A young woman takes on altogether too many responsibilities after losing everything, in Mari Okada’s touching fantasy drama.
Category: Animated
Princess Mononoke
Hayao Miyazaki's timeless tale of man versus nature feels like a classic fairy tale, with a few more decapitations.
Fire Ball
Taiwan’s short king Wukong faces off against Red Boy, a wheelchair-bound Princess, and a weird frog guy in this messy, but fun retelling of Princess Iron Fan.
The Monkey King and Fruit of Immortality
Sun Wukong does what he does best and causes complete mischief, in the second part of Shanghai Animation’s trilogy.
My Oni Girl
A boy learns to express himself in the most convoluted way possible, in Tomotaka Shibayama’s cutesy fantasy drama.
Ponyo
Everything’s better down where it’s wetter in Hayao Miyazaki’s buckwild pseudo-retelling of The Little Mermaid.
Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
Story doesn’t suffer nearly as much as I’d have expected in Gisaburo Sugii's animated retelling of the iconic videogame.
The Imaginary
An imaginary friend faces a very real threat in Yoshiyuki Momose’s animated fantasy.
Maboroshi
A mystical steel mill traps a town in an endless winter, and that’s the least weird thing about Mari Okada’s fantasy romantic drama.
Unico: Saving Our Fragile Earth
Unico once again risks life and limb for people he has no attachment to in this strange, fun short
The Missing
An animator – either the director or his character – has a lot to say, but not always the means to when trauma rears its ugly head.
Inu-Oh
Music gives new life to the deceased in Masaaki Yuasa’s tribute to history, performance arts and hair metal.
The Asian Cinema Critic 