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November 26, 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
Aug 12, 2015
Hell is a claustrophobic submarine in 'Black Sea'
Sometimes a bit of breathless claustrophobia is just the thing to combat a scorching-hot summer (you know, fight panic with panic), and what could be better for that than a submarine thriller?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2015
Tom cruises through 'Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation'
Tom Cruise is 53. I repeat: Tom Cruise is 53. In seven years he will officially be eligible for retirement and a cushy 401(k) plan. That will probably be what's going on in the minds of most people who watch "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," the latest but not last installment in the "Mission:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 5, 2015
The 47 ronin seek vengeance in medieval Europe
"Chushingura,"the 18th-century tale of the 47 ronin, is one of Japan's most beloved historical legends. And once again it has become fodder for a flashy Hollywood movie, this time called "Last Knights," starring Morgan Freeman and Clive Owen, and directed by none other than Mr. Flash himself: Kazuaki...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015
Struggling with images of the wretched and the Earth
Enough with the phoniness of so-called globalism — for something truly pro-Earth and pro-humanity, look at a photo by Sebastiao Salgado. He has been a towering giant on the terrain of modern photography during his 40-year career, producing astonishing black-and-white images of incomparable originality....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015
'Love & Mercy' is a biopic worthy of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys
Real surfers don't listen to The Beach Boys. That's one of the first things I learned while hanging out at the ocean toting a surfboard, and it's also one of the lines from "Love and Mercy," a biopic about The Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson. Along with his brothers, Dennis and Carl, and their cousin...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015
'Inside Out' shows the emotional confusion of growing up
'Inside Out," the new Pixar-Disney animation destined to be a classic, charts the emotional journey of 11-year-old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias). It's not just about how she feels, it's about how Joy (Amy Poehler), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black) and Fear (Bill Hader) form...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 22, 2015
In search of male 'members' great and small
Iceland has everything that matters. There's Bjork, of course. There's Skyr yogurt, widely acknowledged to be the best on the planet. And they've got a place called The Icelandic Phallological Museum, the world's only museum dedicated to the penis, run by Sigurour Hjartarson. For more than 40 years this...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 20, 2015
Ain't no cure for the salaryman blues
This is an excerpt from an interview with a salaryman who wishes to remain anonymous.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2015
It's time to send 'The Terminator' back to the future
It's a sad day when an empire falls, but as history reminds us, often the fall of an empire has been in the works for some time — it's only the headlines that feel sudden. In this case, the empire is the "Terminator" sci-fi franchise. The tragedy is that we knew the fall was coming when "Terminator...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2015
Iranian Kurdish film 'Rhino Season' is a poetic tale of lust and loss
Unlike Iranian film giants Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi is little known outside Iran and the European film-festival circuit. But that's a huge loss to the movie world, as every single one of his works are unforgettable animals, leaving permanent claw...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2015
Possessed by the spirit of Gustave Flaubert's hedonist in 'Gemma Bovery'
Who reads books anymore? Old people, that's who. But it takes a special kind of adult to turn literary passion into obsession, which is exactly what Martin (Fabrice Luchini) of "Gemma Bovery" does. Martin is infatuated with Gustave Flaubert's most famous creation: Emma Bovary, the main character in his...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 6, 2015
Kendo can bring Japan's passive smartphone zombies back to life
When I visited the Nippon Budokan (日本武道館) to watch the Kokusai Kendo Senshuken (世界剣道選手権大会, World Kendo Championships), an unexpected surge of joy coursed through my veins. This is probably how Brazilians feel when watching a soccer match between their national team and anyone...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2015
Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer gazes long into the abysses of Asia
In a world bent on looking only at the future, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer weaves his documentaries from memories and lives that are long gone. He astonished the film world in 2012 with his Oscar-nominated documentary "The Act of Killing," whose central character, Anwar Congo, was a death-squad leader...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 1, 2015
Horror of 'Child 44' is bogged down by Soviet era bureaucracy
The recurring line in "Child 44" is, "there is no murder in paradise." It's a reflection of the political image projected in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era — these were a paradisal states, free from Western ills like poverty and crime, and there was nothing more to say about it. But the backdrop...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 1, 2015
Apocalyptic desert sci-fi and the drying Hollywood landscape
Apocalypse now, in the desert — that's the mood in American sci-fi films these days, as the epic Californian drought continues.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015
'Selma' director Ava DuVernay unveils women activists of civil rights era
A filmmaker needs more than directing skills to make it in the big league, and an activist needs more than a political agenda to change the world. Ava DuVernay brings this point home in "Selma," the first major motion picture portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2015
An ill-mannered hunt for fleeting beauty in Mike Leigh's 'Mr. Turner'
'Mr. Turner," a biopic of 19th-century English landscape painter J.M.W. Turner, came about when Mike Leigh, one of Britain's most-treasured filmmakers, teamed up with English actor Timothy Spall. The film is a grand testimonial to the alchemy that happens when two great artists get together to channel...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2015
'Selma' shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eloquence in the face of racial violence
Gone are the days when films made by women were touted as such and labeled "women's films." No critic or distributor would dare do anything so ignoble to "Selma," the first major motion-picture portrayal of American civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As befitting the subject, it's a hard-hitting,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jun 17, 2015
7-year-old 'Detective Conan' deserves more credit
For the past two decades I've nurtured a secret love for Conan, the boy detective of the "Meitantei Conan" ("Case Closed") series — both Gosho Aoyama's manga, which started in 1994, and the TV anime that began in 1996. The Japanese movie industry may have had its ups and downs, but the annual feature-length...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 10, 2015
Surviving flamboyantly in a super-aged society
The older you get, the more you need to live in the city. Simone de Beauvoir once said that to her biographer, and it's probably true. As an iconic presence on the streets of Paris until her death in 1986, de Beauvoir showed that city living was one of the secrets to aging well and living life to the...
Taiwan stuns Samurai Japan to capture Premier12 title
Japan starter Shosei Togo reacts after allowing a three-run home run against Taiwan in the fifth inning of the Premier12 final on Sunday.
Japan and U.S. to form missile plan in case of Taiwan emergency
A U.S. Marine Corps M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and a Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Missile (12SSM) system are put on display at a symposium at a base in Kisarazu, Japan, in June 2022.
Preparations for Osaka Expo well underway amid lack of excitement
The Grand Ring, a symbol of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka
Ishiba shelves proposal for liaison offices with North Korea amid rising tensions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks on Saturday in Tokyo at a rally that was held by a group of families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago to demand the immediate return of all abductees.
'Kohaku' still matters for J-pop bragging rights
Emerging Gen Z J-pop group ME:I will perform on this year's "Kohaku Uta Gassen," national broadcaster NHK’s New Year's Eve spectacle.
How Japan can exit the fossil fuel subsidies it can’t seem to quit
A man walks past a gasoline station in Tokyo on Thursday.
An iconic 32-foot doughnut might give Randy’s an edge in Japan
Randy's Donuts in Inglewood, California. Replicas of the giant doughnut sculpture will be installed, where possible, at shops in Japan.
Tokyo’s newest three-star chef wants ‘harmony across every detail’
British-born Daniel Calvert earned his third Michelin star last month — a stunning achievement considering his restaurant, Sezanne, has only been open for just over three years.
133-year-old Kyushu railway station remains to be partially preserved
The remains of the original Moji Station in Kitakyushu
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.

Podcast

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

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat
By Greg Dvorak

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