The Story of Yonosuke (2013)

aka A Story of Yonosuke

Yonosuke Yokomichi (Kengo Kora) travels from Nagasaki to Tokyo to study at the city's university. He's a little shy, slightly naïve and subjectively strange, but he makes friends easily, sometimes without even trying.
In later years the people that Yonosuke met reflect on the time spent with him, appreciating how he touched and enriched each of their lives in a unique way. In service of that the story jumps back and forth in time to show how an event in the past shapes the future (i.e. the present); a mature understanding of how time seasons those kinds of memories will increase your enjoyment. It's a beautiful idea, overall, but the result is a little underwhelming at times.

2½ sambas out of 5

The Woodsman and the Rain (2011)

A simple woodsman (Kôji Yakusho) gets interrupted during his work by an apologetic man who explains that the forest worker is himself causing a disturbance, in regards to the filming of a movie not far away. In an odd but captivating way the two different worlds slowly overlap and the aged villager, initially uninterested in the production, drifts into a friendship with the film's unassuming young director (Shun Oguri), a beneficial pairing that leads to the two individuals gaining mutual guidance from one another.
Japanese director Shûichi Okita nails the kind of incredible comic timing that many of his genre peers have, and he makes it look effortless.
If you've enjoyed any of the comedies distributed by TWF that I've covered previously, it's a good bet that you'll feel similarly about The Woodsman.

3½ quiet skies out of 5