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November 23, 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
Dec 16, 2011
'Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol'
Cocky, sexy, brilliant and incredibly fit young men don't stay that way forever, right? Gets especially difficult past the age of 40, wouldn't you say? But in the case of Ethan Hunt — the main man of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise and one of Tom Cruise's most successful performances - the impossible...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2011
'The Ditch' / 'Sacrifice'
In 1949, the revolution of Mao Zedong infused revolutionaries worldwide with hope. In France, existentialists Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre singled China out as a nation with the potential to set all other nations free. Then in 1956, Chairman Mao made a public declaration to encourage free...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2011
Tintin gets a little closer to Japan in 3-D movie
"Everyone knows Tintin!" says a street hawker in the film "The Adventures of Tintin" — but 30 years ago director Steven Spielberg had no idea who or what he was.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2011
'The Mill and the Cross'
Bombarded as our brains are with visual images from digital screens that dominate most aspects of life, an encounter with "The Mill and the Cross" triggers a kind of shock reaction.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 25, 2011
'Les Amants du Flore'
Boy meets girl. They fall in love and decide to hook up — for the rest of their lives. But how can they make sure that the flame never dies? Twentieth-century philosopher couple Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir dug into the problem and came up with a few codes of behavior. 1.) Never get married....
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 21, 2011
You think you're funny, but really you're not
In this age of shūshoku hyōgaki (就職氷河期, the employment ice age) the one industry that's filling young people with hope and plans for the future is this: the world of owarai (お笑い, comedy).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2011
'Henry's Crime'
There's such a thing in this world as aging gracefully (see Brad Pitt), and then there's Keanu Reeves, which is another thing altogether. The average cinephile may not describe Reeves as a "thing," but take it from one who knows: At this point in time he may be the only one in his weight class who could...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2011
'Love & Other Drugs'
Sometimes in my dreams it's the 1990s all over again, and my feelings about it are always ambivalent. If the dream is good, I get to dance to Nirvana with a club logo stamped on my wrist. If it's bad, I have to take the train to get to the nearest Starbucks and I don't even have a cellphone, just a pager....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 4, 2011
'Free Wheels East'
If you were a strapping, handsome, able-bodied youth just out of university, what would be your next step? Back in the late 20th century, young men chose professions such as investment banking or financial consultation, and diligently went about getting their MBAs. Remember those days of multiple degrees...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2011
'Fair Game'
The Japan release of "Fair Game" comes nearly 12 months after the U.S. opening and a week after the death of Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi. For a story all about U.S. involvement in Iraq and that other infamous depot, Saddam Hussein, the timing could be right on the money. Still, a sense of discomfort...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011
'Heartbreaker'
You can take a French boy out of France, but you can't take France out of the French boy. Usually — but this time, the formula doesn't apply, because nifty French romance "Heartbreaker" has all the trappings à la Française but ends up being a glossily plasticized Hollywood-style product.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011
Overcoming disaster via cinematic therapy
Back in May, the rumor among cinephiles in the Japanese media was that the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) wouldn't happen this year. The mood was that it was too soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 to hold anything festive, especially in the visual-arts scene. All over Japan,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 17, 2011
Desperately seeking the lost art of nanpa
One of my cousins spent four weeks in a hinanjo (避難所, evacuation shelter) after the Tohoku disaster, and during that time she experienced the moteki (モテキ, a time when one is gloriously attractive to the opposite sex) of her life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2011
'Blitz'
You can be a dedicated raw-food-vegan workout fiend and still give in to cravings that involve a bucket of deep-fried onion rings and Kirin lager by the tank. At this point, that's probably what Jason Statham is to the global film industry: a bad, illogical, artery-hardening craving.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 7, 2011
'Limitless'
Something must be wrong with me, because there was no way Bradley Cooper could have convinced me of his almost A-list status. Despite his sculpted I-got-this-tan-in-Malibu visage, his blazing blue eyes and perfect biceps, this guy was annoying. And then I saw "Limitless" and decided that my gut instinct...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 30, 2011
'No Impact Man'
An important factor in "No Impact Man" the book is that the author reveals himself as having Zen Buddhist beliefs. What's missing from "No Impact Man" the documentary is this bit of personal information. Charting a year in the lives of the book's author, Colin Beavan, and his family — who decided to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011
'The Company Men'
Years ago, Tommy Lee Jones came to Tokyo and said to a room full of overworked reporters: "I envy the Japanese. You don't have any vacation time. I hate vacations, they make me ill." That must have struck a resounding chord with the media here, because soon after that Jones started appearing in ads,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011
In a galaxy not so far away....
"Japanese space engineers could just possibly be the most boring people on the face of the Earth," laughed an aeronautics engineer working for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), during a brief interview with The Japan Times.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 19, 2011
When men were men and smoked like chimneys
The question "tabako wo osui ni narimasuka?" (「タバコをお吸いになりますか」"Do you happen to be a smoker?") is something you don't hear all that often. So many public venues in the Tokyo area have banned smoking altogether, or simply operate on the assumption that no one in their right...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2011
The gun proves mightier than the pen
I have one name for you: Nicholas Sparks. Depending on who you are and whether you have immediate access to a restroom, you may, like my brother, wish to throw up immediately. Nicholas Sparks ... Some names can kill.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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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