‘Hinotama: Ball of Fire’ Review: Gentle, Handsomely Shot Domestic Drama Is a Promising Debut for Yaza Takenoshin

The early moments of “Hinotama: Ball of Fire,” the debut feature from young Japanese director Yaza Takenoshin (who graduated from Harvard this past summer), almost move like clockwork, finding a pleasing rhythm in everyday mundanities — matching the repetition of numbers being called out for test papers to a mother having groceries counted at the […]