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November 22, 2024
 

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Kaori Shoji
Kaori Shoji writes about movies and movie-makers for the Film Page, plus takes a turn at the Bilingual Column. Biggest mistake of her career: taking the very dignified Nagisa Oshima to McDonald's for an iced coffee.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2017
Samuel L. Jackson: Always looking for the next big adventure
If you're one of those people who bought a Kangol cap in the late 1990s with the notion that maybe it will make you seem as cool as Samuel L. Jackson (I plead guilty), then read on.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2017
'Passengers': Futuristic, but the same old fairy tale
A lot of feminists hate Morten Tyldum's "Passengers," and for good reasons. Though it's set in a bright, high-tech future where luxury space travel is the norm, where women are concerned the story's underlying sentiments hail straight from the Middle Ages. On the other hand, just as many other filmgoers...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 18, 2017
Taiwan: Where Japanese go to feel at home on vacation
Taiwan was Japanese soil for about five decades until the end of WWII. Amazingly, this is the one country where the Japanese imperialists managed to do more good than harm when they colonized it in 1895.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017
The unintentional causes of 'abandonment'
Six years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated the Tohoku region, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and triggering meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant that has left a deeply embedded mistrust of nuclear power in the Japanese consciousness....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017
'Sing': Pigs can't fly but they sure can sing
'Sing" is brought to us by Illumination Entertainment — the animation studio that brought the "Despicable Me" series and last year's sleeper hit "The Secret Life of Pets." In many ways it's "La-La Land" with animals. In a color-filled, LA-like town inhabited by non-Homo sapiens in human clothing, a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 8, 2017
Literary partnership behind 'Tokyo Nights' cut tragically short, but the story goes on
English teachers Jim Hickey and Douglas Forrester were offered a two-book deal in early 2016. But within weeks, Forrester was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017
'River': sink, swim or keep running
Up until about 10 years ago, being a white man in Southeast Asia meant you did pretty much what you pleased and damn the consequences, at least in the realm of fictional cinema. (See Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach.") Often, the characters are thrown into prison on drug trafficking charges and narrowly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 8, 2017
'Voyage of Time': Terence Malick's 40-year dream
Filmmaker Terrence Malick is renowned for quirky brilliance, but the director of "Thin Red Line" and "The Tree of Life" is also notorious for his steadfast refusal to have anything to do with the press. Not even online statements or a 10-second Skype session. He just doesn't do them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 6, 2017
In defense of the older Japanese man (because someone's got to do it)
Men over 35 — better known as 'ojisan' or the more derogatory 'ossan' — are lumped together in a cold, lonely place where they have little choice but to huddle together for warmth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017
The poverty of thought in our welfare systems
Sometimes I want to look up from whatever I'm doing (usually when I'm staring at a screen) and send up a prayer of thanks that at 81 years old, filmmaker Ken Loach continues to be who he is.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017
'Trainwreck': Amy Schumer crashes onto our screens
A little over two hours — that's how long the viewer must spend in the company of Amy Schumer as Amy in "Trainwreck," for which she also wrote the screenplay. That's a lot of Amy, as the "Amy, Amy, Amy!" of the Japanese title rightfully suggests. For Schumer fans, it's a real treat. For those with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 23, 2017
From the 'Queen of Boogie' to 'The Lion King,' Japanese audiences are always up for a good musical
Few Japanese will dispute that we are a nation of dedicated music fans and, though it may not seem like it at first, this goes for musicals, too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017
'Man Down': War injuries go beyond the battlefield
'Man Down" is an indictment of war, and its message is one that focuses on its terrible lingering consequences — specifically, veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With many ending up homeless, suffering mental difficulties or becoming suicidal, PTSD is a real issue. According...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017
Historical truths can take decades to unearth
Journalist Eidai Hayashi is battling cancer. At 83 years old, he can barely keep hold of his fountain pen, since the pain has spread to every part of his body.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017
'Cell': Sometimes it's better to just hang up
After seeing "Cell" I wanted to call my grandmother who, with the emergence of the world's first iPhone in June of 2007, predicted the end of civilization as we know it. Five months later she passed away, and some of my cousins whispered that perhaps it was the curse of technology that did her in, or...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 13, 2017
The Japanese and love — more complicated than you think
The Japanese suck at this thing called love, and no amount of Valentine's Day chocolate is going to fix that.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017
'Free State of Jones': One white man vs. the Confederacy
Under current circumstances, it's a good time to think about freedom and its hefty price tag. "Free State of Jones" takes a long, hard look at the American Civil War and the Confederacy's economic system that thrived on slavery and taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2017
'Tangerine': The fruitful use of smartphones
Tammy Wynette sang it so it must be true: "Sometimes it's hard to be a woman." In the case of Los Angeles-based transgender sex workers Alexandra (Mya Taylor) and Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) in "Tangerine," the hardships are doubled as they deal with the common issues of being a woman — unfaithful...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2017
'Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children': A peculiar offering from Tim Burton
A date with Tim Burton isn't what it used to be; it hasn't been for a long time. The outrageous visionary who took us to amazing places that can only be described as cinematic nirvana, with titles such as "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," to name my favorites,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2017
The unglamorous side to a model lifestyle
Fun facts: As of December 2016, the average rent for an apartment in New York was $3,046. The rent for a 23-sq.-meter unit at a micro-apartment that went up in Kips Bay last year comes to $2,570, according to 6sqft.com.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

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

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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