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It's been three years since Song Kang and Han So-hee’s K-drama, Nevertheless was released, and this new Netflix romantic J-drama is perfect to watch if you miss the original show. Directed by Kim Ga-ram and based on the webtoon of the same name by Jung Seo, Nevertheless sees Yoo Na-bi and Park Jae-eon falling in love despite being skeptical about romantic relationships. The 10-episode romantic K-drama is one of Song Kang and Han So-Hee’s best shows and has been praised for how the plot isn't like the typical storyline that audiences have come to expect from shows in the genre.

Given Nevertheless’ success and popularity, a second season would have been expected. However, the K-drama didn't get a sophomore season. Instead, a Japanese remake of Na-bi and Jae-eon’s romance was created. The J-drama, Nevertheless: The Shapes of Love, follows the same storyline as the original K-drama and...

Han So-hee and Song Kang’s critically acclaimed Nevertheless K-drama is back three years later but as an entirely different project with different actors. Based on a Korean webtoon of the same name, Nevertheless is one of the best romantic K-dramas of all time and ditches a lot of the genre’s tropes to tell a more grounded, intense love story. Han So-hee plays Na-bi, who has just come out of a toxic relationship and is not ready to fall in love again. Jae-on, Song Kang’s character, is a charming, flirty man who doesn’t seem interested in a real relationship.

The concept of two people who are not ready for a relationship falling in love made Nevertheless a rather fascinating K-drama that stood out from other entries in the genre. While broadcast K-dramas rarely get sequels, it is not uncommon for Korean shows to get international remakes. Nevertheless:...

With the oversaturated world of teen coming-of-age content on Netflix, it is easy to fall into a rabbit hole of overly sexualized teen shows that just glamorize the tricky parts of being a teen. Compared to the western teen world, the east prefers to teach life lessons through cute little romance shows inspired by popular anime or manga. Japan is not new to high school dramas, and “From Me to You” rekindles fond memories of school rather than bringing anything new to the screen. As someone who hasn’t watched the anime, I can absolutely understand why it would’ve been translated into a live-action show for high school students in Japan. The show subtly tackles issues such as school bullying, feeling like you’ve brought a knife in a gunfight, high-school exams, the fear of growing up, and many such struggles of a school student without ever coming across as a life lesson.

From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke (君に届け) is a series directed by Takehiko Shinjo and Takeo Kikuchi. It is based on the manga by Karuho Shiina.

Today, we get to enjoy this Japanese series about teenage love, which is – curiously enough – about a girl called Sadako, like the girl from Ringu, and who is believed to be cursed. But not everything in life has to be a horror movie, and she meets the most popular boy in high school.

About the Series

It is a series that would be equivalent to Dawson’s Creek or something along those lines (just to give you an idea), it’s one of those initiation series that little by little show us what life is about and that, gradually – and at the protagonists’ sides – we grow up at the same time as we watch the characters grow up. It knows how to take its time,...

Even though J-horror will probably never reach the heights it achieved during the “Ringu” era, the Japanese movie industry still continues to produce films of the genre, although in a much lesser frequency. Shoh Kataoka tries his hand in the category, through a film that doubles as a family drama, and definitely thrives on its atmosphere.

The Good Father is screening at Busan International Film Festival

5 years ago, during the summer, a family of 4 got into a car accident on their way back home from an amusement park. The mother, Mayuko Kubo, fell into a vegative state and has stayed in a psychiatrist facility from then on, the father, Shiro, a psychologist specializing in hypnotism, injured his leg, young sister Luna received a severe burn on her face that later on forced her to wear a mask all the time to hide the wounds, and elder sister Hana, suffered mostly psychologically,...

It is one of the biggest truths of international cinema, that the level (of extremity if you prefer) the highschool drama has reached in the Japanese movie industry, in actually unparalleled, with films that range from “Confessions” to “Flowers of Evil”, from “Crows Zero” to “Liverleaf” and from “Assassination Classroom” to “Lesson of the Evil, including everything between. Hideo Jojo, who has mainly worked in adult films, in an adaptation of the manga series “Joshikosei ni Korosaretai” by Usamaru Furuya, presents another testament to the fact.

“To Be Killed by a High School Girl” is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

The absurdity here mostly revolves around the main protagonist, Haruto Higashiyama, a young, smart, and handsome history teacher, whose appearance in Niitaka High School has made him immediately popular with his students, and particularly the female ones. Higashiyama, however, harbors a rather dark secret, since his biggest dream is...

Haruto Higashiyama is a high school teacher because he wants to be killed by a beautiful high school girl. While he is a popular and well-regarded teacher at Nitaka High School, he has spent the past nine years secretly formulating his bizarre plan. His two ideal conditions for his death are: “It must be a perfect crime” and “He must be killed with her full effort”. Haruto is now ready to put his plan into motion.

(Sources: Crunchyroll and AsianWiki)

This is a live-action adaptation of the suspense manga “Joshikosei ni Korosaretai” by Usamaru Furuya (Litchi☆Hikari Club), which was initially serialised in Shinchosha’s bi-monthly magazine Go Go Bunch in 2013. There are two tankōbon volumes, the first was shipped in 2015 with the second and final volume in 2016 after the manga ended. Written and directed by Hideo JŌJŌ (On the Edge of Their Seats), the film stars Kei Tanaka (Your Turn to Kill...

One thing is for certain: Japanese directors are in the top of the family drama genre, which they have been perfecting since the beginning of the country’s cinema. And although “Dear Etranger” (the French word for stranger in case you were wondering) is not a masterpiece, it certainly proves the fact. The film won the Special Grand Prix of the Jury Award at the 2017 Montreal World Film Festival.

“Dear Etranger” screened at Japan Cuts 2018

The script is based on Kiyoshi Shigematsu’s 1996 novel “Osanago Warera ni Umare”. Makoto is an assistant manager to a big company and a career man who separates himself from his colleagues by being dedicated to his family, meaning he does not go for drinks with them after work, but instead prefers on returning to his house and spending time with his family. His family situation, however, is quite complicated, since he currently lives with his second wife,...

One thing is for certain: Japanese directors are in the top of the family drama genre, which they have been perfecting since the beginning of the country’s cinema. And although “Dear Etranger” (the French word for stranger in case you were wondering) is not a masterpiece, it certainly proves the fact. The film won the Special Grand Prix of the Jury Award at the 2017 Montreal World Film Festival.

Dear Etranger is screening at Japan Cuts 2018

The script is based on Kiyoshi Shigematsu’s 1996 novel “Osanago Warera ni Umare”. Makoto is an assistant manager to a big company and a career man who separates himself from his colleagues by being dedicated to his family, meaning he does not go for drinks with them after work, but instead prefers on returning to his house and spending time with his family. His family situation, however, is quite complicated, since he currently lives with his second wife,...