The Boy and the Heron review - elegiac swan song by the Japanese anime master

★★★★★ THE BOY AND THE HERON Elegiac swan song by the Japanese anime master

Hayao Miyazaki creates a final visionary celebration of all that animation can achieve

Admirers of Hayao Miyazaki will find much to love in The Boy and the Heron, which he has said will be his final feature before retiring from film-making at the age of 82. It’s a beautifully crafted piece of work with all the tropes that admirers of Studio Ghibli have come to love over the years.  

Pacific Overtures, Menier Chocolate Factory review - lesser-known Sondheim scores afresh

★★★★ PACIFIC OVERTURES, MENIER CHOCOLATE FACTORY Enriches aurally and visually

Stephen Sondheim's fascinating 1976 show enriches aurally and, this time round, visually

This is, by my reckoning at least, the third major London production over the years of Pacific OverturesStephen Sondheim and John Weidman's dazzling curiosity of a show first seen on Broadway in 1976 and reappraised ever since in stagings both large and small both sides of the Atlantic.

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine, Hayward Gallery review - a Japanese photographer uses droll humour to ask big questions

★★★★ HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: TIME MACHINE, HAYWARD GALLERY A Japanese photographer uses droll humour to ask big questions

Bringing the dead to life and looking at the world before and after humans

A polar bear stands guard over the seal pup it has just killed (main picture). How could photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto have got so close to a wild animal at such a dangerous moment? Even if he had a powerful telephoto lens, he’d be risking life and limb. And what a perfect shot! Every hair on the bear’s body is crystal clear; in fact, it looks as if her fur has just been washed and brushed.

Plan 75 review - dystopian vision of euthanasia in Japan

Nothing certain in this world but death and taxes...

It’s not a great moment for older audiences contemplating an outing to the cinema. They could have their intelligence insulted with the feeble, sugary comedy, Book Club: The Next Chapter or they could choose Plan 75 and find themselves looking nervously over their shoulder. This debut feature by Chie Hayakawa is a sombre drama set not too far in the future.

Blu-ray: The Bullet Train

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE BULLET TRAIN The 1975 Japanese action thriller that inspired 'Speed'

The 1975 Japanese action thriller that inspired 'Speed'

Last year’s Brad Pitt vehicle Bullet Train was an affable action comedy except in those parts – including the dreadful coda – when it was an insufferably smirky one. Freighted with more thrills, intelligence, gravitas, and social commentary, 1975’s The Bullet Train, released in a 2K restoration on a Eureka Classics Blu-ray, is the better movie.

John Wick: Chapter 4 review - is this the El Cid of shoot-'em-up movies?

★★★★★ JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Is this the El Cid of shoot-'em-up movies?

Keanu Reeves's Zen assassin scales new heights of awesomeness

Since the first John Wick film from 2014 became an unexpected hit, the Wick franchise has blossomed into a booming business empire, also including comic books, video games and upcoming TV spin-offs. The title role has transformed Keanu Reeves, who remains guarded about his spiritual leanings, into the Zen master of action heroes.

DVD/Blu-ray: Living

★★★★ DVD/BLU-RAY: LIVING Bill Nighy owns Oliver Hermanus' delicate Kurosawa remake

Bill Nighy owns Oliver Hermanus' delicate Kurosawa remake scripted by Kazuo Ishiguro

Mr Williams (a wonderfully restrained, Oscar-nominated Bill Nighy) is taking time off work from his job in the Public Works department at County Hall in London. It’s the early Fifties and office life is very proper, with bowler hats and a strict hierarchy that reflects the class structure of Britain.

Tokyo Vice, BBC One review - murder, extortion and corruption in the Japanese capital

★★★★ TOKYO VICE, BBC ONE Murder, extortion and corruption in the Japanese capital

Eager American reporter Jake Adelstein plunges into the murky world of the Yakuza

There was originally a plan to make Tokyo Vice a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, but it has ended up as a TV series starring Ansel Elgort. It’s almost certainly the better for it, because the eight episodes of this first season – the way it ends, or rather doesn’t, makes a second helping inevitable – give it space to explore Japanese culture and its often mutually uncomprehending relationship with American or European values.

My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican review - dazzling stage adaptation of a Japanese classic

OLIVIER AWARDS 2023 - Best Entertainment & other awards - MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO

Ingenious puppetry and music brings a classic 2-D animation to life on stage

As 10-year-old Satsuki observes as she arrives in the countryside with her little sister Mei, “We’re not in Tokyo anymore” – and they’re not in Kansas either, but there is a tang of Oz in the air.  The 1988 Studio Ghibli film, My Neighbour Totoro has the classic status of The Wizard of Oz for a generation of youngsters brought up on whimsical Japanese animé.