Detective Conan Movie: Crimsom Love Letter

Hey everyone! I hope all of you who are in Japan managed to enjoy Golden Week. It's peak season for Huis ten Bosch so I'v…

Silence: Movie Review

So on Saturday, Silence was released in Japan! It's directed by Martin Scorsese and has spent 26 years in the making! As a bi…

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2016

I’ve managed to put together another Top Ten Movie list but before I get to that I want to quickly talk about the the current st…

Gunma: A Snowy Weekend in Kusatsu Onsen *Video*

Last weekend I went on a trip with friends to Kusatsu Onsen, a famous hot spring resort in Gunma prefecture. We had a great time …

Movie Review: Himitsu - The Top Secret (秘密)

Today was the last day of exams for me, and after my paper, my friend and I went to watch a movie! This is the one she recommende…

Update/The Throne

I'm back! Did anyone miss me? XD I arrived back in Fukuoka today, after a really, really quick trip home for my cousin's …

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (Movie Review + the Singapore Connection)

After missing one movie, I finally went to see the latest Detective Conan movie. To be honest, I only went to see it because the …

Review: Batman v Superman - Dawn of Justice

I gave Man of Steel a pretty good review when it came out, though a major problem I had with it was that it was a crappy Superma…

Drama Review: Tensai Tantei Mitarai (天才探偵ミタライ)

Image from Fujitv.co.jp/mitarai Um... hi :D I know I said FAQ or Shukatsu post next (sorry, Whitney!), but I remembered that I wa…

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2015

So…yeah. I guess it’s been a year since I posted anything on this blog. This is awkward. There’s a reason, though I don’t think t…

Frozen In Time: The Cinematic Legacy Of Japan's 'Eternal Virgin'

Setsuko Hara's iconic career spanned only three decades. For more than three decades, she dazzled audiences as the ideal Japa…

Beta's Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2014

2014 was a hard year for me, as evidenced by my lack of updates, and while I’ll likely get into that more when I do my anniversar…

Smashing in Pink: Japan's Artful, Rebellious Film Genre

Actress Kaori Okamoto bares (almost) all in  Top Stripper . © 1982 Nikkatsu Corporation. Adult film is a genre often avoided by f…

To Be Continued: The Second Life of Japan's Silent Films

A scene from Kinugasa's hallucinatory masterpiece Crossroads, one of the few existing films from Japan's silent era.   It…

Review: Pontypool

Happy Halloween, everybody. As you may well know by now I’m not a huge fan of horror films (like, at all) but I had such a fun ti…

Mini-Reviews: Sin City - A Dame to Kill For, The Maze Runner

It's taking me longer than I anticipated to get back into the swing of reviewing things again here on Beta is Dead (the previ…

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy (Film)

I’m sure by now we’re all aware of Marvel Studios ' latest offering, Guardians of the Galaxy ; judging by the Box Office numb…

Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a sequel to the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes , which itself was a reboot of the Pl…

Review: Transformers - Age of Extinction

So I should probably talk about Bayformers , huh? No use putting it off anymore. In the mid-2000s toy company/barons Hasbro decid…

Review: Maleficent

Let’s talk about Disney Princess for a second. One of Disney ’s bigger money making operations Disney Princess is a multimedia m…