Eurozoom has acquired local rights for “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Following a deal struck on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, international sales duties were picked up by Japanese indie sales firm Free Stone Productions.

Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.

The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong,...

Indie sales house, Free Stone Productions has picked up sales rights on “To The Ends Of The Earth,” the new film by Japanese directing icon Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Starring Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, and Shota Sometani, the film is a rare example of a Japanese-Uzbekistan co-production. Production is by Eiko Mizuno-Gray and Jason Gray of Tokyo-based Loaded Films and Toshikazu Nishigaya of Tokyo Theatres. Uzbekistan’s national cinema agency Uzbekkino serves as co-producer, with backing from the Ministry of Tourism, through the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development.

The story involves the host of a popular travel show who is in fact insular and shy on a trip to Central Asia, where her assignment calls for the filming of a mythical fish. As things go wrong, and team members return to Tokyo, she discovers a new freedom in the mountains.

“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades.

We’re approaching springtime, which means the first looks at what will likely premiere at Cannes Film Festival begin to see the light of day. One of the sure bets is the latest film from Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who recently impressed with the sci-fi drama Before We Vanish. His next film is To the Ends of the Earth (Sekai No Hate Made), which he shot in Uzbekistan and follows a cautious Japanese TV host whose worldview changes when she ventures to the Central Asian country to shoot a segment for her travel show. The first pair of teasers and a poster have now arrived for the film, which arrives in June in Japan.

“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades. Today, the nation of Uzbekistan exists in the very same part of the world. Now I’m going to shoot a film in the middle of the silk road...

By Shikhar Verma

Cult J-Horror filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa has been on a hiatus for around a decade now. While he keeps churning out interesting looking films every other year, most of them fizz out becoming a bloated mess or fail to garn the kind of initial promise they show. With “Before We Vanish,” a sci-fi riff about an alien-invasion, he delves into a similar kind of mess indulging in a low-key, genre balancing act. Thankfully, there’s an abundance of charm in the film. One that really touches you before it vanishes into the end credits.

First screened under the Un Certain Regard at Kurosawa’s favorite Cannes Film Festival, “Before We Vanish” can be best described as a cross between “The Invasion of Body Snatchers” (1956) & “Arrival” (2016). Mixed with Kurosawa’s brand of absurdist satire and an investigation of human nature, the film is ultimately too charming...

A limited-perspective snapshot of a perpetually moving target, and insistent on adhering to 2018 theatrical premieres — thus haunted both by the past and the specter of already-seen “2019” cinema that deserves notice as much as anything herein. Or: it is what it is.

Honorable Mentions

Mandy, A Star Is Born, Cold War, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Wandering Soap Opera

10. 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)

A push-pull experience par excellence: plainly beautiful for its still and natural landscapes, roughshod with the superimposition of effects; statically framed but open to variables, experimentation, “accidents” that are perhaps part of a larger plan, depending on what production story you buy; and thrilling for the breadth of its imagination while also a bit boring in the follow-through. More and more it seems our minds need opportunities to sit, wander, think for themselves amidst stimuli rendering the likes of 24 Frames all the more far-flung. Woe betide the audience saddled with...

Prolific Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse) returned to Cannes with this genre-bending mashup, both a darkly comedic sci-fi and a slow-paced action spectacle. Three aliens on a reconnaissance mission to Earth take over the bodies of human hosts to explore the world they’re about to invade. On the way they steal individual concepts from the minds of anyone who crosses their path, from work, to free will, to love, leaving behind them a trail of soulless bodies. In doing so they start to unwittingly define the essential aspects of what it means to be human.

The film follows Narumi, whose husband, Shinji (Ryuhei Matsuda), becomes one of the three hosts. As the invasion grows nearer, Narumi’s attempts to save humanity from extinction become increasingly entwined with Shinji’s decision on whether to save the humanity within himself.

Combining the best of Kurosawa’s genre stylings...

Arrow Video, the international gold standard for cult and genre home video distributors, has revealed their February 2019 release lineup and it looks like it's going to be another expensive month for film collectors. February's releases include classic '70s horror and giallo, as well as contemporary Japanese classics from Kurosawa Kiyoshi and Miike Takashi, and a recent festival hit from France. The UK will see a pair of Cannes selections in Gaspar Noe's dancers-on-drugs festival favorite, Climax , as will Kurosawa Kiyoshi's 2017 film, Before We Vanish. The Us, on the other hand, will see a release of Miike Takashi's Audition in an edition that already appeared overseas in 2016. All territories will see a pair of '70s classics in Eugenio Martin's Horror Express, Luigi...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

One of the many tall, slender, handsome guys who populate (and in some cases over-populate) Japanese TV dramas and films, Hiroki Hasegawa is also not the usual model-turned-actor. After graduating from Tokyo’s Chuo University, he joined the famed Bungei-za theater company, an incubator of acting talent for generations, and appeared in productions by renowned stage director Yukio Ninagawa.

After turning 30, he began to act on TV, and several years later, in films. Now 42, he has worked with such internationally known auteurs as Sion Sono (“Why Don’t You Play In Hell?”) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Before We Vanish”), while winning a 2017 Japan Academy best actor prize for his work in the smash “Shin Godzilla.”

Hasesgawa stars in two films at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival: Junji Sakamoto’s dark drama “Another World,” which screens in competition, and Daishi Matsunaga’s “Hekishu,” the Myanmar-set segment of the three-part omnibus “Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2018: Journey.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

American Animals (Bart Layton)

The rich genre of crime film in which dumbasses get themselves in way over their heads has a proud new entry with American Animals. Though premiering as part of Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition, I’d strenuously argue that it is in fact a documentary that happens to be 90% reenactment. Hell, the movie itself even states in the opening chyron that it is a true story,...

2018 is nearing the halfway mark, so it’s time to take a look back at the first six months and round up our favorite titles thus far. While the end of this year will bring personal favorites from all of our writers, think of the below 30 entries as a comprehensive rundown of what should be seen before heading into a promising back half ot the year.

Do note that this feature is based solely on U.S. theatrical releases from 2018, with many currently widely available on streaming platforms or theatrically. Check them out below, as organized alphabetically, followed by honorable mentions and films to keep on your radar for the remaining summer months.

24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami)

As a swan song, there aren’t many as beautifully somber as Abbas Kiarostami’s. At first glance simplistically structured, 24 Frames reveals itself to be a complex cinematic survey of time and artifice in filmmaking.

Note: New to Streaming will be taking a two-week break and will return on May 25. Enjoy the latest picks below, and in the meantime, check out our Cannes 2018 coverage here.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood)

Social media discourse around The 15:17 to Paris has already positioned it as the first big cinematic culture war flashpoint of the year. But while liberal thinkpiecers and conservative fans alike will be...

Even though Kiyoshi Kurosawa is on a prolific streak of rich work, it may not entirely be perceptible here in the United States due to distribution woes. However, with a recent decent-sized release for one of his best films in some time, the sci-fi drama Before We Vanish, hopefully promising thing are in store for his upcoming projects, one of which he’s announced today.

The Cure and Pulse helmer will next direct To the Ends of the Earth (Sekai No Hate Made), which he aims to shoot in Uzbekistan, THR reports. The drama will follow a cautious Japanese TV host whose worldview changes when she ventures to the Central Asian country to shoot a segment for her travel show.

“The once-great Timurid Empire has fascinated me for decades. Today, the nation of Uzbekistan exists in the very same part of the world. Now I’m going to shoot a...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s most recent film, Before We Vanish, was released here in the states only a few days ago and has been garnering rave reviews. Of course, a positive reception is something the 62-year-old director should be accustomed to by now. Many horror fans regard 2001’s Pulse as a bonafide J-horror classic. However, things weren’t always so rosy […]...

There’s a fundamental disconnect in Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s latest film, Before We Vanish, but it’s not occurring within the world of the film. The disconnect is between the film and the advertising. If you watch the trailer (and, to a lesser extent, the poster), Before We Vanish looks like a high octane, bloody alien invasion film, complete with […]...

Leave it to Kiyoshi Kurosawa, our favorite director of B movies that look like art films (or are they the other way around?), to upturn the nostalgia for American blockbusters of the 1980s. Japan’s modern day Don Siegel or Robert Aldrich, who admires in equal parts Jean-Luc Godard and, based on his new film Before We Vanish, John Carpenter, does Super 8, Midnight Special and Stranger Things one better by jumping off from 30-year-old conventions and making a damn good film.A bloody prologue of a massacred family and the dazzled schoolgirl culprit (Yuri Tsunematsu) suggests Kurosawa is squarely back in the horror-thriller genre he is best known for, but the film’s tone and our expectations are suddenly taken an entirely other way by Yusuke Hayashi’s soundtrack shifting to a plucky comic theme. We learn that the girl is one of three aliens who have arrived on earth and inhabit human bodies,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGWe found Kiyoshi Kurosawa's semi-serious, semi-tongue-in-cheek sci-fi film Before We Vanish one of the best premieres of last year. The trailer for the American release plays it straight, but captures the wry verve of the film. Highly recommended.We adore the output of Poverty Row studio Republic (Driftwood, The Inside Story, I've Always Loved You), but rarely have had the chance to see the movies on celluloid and looking good. So we'll be front row, center for the Museum of Modern Art's "Republic Rediscovered" series, curated by Martin Scorsese. But just as good as any of those 1940s classics is the trailer for the retrospective, cut by filmmaker Gina Telaroli.The first look at Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, Gus Van Sant's new film, set to premiere at Sundance.

I've got an extremely cool trailer for a wildly insane looking alien invasion action thriller called Before We Vanish. The Japanese film was directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Tokyo Sonata) and it looks like a very different and unique take on the sci-fi genre. It definitely offers a fascinating perspective on the genre and as you'll see in the trailer, things get brutal. Here's the synopsis:

Kiyoshi Kurosawa reinvents the alien movie as a unique and profoundly human tale of love and mystery. Three aliens travel to Earth on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for a mass invasion. Having taken possession of human bodies, the visitors rob the hosts of their essence – good, evil, property, family, belonging – leaving only hollow shells, which are all but unrecognizable to their loved ones. Equally hilarious, thrilling, and profound, Before We Vanish reminds audiences of the continued strength of one of Japanese cinema's most...

Super Ltd has released the trailer for “Before We Vanish,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s alien-invasion drama that premiered at Cannes last year. About three visitors from another planet on a scouting mission, the “Pulse” and “Cure” director’s latest is due in theaters next month courtesy of Neon’s newly launched boutique label. Watch the trailer below.

Read More:‘Before We Vanish’ Review: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Inches Towards Relevance With Sedate Alien Invasion Story — Nyff

Here’s the synopsis: “In his twentieth film, acclaimed horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa reinvents the alien movie as a unique and profoundly human tale of love and mystery. Three aliens travel to Earth on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for a mass invasion. Having taken possession of human bodies, the visitors rob the hosts of their essence — good, evil, property, family, belonging — leaving only hollow shells, which are all but unrecognizable to their loved ones. Equally hilarious,...

"Is the government declaring war on them?" Neon has launched the first official Us trailer for a Japanese sci-fi drama titled Before We Vanish, which played at Cannes Film Festival and New York Film Festival last year and many other fests. The premise is rather peculiar - three aliens travel to Earth to prepare for an invasion, and take possession of human bodies. In doing so, they only leave hollow shells of these people, which start to become noticeable to those around them. The cast features Masami Nagasawa, Ryûhei Matsuda, and Hiroki Hasegawa. It's described as "equally hilarious, thrilling, and profound" and looks like a fascinatingly unique perspective on humanity (and sci-fi) that we don't normally see. I've heard very good things about this and the footage looks excellent. Looking forward to catching this film once it arrives. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish,...

When it comes to the U.S. distribution of Kiyoshi Kurosawa films, we often learn about their arrival just before they debut. Following the VOD-only release of Daguerrotype last fall, this is certainly the case for his sci-fi invasion feature Before We Vanish. Following a Cannes premiere and ahead of a February release, a new trailer and poster have now arrived.

Rory O’Connor said in our review, “There are few directors who would choose to take a semi-sincere approach to a lengthy pseudo-philosophical science-fiction film — especially not one that lightly pries into our fundamental psychological foibles — but there are few directors quite like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The prolific Japanese filmmaker behind such varied genre gems as Pulse and Tokyo Sonata has constructed a sort of skittish and overlong, albeit pleasantly existential oddity in Before We Vanish, an alien-invasion B-movie packed with A-grade ideas and craft. Nail down your windows. Lock your doors.

The Cannes Film Festival generates more attention and excitement than any other film festival in the world, but each year is an unpredictable journey. The Official Selection, alongside the sidebars of Directors Fortnight and Critics Week, offer up a tightly-curated into a range of international cinema from both familiar sources and surprising newcomers. This year’s edition is a reliable combination of top-tier directors whose work will be shown at Cannes until the end of time, notable filmmakers who usually deliver something worthwhile, and unproven quantities with a lot of potential.

Read More: 17 Shocks and Surprises from the 2017 Cannes Lineup, From ‘Twin Peaks’ to Netflix and Vr

In order to work through all of these different possibilities, we’ve broken down our list of anticipated Cannes titles into three categories: A-list auteurs, Discoveries and Safe Bets. Every day of Cannes will bring new updates on the latest films, some of...

The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the official selection, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as special screenings, for the 70th edition of the festival:

COMPETITIONHappy End (Michael Haneke)Wonderstruck (Todd Haynes)Le Redoutable (Michel Hazanavicius)The Beguiled (Sofia Coppola)Rodin (Jaques Doillon)120 Beats Per Minute (Robin Campillo)Okja (Bong Joon-Ho)In The Fade (Fatih Akin)The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)Radiance (Naomi Kawase)The Killing Of A Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)A Gentle Creature (Sergei Loznitsa)Jupiter's Moon (Kornél Mandruczó)Good Time (Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie)Loveless (Andrey Zvyagintsev) L'Amant Double (François Ozon)You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)The Meyerowitz Stories (Noah Baumbach)The Square (Ruben Östlund)Un Certain REGARDOpening Night: Barbara (Mathieu Amalric)The Desert Bride (Cecilia Atan & Valeria Pivato)Lucky (Sergio Castellitto)Closeness (Kantemir Balagov)Before We Vanish (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Beauty and the Dogs (Kaouther Ben Hania)L...