![\"film](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Shuichi-YoshidaASPKokuho-Film-PartnersGKIDS-still.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJapan’s Kokuho is the highest-grossing domestic live-action film in the country’s history.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tJapan’s Kokuho is the highest-grossing domestic live-action film in the country’s history.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Shuichi Yoshida\/ASP\/Kokuho Film Partners\/GKIDS<\/p>\n
January is usually a sleepy time for new movies<\/a>, with most film fans focusing on awards season and studios releasing their least inspiring new films into multiplexes. Thanks to Miami\u2019s independent theaters<\/a> and programmers, however, there\u2019s always something good on offer here. This month\u2019s local screenings feature an Oscar contender from Japan, cult movies from the \u201880s, and shorts from the Sundance Film Festival. Here are the best films to see in Miami this month.<\/p>\n Shuichi Yoshida\/ASP\/Kokuho Film Partners\/GKIDS<\/p>\n Kokuho at Koubek Center<\/p>\n A phenomenon in its home country,\u00a0Kokuho, Japan\u2019s submission for the Oscars\u2019 Best International Film award this year, has become the nation\u2019s all-time highest-grossing domestic live-action film. The film, by director Lee Sang-il, mixes a yakuza crime thriller with a dive into the world of kabuki theatre, where men play both male and female parts, and the names of celebrated actors are hereditary titles. When the son of a slain yakuza boss is taken in by the head of a legendary kabuki family (Ken Watanabe of Inception and Tokyo Vice), his prodigious talent rivals that of the family\u2019s son and presumed heir to the title. The two boys\u2019 rivalry develops further as time goes on, and both seek to become a kokuho, a living national treasure. Painstaking effort was made to ensure the film\u2019s authenticity, with lead actor Ryo Yoshizawa training for a year and a half under a kabuki master and director Lee casting actual kabuki actors as both consultants and onscreen performers. The screening is open only to Miami Film Festival members; the lowest tier costs $65 and offers discounts to festival screenings and other benefits. 7 p.m. Wednesday, January 14, at the Koubek Center, 2705 SW Third St., Miami; 305-237-7749; miamifilmfestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour at O Cinema South Beach<\/p>\n Just as Sundance celebrates its final edition in Park City, Utah, before decamping to Colorado next year, O Cinema is screening some of the best shorts of the vaunted independent film festival\u2019s 2025 edition. The block of seven films features live action, animated, and nonfiction shorts from Mexico, Cambodia, and Czechia. Viewers will encounter stories of a high school debate club arguing over minimum wage (\u201cDebaters\u201d), a grandmother interfering in her queer grandson\u2019s love life (\u201cGrandma Nai Who Played Favorites\u201d), Vietnam War refugees used as extras in Apocalypse Now (\u201cWe Were the Scenery\u201d), and more. 7 p.m. Friday, January 16, at O Cinema South Beach, 1130 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; o-cinema.org<\/a>. Tickets cost $10 to $12.50.<\/p>\n AV Club: Surrealism Through The Decades at Main Library<\/p>\n AV Club continues its surrealism series with a screening of 16mm films from the movement\u2019s prewar heyday to the 1980s. The highlight of \u201cSurrealism Through The Decades\u201d is Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s 1965 film, Simon of the Desert (Sim\u00f3n del desierto), his Mexico-made follow-up to the taboo-busting Viridiana, based on the life of an early Christian ascetic, Saint Simeon, who lived atop a pillar for 36 years. The program also includes experimental silent films by Ren\u00e9 Clair and Man Ray, the beloved and influential American female surrealist Maya Deren\u2019s film At Land, and a macabre stop-motion claymation short by Czech animator Jan \u0160vankmajer. 2 p.m. Saturday, January 17, at Main Library, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-2665; mdpls.org<\/a>. Admission is free.<\/p>\n Fourth Act Film\/Grasshopper Film photo<\/p>\n Key Biscayne Film Festival<\/p>\n The Key Biscayne Film Festival is back for a third year, with screenings taking place in the Paradise Theater inside Town Hall, and outdoors at Paradise Park on the final weekend of January. The lineup comprises mostly documentaries and includes films with a local focus (River of Grass, Naked Ambition) as well as others addressing national issues (Blue Zeus, News Without A Newsroom). There are also portraits of famous figures (Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore), along with a handful of fiction films. Every screening will feature a post-film Q&A, and opening and closing parties will be held on Friday and Sunday. Thursday, January 29, through Sunday, February 1, at Paradise Cinema, 560 Crandon Blvd., and Paradise Park, 530 Crandon Blvd., Key Biscayne. Tickets cost $20 to $50 via kbfilmfestival.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Fly at Coral Gables Art Cinema<\/p>\n David Cronenberg\u2019s body horror masterpiece The Fly screens at Coral Gables Art Cinema this month as part of the theater\u2019s After Hours lineup.\u00a0<\/p>\n Our Take: I have never been as physically repulsed by a film as I was by\u00a0The Fly,\u00a0yet I was simultaneously moved nearly to tears. Remaking the 1958 mad scientist B-movie, Cronenberg\u2019s update casts Jeff Goldblum as idealistic researcher Seth Brundle, whose experimental transporter technology accidentally blends his DNA with that of a common fly. The result is unbearable to watch: Seth\u2019s body begins to fall apart as he transforms into a grotesque monster, the \u201cBrundlefly,\u201d eventually losing all connection with his humanity. Cronenberg employs some of the most effective (and most disgusting) special effects ever used in film to manifest the physical trauma of Seth\u2019s mutation, turning an exploitative premise into a potent exploration of disease and mortality (indeed, critics at the time treated the film as an AIDS allegory). Even among the director\u2019s many films exploring the ways human bodies and minds cohabit with science and technology, The Fly is a landmark. 10 p.m. Saturday, January 31, at Coral Gables Art Cinema, 260 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables; 786-472-2249; gablescinema.com<\/a>. Tickets cost $10 to $11.75.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan’s Kokuho is the highest-grossing domestic live-action film in the country’s history. 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Kokuho was Japan\u2019s submission for the Oscars\u2019 Best International Film award this year.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/RIVER-OF-GRASS-image-8.jpg\")
If you missed River of Grass in local theaters last year, it screens at the Key Biscayne Film Festival this month.<\/p>\n