Caniba

Play trailer

1:53

Caniba

2018

1h 30m

Documentary

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

58%

Tomatometer

31 Reviews

40%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Interviews with famous Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa.

Critics Consensus

In terms of form as well as content, Caniba is decidedly not for everyone, but its story - and the questions it poses - are hard to ignore.

Read Critics Reviews

A.A. Dowd

AV Club

10/21/2018

C+

"I can't stomach this anymore," Jun eventually remarks, as his brother pages through his illustrated confession. That makes all of us.

Go to Full Review

Michael Nordine

IndieWire

10/19/2018

C+

Caniba features no explanatory text or outside voices of any kind.

Go to Full Review

Glenn Kenny

New York Times

10/18/2018

I consider Sagawa repellent, and the movie an exercise in intellectualized scab-picking.

Go to Full Review

Panos Kotzathanasis

Asian Movie Pulse

12/02/2019

Evidently, "Caniba" is not a movie for everyone, both for its theme and its presentation. However, it is also a unique experience, a truly original movie that manages to shed light into the lowest depths of human nature

Go to Full Review

Mattie Lucas

From the Front Row

06/03/2019

3.5/4

Rather than sensationalizing their gruesome subject, they use it to hold a mirror up to the audience, and the disarming act of introspection should make us all a little nauseous.

Go to Full Review

Marshall Shaffer

Vague Visages

01/24/2019

It's puzzling to reconcile how Castaing-Taylor and Paravel simultaneously operate on such a high level ... while also strapping themselves into an aesthetic chastity belt.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

desmond b

@RT31839822 05/15/2022

Canniba is made by two artists/anthropologists, Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor from Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab. Unlike the more standard documentaries which deal in psychoanalytic speculations and dramatic narration, this one is an extreme close-up of the cannibal himself, in his declining years. The film seems to ask us to consider our own fetishes and asks whether we are repulsed by Sagawa's acts, or by the abjection in ourselves which he forces us to confront. My full review is at https://thecannibalguy.com/2022/05/15/issei-sagawa-caniba/

See more

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

POST RATING

Verena Paravel

Director

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Director

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Producer

Verena Paravel

Producer

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

Cinematographer

Verena Paravel

Cinematographer

Cuban Food Stories

60%

%

Cuban Food Stories

Watchlist

Me and the Cult Leader

100%

%

Me and the Cult Leader

Watchlist

Kusama: Infinity

93%

90%

Kusama: Infinity

Watchlist

TRAILER

for Kusama: Infinity

The Contestant

92%

79%

The Contestant

Watchlist

TRAILER

for The Contestant

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Halloween Is Certified Fresh

Caniba: Trailer 1

1:53

View more videos

View more photos

Synopsis

Interviews with famous Japanese cannibal Issei Sagawa.

Director: Verena Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Producer: Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel
Distributor: Grasshopper Film
Production Co: Norte Productions
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 19, 2018, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 12, 2020
Runtime: 1h 30m