It's the compelling duo at the center of the film that lends a sincerity often absent from Sono's oeuvre.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2019

Sono has successfully fashioned through his endearingly distinguishable style a harrowing allegory of a damaged society which both screams out for a drastic political change whilst also presenting a vigorously absorbing revenge tragedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 8, 2019

The overheated emotions and overamped screeching would have soon become unbearable if Sono hadn't also carefully stylized everything from the acting to the art direction - a welcome (if thin) form of visual and mental insulation.

| Jul 19, 2018

The setting is simultaneously breathtaking and heartbreaking.

| Jul 19, 2018

An important, and fitfully great, picture.

| Original Score: B | Jul 19, 2018

Himizu is still not an easy film to like, but the topicality of its message about national pain and rebuilding could attract some offshore sales following its Venice and Toronto debuts.

| Jul 19, 2018

Despite the almost nonstop drumbeat of human cruelty, there's a surprising core of sweetness to Himizu...This is a movie that uses hopelessness as a way to explore hope.

| Apr 1, 2014

[Mr. Sono] gives the film a harrowing cacophony and a sense of trauma with sound effects, including subtle echoes.

| Mar 13, 2014

Refreshing yet thoroughly unpleasant ...

| Mar 11, 2014

Sion Sono's film is a vision of coming of age as trial by fire, a thunderous encapsulation of that period of transition in which adolescents try to discover themselves: their passions, their purpose, their sense of morality.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 11, 2014

Occasionally heavy-handed in the delivery of its ideas, but also a refreshingly sensitive character study.

| Jan 16, 2013

Sono's latest is overlong and fidgety, but puts its post-Fukushima context to good use.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2012

Sono's film delivers a broadside against the self-interest and complacency of the older generation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 1, 2012

Its young leads are terrific, the ruined city is a fitting backdrop for mental obliteration and the wall-to-wall parental negligence references the behaviour of the disinterested elite.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 1, 2012

Sono retains his go-for-the-throat approach, but the violence here somehow connects with the brutal economic conditions, and he fosters very tender, affecting performances from Shta Sometani and Fumi Nikaid as his crushed young lovers.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2012

A near-masterpiece from one of the most significant directors working today, Himizu combines all the director's strengths while introducing a tentative humanism that proves remarkably affecting.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2012

An uneven film brightened with the occasional flash of social comment.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 30, 2012

Over-the-top but blackly funny along the way.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 28, 2012

Love in this teen flick is less like a red, red rose than a bloody nose.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 23, 2012

Much of the film's impact stems from a pair of remarkable lead performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 16, 2012