Suzuki=Bakudan (Japan Cuts '26), in Cinema Daily US

SUZUKI=BAKUDAN could be the next hot property for international remakes following its Japan Cuts '26 premiere. Its a twisty psychological thriller with explosive high stakes. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Junk World (Japan Cuts '26), in Cinema Daily US

It feaures an unusually mucky and grimy dystopian setting, but the stopmotion animation and immersive world-buiolding in JUNK WORLD are exponentially more impressive than any big-budget tent-pole released in theaters this year. Japan Cuts review now up at CINEMA DAILY US here.

Cocoon: One Summer of Girlhood (Japan Cuts '26), in Cinema Daily US

Inspired by the Himeyuri Students of Okinawa and animated by several Studio Ghibli veterans, COCOON: ONE SUMMER OF GIRLHOOD is exactly the sort of serious, allegorical film that can only work as animation. CINEMA DAILY US Japan Cuts review up here.

Japan Cuts ’26: Gosh!!

It's like a Hudson & Rex for stoners. The world thinks Oliver is a heroic police dog, but whenever his handler, Ippei Aoba, looks at him, he sees a slovenly middle-aged drunk wearing dog costume. Understandably, Aoba has difficulty reconciling public perception with his private reality. Oliver certainly doesn’t try to make it any easier. Nevertheless, they have been at this for a while. Like The Mandalorian, Sex in the City, and The X-Files, the hit 2021 Japanese TV series continues with an all-new feature film, director-screenwriter-co-star Joe Odagiri’s Gosh!!, which had its North American premiere at this year’s Japan Cuts.

Aoba and Oliver have recently been hailed as heroes, but it doesn’t make sense to the K-9 officer. He knows Oliver’s true nature and he realizes their success was dumb luck, with the emphasis on dumb. However, he is happy to work with his Academy mentor, Yayoi Hagoromo, when she requests their temporary transfer for a case. Considered the department’s best handler, Hagoromo can make Oliver act like a “normal dog” (as Charlie Brown would say) when she takes his leash, instead of a creepy drunk perv.

Of course, Oliver has a lousy nose, but it won’t matter much for this case. They are searching for Konishi, a compulsive “volunteer,” who became a local folk hero. Unfortunately, he wandered through a portal to a different dimension, very much like the mysterious red door “freelance” journalist Masatoshi Nagase walks through while investigating Konishi’s disappearance. However, instead of the dimension Konishi remains trapped in, Nagase arrives in world very much like our own, except everyday life is exclusively focused on Takoyaki.

Essentially, Gosh!! plays like Ted the foul-mouthed teddy bear, taking a detour through the Twilight Zone. Frankly, the mid-section roams so randomly out into left field, it gets a little lost for a while. However, when it comes to weirdness, it is tough to one-up. Frankly, it might have worked better on TV, in shorter, more focused installments. On the other hand, as a movie for mature (in terms of age, but immature of mind-set) audiences, there were no constraints on its rudeness, which was clearly liberating.