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August 15, 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
Apr 13, 2016
'The Eichmann Show': The reality is far more horrific than the fiction
Like many things, journalism used to have a gravitas that has all but disappeared from today's media. That point is brought home in "The Eichmann Show," a BBC film about what is deemed the first globally broadcast televised documentary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016
'45 Years': When love is lost but can never be forgotten
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016
'Cop Car': Joy-riding with dire consequences
Do you smell the Bacon?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2016
Keanu Reeves' concoction of 'The Whole Truth'
The American judicial system may not have its finest hour in "The Whole Truth" but the film is nonetheless a gripping 90-minute courtroom drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The film is unflattering to lawyers and unkind to witnesses — no one has an easy time here, including the unfortunate...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2016
A terrible film saved by the dog
One of the two stars I gave this film is to honor the combined team of Terry Jones, the director and co-writer (and former member of Monty Python), and Simon Pegg, the star who is never out of a single frame. Actually, make that 1.5 stars for these two gents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 30, 2016
Documentary delves into the darker side of Kawasaki
Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture is famed for three things: yakiniku barbecue restaurants, sex shops and a high crime rate. Though parts of the city are middle class, a grittier and lower-income image of Kawasaki has persisted through the years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2016
Altering the history and gender of 'The Danish Girl'
Are you into Scandinavian design? If you are, "The Danish Girl" will have you swooning. Even the first 10 seconds of the opening scene will provoke design envy and, for those who care about the details, Copenhagen apartment envy, circa 1926. Director Tom Hooper is clearly enthralled by Danish art and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016
The transformative power of Japan's 'magical girls'
There is one surprising thing about Japan's male-dominated — some may say rabidly misogynistic — society: manga and anime support women. True, there are plenty of examples to the contrary (take a short stroll through any Akihabara anime shop if you need proof). But at the same time, the modern Japanese...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016
'Mia Madre' unpacks the burdens that women carry
Why does the burden of balancing work, family and sanity almost always ends up on the shoulders of women? Hints can be gathered in "Mia Madre," winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 16, 2016
What Japan can learn from French blockbuster 'Serial (Bad) Weddings'
Love between different races is one thing, and then there's marriage. Guess which is more complicated.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 14, 2016
Japanese go out on a limb for health (but not for love)
You could say that health has become a national obsession — one of the most obvious side-effects of Japan's super-aged society.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2016
'Love is Strange' when you're an aging couple in a big city
These days, love and real estate seem to go hand in hand when it comes to U.S. cinema. Throw in encroaching old age and you have a winning film: an adult love story that many aged city dwellers can truly relate to. Considering that one in four Tokyo residents are older than 65, it's no wonder older people...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2016
'The Lobster' offers a sci-fi solution for 'sexless Japan'
Back in the 1990s, an unmarried woman in Japan who was 25 or older might have been called a "Christmas cake." The term equated them with the seasonal cakes that were sold for half price after Dec. 24, and it contained an explicit warning for women: Catch a man before you turn 25 because that's your official...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 2, 2016
The drama of work: Exploring Japan's 'oshigoto' genre
There's a genre in Japanese fiction called oshigoto (work). It has been around for a while, but after the disasters of March 11, 2011, it really took off — perhaps we realized that the only thing going for us was a willingness to work our backsides off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016
Takeshi Kitano and the men who watch women sleeping
An older man, a much younger woman and a mystery that surrounds their relationship — for the Japanese, it's a familiar story. The woman doesn't say much, letting her youthful allure and beauty do most of the talking. The man doesn't say much either; he's more interested in looking at and pampering...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016
Meryl Streep as a runaway rocker in 'Ricki and the Flash'
It has been seven long years since Jonathan Demme came out with what is popularly known as a "woman's movie" (don't say "chick flick" — there's a difference) with "Rachel Getting Married." In many ways, "Ricki and the Flash" feels like the sequel to that earlier film. Both movies examined the behavioral...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016
'Sherlock: The Abominable Bride' leaps off the BBC and into cinemas across Japan
Red alert to Sherlockians. You have likely been suffering from withdrawals after the cliffhanger finale to the BBC series "Sherlock," which left us on a veritable desert island without murder mysteries or the comforting presence of Martin Freeman as John Watson and — worst of all — no Benedict Cumberbatch...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 17, 2016
Tokyo festival for 'alternative visions' is loaded with art films
The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2016 is on until Feb. 20 and is taking place in one of Tokyo's most highfalutin chunks of real estate: the area around Yebisu Garden Place in the Ebisu neighborhood.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 15, 2016
It's the season of love: Won't someone please grab hold of my chin?
In Japan these days, it can seem as if love itself is on the decline — and that no one really cares.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2016
Introducing the complex refugee experience to Japan
The plight of refugees is dauntingly hard to comprehend for the majority of Japanese who have been brought up believing they live in a racially homogeneous nation. (Let's reserve the falseness of this belief for another story.)
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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