Prestigious cinema magazine Kinema Junpo has released its always anticipated “Best 10” list for films released in 2023, the 97th edition. Junji Sakamoto’s Okiku and the World takes the top spot, while the director also picks up a screenplay award though Best Director went to Wim Wenders for Perfect Days.
Best 10
1. Okiku and the World (せかいのおきく, Junji Sakamoto)
A samurai’s daughter falls for a lowly manure man in a city on the brink of change in Junji Sakamoto’s touching Edo-era dramedy. Review.
2. Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
Tokyo-set drama from Wim Wenders following the simple life of a middle-aged man who cleans toilets for a living.
3. Shadow of Fire (ほかげ, Shinya Tsukamoto)
Haunting drama from Shinya Tsukamoto following a young boy who finds himself surrounded by the ghosts and shadows of the post-war era.
4. September 1923 (福田村事件, Tatsuya Mori)
Drama depicting the pogroms against Koreans which took place after the 1923 Kanto earthquake directed by Tatsuya Mori who is best known for his documentary work such as A1 and A2 which focussed on the everyday lives of members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.
5. The Moon (月, Yuya Ishii)
Controversial drama from Yuya Ishii loosely inspired by the 2016 Sagamihara knife attack starring Rie Miyazawa as a formerly successful writer who begins working at a care facility for the severely disabled.
6. A Spoiling Rain (花腐し, Haruhiko Arai)
Literary adaptation from Haruhiko Arai following a failed pink film director who is forced by his landlord to inform a neighbour, a similarly troubled screenwriter, that he’s being evicted only to sit and have a few drinks with him during which they share tales of romantic disappointment.
7. Monster (怪物, Hirokazu Koreeda)
Latest film from Hirokazu Koreeda starring Sakura Ando as a mother who confronts a teacher after noticing changes in her son’s behaviour.
8. Godzilla Minus One (ゴジラ-1.0, Takashi Yamazaki)
Bombastic and hugely entertaining entry into the long-running series from Takashi Yamazaki set in the immediate post-war era which has however courted controversy thanks to its nationalistic overtones.
9. The Boy and the Heron (君たちはどう生きるか, Hayao Miyazaki)
A young man reeling from grief amid the firebombing of Tokyo enters a strange fantasy world after moving to the country in a surreal adventure from Hayao Miyazaki. Review.
10. Picture of Spring (春画先生, Akihiko Shiota)
Warmhearted comedy from Akihiko Shiota in which a young waitress develops a fascination with an eccentric middle-aged man who researches shunga, or pornographic artwork from the Edo era.
Best 10 International
- Tar
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Fallen Leaves
- Eo
- The Fabelmans
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- Decision to Leave
- Empire of Light
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Women Talking
Best 10 Documentaries
1. Men with Movie Cameras – Shooting the Great Kanto Earthquake (キャメラを持った男たち ―関東大震災を撮る―, Minoru Inoue)
2. Ikiru: Okawa Shogakko Tsunami Saiban wo Tatakatta Hitotachi (「生きる」大川小学校 津波裁判を闘った人たち, Kazuhiro Terada)
3.* Hama no Don (ハマのドン, Fumie Matsubara)
3.* Maruki Iri, Maruki Toshi: Okinawa Sen no Zu Zen 14 Bu (丸木位里・丸木俊 沖縄戦の図 全14部, Atsunori Kawamura)
5. Maelstrom (マエルストロム, Mizuko Yamaoka)
6. Woodblock-and-Stencil Sarasa: The Textile Art of Suzuta Shigeto (木版摺更紗－鈴田滋人のわざ－)
7. With Each Passing Breath (絶唱浪曲ストーリー, Atiqa Kawakami)
8. The Day of the State Funeral (国葬の日, Arata Oshima)
9. Care wo Tsumuide (ケアを紡いで, Koichi Omiya)
10. Shunga (春の画 ＳＨＵＮＧＡ, Junko Hirata)
*Third place is a tie.
Individual Awards
Best Director: Wim Wenders (Perfect Days)
Best Screenplay: Junji Sakamoto (Okiku and the World)
Best Director (international): Todd Field (Tar)
Best Actress: Shuri (Shadow of Fire)
Best Actor: Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days, Familia, Father of the Milky Way Railroad)
Best Supporting Actress: Fumi Nikaido (The Moon)
Best Supporting Actor: Hayato Isomura (The Moon, (Ab)Normal Desire, The Dry Spell, Hard Days, Ripples, Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween – Destiny, Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween – Decisive Battle)
Best Newcomer (actress): Aina The End (Kyrie)
Best Newcomer (actor): Oga Tsukao (Shadow of Fire)
Readers’ Choice Best Director: Toichiro Ruto (G-Men)
Readers’ Choice Best Director (international): Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Readers’ Choice Award: Saburo Kawamoto (Eiga wo Mireba Wakaru Koto)
Source: Kinema Junpo official website.
Prestigious Japanese cinema magazine 
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winner picks up another award in being officially named the best movie of 2018 by the prestigious Kinema Junpo magazine. This hard hitting tale of modern lives on the margin may have irritated all the right people, but it also arrived at a pertinent moment in coinciding with a very real series of societal failures leading to the deaths of at risk children and contributing to a much needed debate as to society’s responsibility towards its most vulnerable citizens. Shoplifters also marks one of the last performances from the late Kirin Kiki who is also the recipient of the first Kinema Junpo special award. 
The first of two films making the top 10 directed by Takahisa Zeze, The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine is a Taisho era tale of sumo and revolution in which a band of anarchists known as the Guillotine Society find themselves fascinated by an itinerant troupe of female sumo wrestlers shortly after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.
Sho Miyake adapts the novel by Yasushi Sato but shifts the setting from 1982 to the present day and from Tokyo to the author’s native Hakodate (the setting for a series of his novels recently adapted for the screen which includes The Light Shines Only There, 
A conflicted young woman struggling to move on from lost love falls for a guy who looks just like her ex but can’t decide whether to embrace the fantasy of unresolved romance or the security of a steady relationship in Hamaguchi’s complex yet playful comedy drama adapted from the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. 
Kazuya Shirashi, winner of this year’s best director award, pays tribute to the world of Battles Without Honour in an ’80-style neo-noir in which a straight-laced rookie is partnered with a veteran rogue cop who leads him straight into the heart of darkness. 
Mrs. Suzuki attempts to save her reclusive son who has tried to hang himself but injures herself in the process. Unfortunately, her son didn’t make it but when Mrs. Suzuki wakes up in hospital she’s lost her memory of the traumatic incident which put her there. Her family not having the heart to tell her the truth, pretend that their son is alive and well and living in Argentina…
The latest from Shinya Tsukamoto and his first foray into the jidaigeki, Killing follows a young samurai who prefers not to raise his sword but is swept into the violence of the Bakumatsu era anyway.
A second entry for director Takahisa Zeze, 
Starring the legendary Kirin Kiki in one of her final performances, Every Day a Good Day is inspired by the writings of Noriko Morishita and revolves around the serene elegance of the traditional tea ceremony.
Ren Osugi stars as a prison chaplain ministering to prisoners on death on row in what would be his final screen appearance before he sadly passed away in February 2018.
Naoko Ogigami’s touching family drama snatches the last spot on Kinema Junpo’s list. A departure of sorts from the director’s earlier career, 
Hirokazu Koreeda makes a rare detour from the family drama for a high stakes legal thriller in which a veteran lawyer takes on the seemingly impossible task of defending a murder suspect who has already served time for violent crime and freely confesses his guilt, but the more the lawyer looks into the case the less confident he feels that his client is telling the truth.
Fukushima native Ryuichi Hiroki adapts his own novel for an exploration of precarious rural life on the edge of a disaster zone. Newcomer Kumi Takiuchi stars as a young woman with a regular office job living in temporary housing with her father (Ken Mitsuishi) after being displaced by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. For unexplained reasons, the young woman travels to Tokyo at weekends and engages in casual sex work which brings her into contact with Kengo Kora’s conflicted driver.
Katsuya Tomita’s 
Kiyoshi Kurosawa rolls back on the nihilism of 
Yukiko Mishima’s adaptation of the Kiyoshi Shigematsu novel stars Tadanobu Asano in a tale of family and the modern society. A middle-aged man, Makoto, leaves his first wife for a younger woman after they disagree about adding to their family – he wanted another child and she didn’t. His second wife has two children already and when she announces she is pregnant, Makoto is not so sure about becoming a father again…
Released in two parts, Wilderness adapts the classic 1966 novel by Shuji Terayama in which two men seek release in the boxing ring but also discover friendship and brotherhood in the shared connection of violence. Up and coming director Yoshiyuki Kishi builds on the promise of the impressive 
The latest from veteran director Nobuhiko Obayashi, Hanagatami is a project forty years in gestation. An adaptation of the wartime novel by Kazuo Dan, the film is a timely warning against the follies of war as a collection of youngsters dance along the edge of an abyss which will eventually engulf their entire generation.
Taking the top spot, Yuya Ishii’s melancholy romance is a love/hate letter to Tokyo and a poetical mediation on connection in the modern city. A depressed young woman and an anxious young man miraculously encounter each other thanks to the magic of the metropolis but their shared cynicism and distrust of feeling soon becomes a barrier to their growing romance. 
Windows on Worlds 