Kaori Shoji - The Japan Times

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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

Jan 10, 2008

The Renaissance Man

Peter Greenaway's first film in eight years is every bit as enigmatic and tantalizing as the painting it takes its name from, Rembrandt van Rijn's "The Night Watch." Completed in 1642, this work in oils is considered by many critics to be the Dutch master's greatest and most mysterious work.

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Jan 8, 2008

How to avoid an attack of the new year blues

For as long as I can remember, Oshogatsu (New Year's) and me just haven't gelled.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 4, 2008

A director's defense

Francois Girard, the Canadian filmmaker who brought to the screen such quirky masterpieces as "Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould" and "The Red Violin," changes his style and goes all out in the grandiose "Silk." His first feature project in 10 years, "Silk" is based on an Italian novel that explores...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 4, 2008

It took a long time for me to recover from the blast of bullsh*t Orientalism that was "Memoirs of a Geisha." There were the usual symptoms: nausea, shaky hands and an attack of shudders every time I passed by the Oriental Bazaar on Tokyo's Omotesando avenue, among others.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 21, 2007

French filmmaker Pascal Thomas has a thing about Agatha Christie. "L'heure zero (Toward Zero)" is his second adaptation of a mystery by the "Queen of Crime" following "Mon petit doigt ma dit . . . (By the Pricking of My Thumbs . . .)," and he re-creates the Christie microcosm, as before, with the earnest...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 14, 2007

In praise of Chinese women

Though novelist/filmmaker Sijie Dai resides in France and shot his latest movie in Vietnam, he says he will continue to make movies in China because, "I can't think of doing otherwise. It is after all, my country despite our differences."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 14, 2007

'Les filles du botaniste'

Banned in China as "unsuitable for viewing," "Les filles du botaniste (The Botanist's Daughters — released in Japan as 'Chugoku no Shokubutsugakusha no Musumetachi')" is a luscious, languid tale of forbidden love in 1980s China.

LIFE / Language

Dec 11, 2007

Yearend love stories cap a yucky 2007 for girls

Here's a toshinose renai hora banashi (yearend love relationship horror story) -- always a favorite topic of conversation during the season's more casual nomikai (drinking parties).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES

Dec 7, 2007

Director: Sam Garbarski

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 7, 2007

Had filmmaker Francois Ozon ("Under the Sand," "The Swimming Pool") been around in Vienna at the same time as Freud, he would have put the good doctor out of business in a week; this is one man who really, truly understands women and what they want, seemingly without the mighty and constricted efforts...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 7, 2007

He's in the realm of the senses

Francois Ozon is a filmmaker renowned for adopting a different style with every film — he has made scathing, pseudo-pornographic short features ("Sitcom," "See the Sea"), a rich, velvety musical ("8 Femmes"), and a restrained but sensual tale of bereavement ("Under the Sand"). His latest, "Angel,"...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 30, 2007

'The Nativity Story'

Motherhood is a rum thing to begin with but motherhood in the mid-teens, in superconservative ancient Nazareth, engaged to a man you've never met and who is definitely not the father of the baby — well, then it would be time to hit the panic button, if only such a thing had existed.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 23, 2007

'Grbavica'/'Children of Glory'

When the civil war broke out in Bosnia Herzegovina, Jasmila Zbanic was 17 years old.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 16, 2007

Pie-making is a tricky business, as are most other things in life. In "Waitress," pie-maker (or rather, pie-genuis as she's known to her friends) and waitress Jenna's habitual reply to "How are you doing today?" is a rolling of the eyes and a quiet, heartfelt, "Same old shipwreck."

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Nov 13, 2007

Pick a charismatic kyara to sweeten up your life

"All my friends are characters" is a line from the Peanuts cartoon strip, but it seems that everyone in Japan, from friends to foes to family members — have turned into characters, or as people over here say, kyara.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 9, 2007

"Four Minutes" was inspired by a single photograph of an 80-year-old woman who worked as a piano teacher in a women's prison. She sat at her instrument, her hands placed lightly on the keys, and filmmaker Chris Kraus was struck by the contrast between her old, ravaged face and youthful, elegant hands....

CULTURE / Film

Nov 2, 2007

A guy and a girl

In "Once," the couple consisting of the Guy (Glen Hansard) and the Girl (Marketa Irglova) make sweet music but never get together.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 2, 2007

The characters in "Once" don't even have names; it's just the Guy (Glen Hansard) and the Girl (Marketa Irglova), and the story spans about 10 days in their lives one autumn in Dublin. "Once" was a sleeper hit at the Sundance Film Festival — and it's like a small, shining halo of brightness that...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 26, 2007

How does the world (and a parent in particular) deal with a child prodigy? Though Swiss film "Vitus (Boku no Piano Concerto)" doesn't provide any definite answers, it parts the curtains on the mystery, letting us share a little in the experience of getting to know and learning to love an incredibly gifted...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 19, 2007

"Scoop" is not exactly Woody Allen back in top-notch comedy form, but there's a giddy, debonair humor to it that makes you think he was really happy when making this film. And that is probably due to the fact that he was working with Scarlett Johansson for the second time in a row after the dark, stylish...

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

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