I don't know that I ever could have predicted this one. I knew that there was a chance that Ace Attorney could be good (or perhaps even great), but I was not prepared for how absolutely brilliant Takashi Miike's adaptation of the absolutely brilliant videogames series Phoenix Wright. If you have played the first game, there won't be too much new for you (although I'll think you'll like what new there is), but it's handled in such a way that it doesn't feel unnecessary. Those who haven't played the game(s) are unlikely to enjoy it quite as much, but put them in with a crowd and they're still have a blast. And then buy them a DS (they're quite cheap nowadays) and the rest of the games in the series. They will thank you. -- Alec Kubas-Meyer (Read his full review here!)

Zombie Ass is about as good as a movie called Zombie Ass can be. Noboru Iguchi slathers on a heaping helping of filth, but at least has the decency to not show someone pinching a loaf on camera. There's still a fair amount of crap on screen, though it's not the worst thing to come out of people's butts inZombie Ass. It's cheap junk, it's dirty junk, and it revels in gross-out humor and special effects. The finale is the stuff of a crazed 13-year-old's fever dream -- the kind of joke you'd tell in middle school brought to life in all its smelly glory. Whatever I say about the film is pretty much moot because if you want to see Zombie Ass you will see it regardless, and may the gods of good taste have mercy on our souls. -- Hubert Vigilla (Read his full review here!)

Love Strikes! is a different kind of disappointment. Instead of falling short of any preconceived ideas of how the film might be, Love Strikes! fell short of how it made me think the film might be. The opening 30 minutes of Love Strikes! are fantastic, and they really pumped me up and had me excited. Then the rest of the film happened, and I was so angry with everybody involved in the production. There was so much promise in that 30 minutes, but the film does everything it can to undo the goodwill it gained from that, and it successfully undoes all of that goodwill. I still think those thirty minutes are worth watching, but I honestly don't know how nobody involved in the production didn't stop and say, "Hey wait a second... maybe we should make this terrible stuff more like that not-terrible stuff that we did before." But apparently that happened, and the world is worse off because of it. -- Alec Kubas-Meyer (Read his full review here!)

Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club's biggest crime is that it's boring. The basic premise, a group of young girls try to give their teacher a miscarriage, should be enough to give the filmmakers some kind of creative spark, but there's nothing there. Almost nothing happens, and the few things that do happen are laughable or completely nonsensical. Nobody is interesting, nobody is worth caring for, nothing matters. If a filmmaker can't feel bad for a legitimately blameless character who has a group of young girls trying to give her a miscarriage, then that person needs to find a different job. -- Alec Kubas-Meyer (Read his full review here!)

JAPANATOR ROUNDUPS: LISTED IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

Final Day: 7/30/12 (Rent-a-Cat, Ushijima the Loan Shark)

Day 16: 7/27/12 (Lonely Swallows, Tokyo Playboy Club, Tormented) 

Day 14: 7/24/12 (No Man's Zone)

Day 13: 7/23/12 (Toad's Oil)

Day 12: 7/22/12 (9 Souls, Hard Romanticker)

Day 8: 7/19/12 (Chronicle of My Mother, Zombie Ass, The Atrocity Exhibition)

Day 6: 7/17/12 (Smuggler)

Day 5: 7/16/12 (Gyo)

Day 2: 7/13/12 (Ace Attorney, Monsters Club, Potechi (Chips))

Day 1: 7/12/12 (Scabbard Samurai, Love Strikes!)

Day -2: 7/10/12 (Asura)

Japan Cuts film festival kicks off in NYC this week

FULL FLIXIST REVIEWS

Ushijima the Loan Shark - Good 

Rent-a-Cat - Exceptional 

Tormented Sub-par

Tokyo Playboy Club - Good

Lonely Swallows - Decent

No Man's Zone - Sub-Par

Toad's Oil - Good

9 Souls - Great 

Chronicle of My Mother - Good

Zombie Ass - Good  

Hard Romanticker - Bad

The Big Gun/Henge - Decent

Let's Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club - Bad

Smuggler - Average

Gyo - Great

Potechi (Chips) - Great 

Ace Attorney - Exceptional 

Monsters Club - Good

Love Strikes! - Decent

Asura - Decent

Scabbard Samurai - 82 (Great) -