Of the many movie news and review sites I visit, Midnight Eye is one of my favorites. It’s a well-written and insightful resource covering contemporary Japanese cinema and its creators. In their new book, the site’s co-editors Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp feature profiles of 20 ground-breaking Japanese filmmakers, and almost 100 of their works. Many of the movies reviewed are extreme in some sense to Japanese and western audiences alike, such as the ultra-violent Ichi the Killer, and the hyper-surreal Tetsuo the Iron Man. Even for fans of these unusual and often bewildering films, the Guide does a fine job giving them a solid cultural (and more importantly, human) context. Understanding the sometimes surprising backgrounds of the creators gives their work a greater resonance. I never would have guessed that The Ring’s world-celebrated Hideo Nakata began his directing career in the home video porn market, or that Audition’s rebel outsider Takashi Miike has several successful TV mini-series under his belt. This book has helped me super-size my already well-padded Netflix queue.

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