Search: Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Before We Vanish (2017)

Review preview for Before We Vanish

Sometimes absurd, sometimes bone-chilling, strikingly original.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5

Narumi and her husband Shinji are going through a rocky patch when Shinji suddenly vanishes, returning several days later, utterly transformed. At the same time, a family is brutally murdered, and the town beset by strange phenomena. Journalist Sakurai begins to investigate the mystery…
Bright Future (2003)

Review preview for Bright Future

No less enigmatic, broad-reaching and majestically paced than a jellyfish.

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5

Exploration of disaffected youth in Japan.
Cure (1997)
A detective investigates a series of murders, trying to work out why, despite each having the same methodology, the perpatrators appear to be different.
Creepy (2016)

Review preview for Creepy

To assume it's just another routine serial killer yarn is to miss the emotional subtlety and sharp analysis of contemporary Japanese mores that underlie the greater horror.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5

An ex-cop is drawn into a missing persons case.
Daguerrotype (2016)

Review preview for Daguerrotype

Like its subject, this is a film that takes time to develop.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5

When an assistant to a daguerreotype photographer falls in love with the latter's daughter the relationship mirrors the art form as love and pain combine.
Journey To The Shore (2015)

Review preview for Journey To The Shore

There's a wonderful flexibility to Fukatsu's performance as a woman who bears endless slights as she struggles to retain her decorum.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5

A devoted wife lets her husband, who drowned at sea three years ago, take her on a journey.
Pulse (2001)

Review preview for Pulse

The combination of subtlety and indeterminacy makes for an uncanny treat.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5

Facing the apocalypse, as a secret website devotes itself to the terrible isolation of ghosts and the parable of techno terror.
Seance (2000)

Review preview for Seance

On the one hand, Kiyoshi Kurosawa directs with admirable restraint... on the other violates credibility with a plot that is predictable and absurd.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2.5 out of 5

The fate of missing schoolgirl haunts the lives of a medium and her husband in Japan.
Tokyo Sonata (2008)

Review preview for Tokyo Sonata

Considering each aspect individually, this is a picture of outstanding quality, from the strong cast to the photography and haunting soundtrack to the acute character studies.

Emma Slawinski · 3.5 out of 5

A Tokyo salaryman loses his job and tries to conceal it from his already dysfunctional family.
To The Ends Of The Earth (2019)

Review preview for To The Ends Of The Earth

Former pop star Atsuko Maeda is wonderful in the lead, the perfect match for Kurosawa's style, communicating volumes with the most delicate of expressions.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5

A Japanese TV host finds a trip to Uzbekistan to shoot an episode of her reality travel show begins to dissolve her chipper persona.