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September 17, 2024
 

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James Hadfield
Masami Nagasawa looks fabulous in a range of outfits as the eponymous protagonist of “All About Suomi.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2024
‘All About Suomi’: The leading lady shines, but the film lacks sparkle
Masami Nagasawa’s performance as a woman whose true self is hard to pin down elevates an otherwise middling Koki Mitani comedy.
A young woman visiting a rural backwater from Tokyo (An Ogawa) finds an unlikely playmate in Tatsunari Ota’s “There Is a Stone.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2024
‘There Is a Stone’ finds beauty in the inconsequential
While very little happens, Tatsunari Ota’s slow-moving debut feature offers stirring moments of simplicity.
Full-time homemaker Momoko (Noriko Eguchi, left, with Kotaro Koizumi) finds her world falling apart in Yukihiro Morigaki’s “Rude to Love.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2024
‘Rude to Love’ gives Noriko Eguchi her tour de force moment
The perennially underused actress gives a bravura performance as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown in Yukihiro Morigaki's drama.
Masahiro Nimura’s “Mommy” features interviews with family members of Masumi Hayashi (right), who was convicted of killing four people and poisoning over 60 others with arsenic-laced curry.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2024
‘Mommy’: A flawed but fascinating dive into a notorious murder case
Masahiro Nimura’s documentary raises reasonable doubts about a crime that gripped the nation over 20 years ago.
Hakushi Hasegawa places their emotive vocals and dexterous keyboard work at the center of the music on their latest album, “Mahogakko” – reminding listeners that there’s a very human presence at the controls.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2024
Electronic wiz Hakushi Hasegawa pulls back the curtain
The musician's latest album, “Mahogakko,” strikes a delicate balance between the dazzling and the downright baffling.
Takashi Yuki (left) directs and stars in “Dito” as an aging boxer living in Manila who is reunited with his 17-year-old daughter (Momoko Tanabe, right).
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2024
‘Dito’ aims for authenticity rather than originality
Takashi Yuki’s Philippines-set boxing drama can be corny and it tends to telegraph its punches, but there’s also no denying its charms.
American musician and visual artist Kim Gordon released her second solo album, “The Collective,” earlier this year, and it’s a bona fide banger.
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2024
Ahead of her Fuji Rock set, Kim Gordon weighs in on punk and U.S. politics
The former Sonic Youth bassist, guitarist and vocalist is in Japan for the first time in over 10 years to promote her latest album, "The Collective."
A nefarious fraudster (Etsushi Toyokawa, left) and his protege (Go Ayano) engineer a multibillion-yen property scam in Netflix’s “Tokyo Swindlers.”
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 25, 2024
Netflix’s ‘Tokyo Swindlers’ is this summer’s guiltiest pleasure
The flashy new series about real estate scammers is a ridiculous treat to watch.
Illustrious historical figures swoop in to save Japan amid the COVID-19 pandemic in “What If Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa Was to Become the Prime Minister.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2024
‘What If Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa Was to Become the Prime Minister’: A historical dream team underperforms
Esteemed figures from Japan’s past are digitally reincarnated to lead the country through a time of crisis in Hideki Takeuchi’s flat-footed comedy.
After losing her family to a plane accident, Suzie (played by Rashida Jones) receives a posthumous gift from her husband in the form of a robot named Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 5, 2024
Rashida Jones uncovers an AI-fueled mystery in the AppleTV+ series 'Sunny'
Set in Kyoto, the story about a woman dealing with grief and an unexpected robot companion is a departure from the actor's comedic repertoire.
Comedian Daisuke Muramoto has been shunned by the Japanese media for taking his act into political territory. Filmmaker Fumiari Hyuga traces his post-pandemic search for a place in show business in "I Am a Comedian."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 3, 2024
‘I Am a Comedian’: A documentary following Daisuke Muramoto’s rocky comedy journey
Documentarian Fumiari Hyuga captures the story of an uncouth Japanese comedian’s efforts to say what can’t be said.
Yuta Orisaka strips things back on his latest album, “Jumon,” though it still features a few explosive moments.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 28, 2024
Yuta Orisaka's folk style is far more than a throwback
The singer-songwriter wanted to make songs his grandmother could enjoy, but that doesn't mean he'll skimp on the electronic touches.
A pianist undergoing a crisis of confidence (Taiga Kyomoto, right) falls in love with a mysterious fellow student (Kotone Furukawa) in Hayato Kawai’s “Secret: A Hidden Score.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2024
‘Secret: A Hidden Score:’ A romantic fantasia played far too straight
Japanese remake of Jay Chou’s 2007 hit love story is tighter, tidier and less fun.
Harmony Korine (center-left, in orange) DJs a set with his EDGLRD crew at a Tokyo event promoting his film, “Aggro Dr1ft,” at WWW X on June 6.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 14, 2024
Harmony Korine wants us to dream movies, and he’s working on a ‘pill’ for that
Korine and his collaborators came to Tokyo to screen his new film "Aggro Dr1ft," his first visit to Japan in 17 years.
A bereaved parent (Anne Watanabe, right) takes in an abused child with memory loss (Toma Nakasu) and convinces him that she’s his real mother in Kosai Sekine’s “Stay Mum.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2024
‘Stay Mum’: A tale of deception that doesn’t add up
A bereaved parent takes in an abused child with memory loss and convinces him that she’s his real mother.
Yumi Kawai delivers an impressive lead performance as a young drug addict trying to get her life back on track in Yu Irie’s “A Girl Named Ann.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2024
‘A Girl Named Ann’: A powerful drama loses its way
The lead actor sinks deep into her role, performing without a hint of vanity or the actorly tics.
A professional single from Tokyo follows a deaf photographer to rural Hokkaido in Toshihiko Tanaka’s directorial debut, “Rei.”
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2024
'Rei': An imperfect yet compelling directorial debut
Toshihiko Tanaka’s Rotterdam prizewinner is a flawed but oddly engrossing epic.
The dying words of a wounded man (Yang Ik-june, back) come back to haunt him when he fails to meet his maker on schedule in Nobuhiro Yamashita’s “Confession.”
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2024
‘Confession’ takes a stab at the dark side of getting it off your chest
The film’s South Korean actor Yang Ik-june brings the intensity needed to deliver a macabre B-movie that's a bloody good time for gore fans.
Andre Hayato Saito’s latest short, “Amarela,” centers on a 14-year-old Japanese Brazilian girl (Melissa Uehara).
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2024
Cannes nominee on being 'too Brazilian to be Japanese, too Japanese to be Brazilian’
Andre Hayato Saito's Palme d’Or-nominated short film, “Amarela,” is rooted in the director's own experiences with searching for a sense of belonging.
A trio of childhood friends (from left: Ryota Bando, Naoya Shimizu and Rion Takahashi) wonder about their future in Ryutaro Ninomiya’s “Wakamusha.”
CULTURE / Film
May 16, 2024
‘Wakamusha’: An austere portrait of toxic masculinity
Ryutaro Ninomiya shows a deft touch in his uncomfortable drama about childhood friends struggling to find their place in the adult world.
Japan's elderly population grows to record 36.25 million
The proportion of people aged 65 and over has risen since the 1950s and is expected to hit 34.8% by 2040, when the second baby boomers (born 1971-1974) will join that group.
'Shogun' becomes first non-English-language winner of best drama Emmy
Japanese actress Anna Sawai, winner of the outstanding lead actress in a drama series award for "Shogun," and Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada, winner of the outstanding lead actor in a drama series award for the show, pose in the press room during the 76th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Japan jumps to No. 2, from sixth place, in Best Countries index
Pedestrians cross an intersection in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. Japan has experienced a postpandemic travel boom, with tourists pouring back in after restrictions closed the country’s borders to travelers.
South Korea is facing deepfake porn crisis
Activists hold up symbolic eye masks during a protest against deepfake porn in Seoul on Aug. 30.
‘The people I’d seen in kimono didn’t have as much melanin as I do’
American Kara Harris is on the verge of attaining a high-level certification in the world of kimono — and may possibly be the first Black woman to do so.
Chris Broad's new bar puts cocktails first, YouTube second
A self-proclaimed lover of great cocktails, YouTuber Chris Broad says his new Shibuya watering hole is more a place to get yourself a solid drink than it is anything related to his social media career.
LDP presidential hopefuls outline approach to U.S. and China concerns
Candidates for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election stand together onstage at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Saturday.
Tokyo’s top fashion showcase pushes rising stars to the world stage
A model displays a creation by Japanese designer Norio Surikabe during a runway show on Sept. 6 for the latest edition of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo.
New mouse models can boost Japan's drug development: National Cancer Center
Hiroyuki Mano, director of the National Cancer Center Japan's (NCC) research institute, explains on Wednesday the use of mice bearing patients' cancer tissues to screen drug candidates for their efficacy.
Scientists win Ig Nobel for discovering anal breathing in mammals
Takanori Takebe (behind the lectern) speaks after his team of researchers and he were awarded the Ig Nobel Prize in physiology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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