(卑弥呼) 
Directed by Masahiro Shinoda
100 minutes
In Japanese with English subtitles

This is the kind of film I really love, something that takes us into new directions, and brings something completely different to the table. It is traditional, artificial, dreamy, and mind-blowing, all at the same time. It is set in some mystical ancient time, somewhere around 200 A.D, and it is like a weird folk tale that the director brings to life. It depicts an otherworldly Japan—Japan before Japan existed—when one clan worships the land-God, another the sun-God or the mountain-God. The story revolves around an ancient female shaman who falls in love with her half-brother from a different tribe.

One person compared this flick to Alejandro Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain, and although they are very different films, it does in some way have a similar visionary flair as Jodorowsky's tale. Luckily, the film is not trying to be ethnographic in any way—instead it feels more like it's an imaginary world outside of time. It is mythological and bizarre, with surreal costumes and set designs. According to ancient Chinese sources, the main female character Himiko was a Japanese shaman-queen, and it was her powers, vision and illicit love story that inspired this film. 

If you know anything about the dance world, another incredibly striking aspect of this film is the fact that it features some wild Butoh dance pieces, including incredibly rare performances by the founder of the Butoh dance movement Tatsumi Hijikata. Take all that and add some astounding musical compositions by Tōru Takemitsu and the end result is wondrous, throwing everything to a higher level.