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November 22, 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
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 19, 2015
What's worth getting excited about in 2015?
A general sentiment of self-restraint, bukkadaka (物価高, the high cost of living) and enyasu (円安, the weak yen) culminated in an Oshōgatsuyasumi (お正月休み, New Year's holiday) where more people stayed put and fewer traveled to exotic overseas destinations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 15, 2015
Taken 3
Luc Besson and his protege, Olivier Megaton, have probably burned more fossil fuel and blown up more vehicles between them than a post-bankruptcy Detroit. In an age when many filmmakers are trying to go green, you'd think there would be a quota on car chases and vehicle explosions in every flick, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2015
Frederick Wiseman in communion with an art musuem
One of the most distinctive and unique documentarians of our time, Frederick Wiseman, 85, is famed for two things: an utter disdain of explanatory narration and an exhaustive fascination with his subjects. Since 1967 — when he produced and directed "Titicut Follies," a documentary about a Massachusetts...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2015
The Judge: 'works better if you're a well-to-do, over-40 male'
There is a point in a woman's life — specifically, mine — when surprises in movies and in dates are just not all that welcome anymore. Which is why "The Judge" is a vehicle to like — very, very much. Robert Downey Jr. faces off with Robert Duvall in a patriarchal, angst-ridden mystery thriller...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2015
The November Man: 'Pierce Brosnan's James Bond sheen is fading'
In case you haven't noticed, government agents are getting older: Liam Neeson in the "Taken" series is about to throw in the towel and even Matt Damon (nee Jason Bourne) is moving to another studio to freshen up his image. Now, Pierce Brosnan — whose James Bond sheen is fading — stars in "The November...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2015
The Love Punch
Director: Joel Hopkins Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2015
Passion and prejudice in 1930s Ireland
"Jimmy's Hall" is a glimpse into Ireland in 1932 when the country was in a relative lull between wars, turmoil and strife. Director Ken Loach has consistently worked to bring the lives of the United Kingdom's working class to cinema screens. "Jimmy's Hall" is his second foray into Ireland following "The...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2015
Trash: 'inside Rio de Janeiro's rotten core'
'Trash" takes on greed and garbage — two issues that are linked to crucial global problems of climate change and poverty. These issues are really all part of one big family of troubles, but if one of these factors can be destroyed, chances are it might not be so hard to stomp out the others.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2015
Scandal: Season 2
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 1, 2015
Samba: 'chemistry between an immigrant and his caseworker'
In "Samba" the French writer-director duo of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano try to rekindle the magic and phenomenal box-office success of their 2011 film "The Intouchables," with the same leading man burdened by the same kind of problems against the same backdrop of a Paris unkind to African immigrants....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 1, 2015
White Collar
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2014
Our critics in the crossfire
The Japan Times' three film writers got together before Christmas to discuss their top picks of movies released this year. Unusually, this year both Giovanni Fazio and Kaori Shoji agreed on their No. 1, choosing "The Broken Circle Breakdown." Mark Schilling picked Mipo Oh's "Soko Nomi Nite Hikari Kagayaku"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2014
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Japan title: TinTin Noboken: Unicorn go no Himitsu)
Director: Steven Spielberg Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2014
Top 10 films of 2014: the year of the brilliant bad girls
This was the year of the bad girl, in a manner of speaking. The best movies featured women who went outside the cinematic box of how women should behave and did all sorts of interesting and/or inexplicable things. As for men, their stories were locked into classic modes of masculinity, and in this sense,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014
Maps to the Stars: 'Paranoia born of colossal self-obsession'
Can celebrities be numbingly boring? As far as "Maps to the Stars" is concerned the answer is a big fat "Yes," but in the hands of David Cronenberg ("A Dangerous Method," "Eastern Promises") you hardly notice. Ennui and varying degrees of hysteria define this Hollywood fable where everyone is a monster,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014
Disney's 'Big Hero 6' reassembles Japan without the 'cultural cringe'
So we've all heard that it's hard to be a woman in Japan, but being a Japanese geek comes with its own troubles. For some, it's a life lived in front of glowing screens, a dateless existence spent in a six-mat tatami room with posters of idol group AKB48 plastered on the walls. But here's Disney's "Big...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014
Elena: 'A face permanently set in lines of disappointment'
A Russian friend once defined the Russian temperament with one word: "heavy." That certainly holds for the characters in "Elena," an excellent tale of a Russian family struggling to navigate a world defined by Western capitalism and the supposed magical powers afforded by digital technology. A cold,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2014
3 Days to Kill (Last Mission)
Director: McG Language: English, French, German (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2014
A vision of love through money and migration
At first glance, Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen's "Ilo Ilo" is a familiar tale. A family in Singapore hire a Filipina maid to care for their irate 10-year-old son, an Asian brat extraordinaire. Eventually the boy bonds with the maid, and the two become closer to each other than their real families,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2014
1,000 Times Good Night: 'Should war and violence be a photo opportunity?'
Aperson can be greedy about a whole lot of things, but Rebecca (excellently played by Juliette Binoche) in "1,000 Times Good Night" is greedy about work.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

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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