Kaori Shoji - The Japan Times

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

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'

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.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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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