Woody Allen: A Documentary, directed by Bob Weide, was first shown on the PBS channel in the US in November 2011. A year later, a theatrical version is still rolling out across the world. The latest country to show to film is Japan, whose major papers have reviewed the film.

Giovanni Fazio of The Japan Times gave it three stars, and echoes the sentiment of other international reviews.

Weide may wind up skirting the hard questions about the iconic director, but it’s still impossible to sit through this doc and not want to spend a weekend wading back into some vintage Allen. I’ve got “Manhattan,” “Hannah and Her Sisters” and “Match Point” stacked up and ready to go; I’m sure your triple-feature will be different.

Laura Leiva of the Modern Tokyo Times loved it.

‘Woody Allen: A Documentary‘ takes an interesting, and at many times, comedic look at Allen’s life. Many clips from his movies serve to illustrate various childhood stories or his constant obsession with philosophical issues of death and morality. The documentary interviews family and those who have worked with Allen in his long, successful career – it is definitely worth checking out!

Don Morton of Time Out Tokyo gave the film four stars

This is a highly entertaining doc that’s a joy to watch for anyone who likes the movies. But at the end, and this seems to be no fault of the filmmakers, Woody Allen remains an enigma. Still, he’s an enigma we’re fortunate to have.

Ukrainian Woody Allen fans will have a chance to enjoy the 3 hour cut. The documentary is being screened at the American Film Festival “Independence” in Kiev. It will be screened on 29th November 2012, and Weide will be present for a Q&A.

Find out more at the AIFF website.

Two more countries still have cinematic releases to come – Hong Kong on 13 December 2012 and Brazil on 22 February 2013.

Read our review on Woody Allen: A Documentary, as well as all our news stories. In December we will do a full round up of the year’s DVD releases including all available territories for ‘Woody Allen: A Documentary“.