Afterlife of the Party: An Exploration of Female Friendship
Netflix's Afterlife of the Party might fall into the rom-com genre, but it's much more about grief, strong female friendships, and platonic love than it is about romance.

Confusingly, this is actually the first “Stop the…” movie of what (to date) has been a trilogy. Kuni (Kenichi Endo) runs a Phone Sex service, where middle-aged men talk too, and arrange to meet, schoolgirls for “Compensated Dating” (enjo kosai) – the men provide gifts in return for “dating” the schoolgirl (although no money changes hands, this is effectively teenage prostitution). Kuni discovers that one group of schoolgirls are using his service to ambush (and then blackmail) his clients and decides to embark on a moral crusade against them (hence the title, Stop the Bitch…). Unfortunately, this crusade takes the form of arranging to meet the schoolgirls, having (kinky and degrading) sex with them and then running off without paying. The logic goes that if these girls are not making money from their “dating”, they will give it up, making the world a safer place for everyone. Unfortunately for Kuni, these schoolgirls decide to fight back….
Netflix's Afterlife of the Party might fall into the rom-com genre, but it's much more about grief, strong female friendships, and platonic love than it is about romance.
In The Novelist's Film, Hong explores the meaningful things people share and inspire by virtue of simply engaging with one another.
Vicenza, a Brazilian girl, goes on a quest by herself to find out who her birth father is by gathering clues.
What happens to an inseparable bond when love for competing morphs into competing for love?
Dracula evolved from a person to a monster and then from a monster to a person.
When you first hear that there is a series on Netflix where the lead character’s wife dies from cancer and he becomes dangerously suicidal, you wouldn’t immediately assume that it’s a comedy.