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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
May 8, 2014
'Blue Jasmine'
We love watching rich people be rich and happy, but maybe we love it more when the cash stops flowing. There's a Japanese phrase for that, and roughly translated, it goes like this: "The unhappiness of others tastes of honey." In that vein, Woody Allen's newest work, "Blue Jasmine" — a film that stirred...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2014
'The Secret Children'
Hiroshi Nakajima is one of the few Japan-born directors working in Hollywood, and his second feature, "The Secret Children," opens tomorrow. Exploring the issue of human clones with an all-American cast, "Children" has the uminstakable sheen of a made-in-the-USA sci-fi thriller. That said, Nakajima's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2014
'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'
Director: Francis Lawrence
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
This tale of brutal vengeance is no fantasy
A thousand things can go wrong in a kidnapping investigation, and "Prisoners" goes through about 100 of them before you lose count. After that it's easy to blackout under the chokehold of desperation that defines both the film and its protagonist, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'Prisoners'
Cinematically speaking, Thanksgiving is beginning to have the same connotations as the white picket fences and manicured lawns of suburban America: symbols of disaster or tragedy. In "The Company Men" (2010), Ben Affleck feels his jobless life unravelling at the Thanksgiving table. In "Four Brothers"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'Labor Day'
There's nothing like an extremely stressful situation to bring people together. Keanu Reeves said something like that in "Speed," and by the end of the movie he had a relationship in the works with Sandra Bullock. By the sequel, though, they had already broken up. Stressful situations are not always...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'R.I.P.D. (Ghost Agent)'
Director: Robert Schwentke
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'
Spider-Man returns once again — something other superheroes also have a tendency of doing. Marvel Comics' entomological superhero, aka Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), is up to his web-spinning ways again in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" — the second in the rebooted "Spider-Man" movie series launched...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'Omamamia'
Let's get one thing clear: Women want to lose weight. Even if they're rail thin, women still want to be skinnier than they are. That is, everyone except German actress Marianne Sagebrecht, who wears every one of her pounds with regal grandeur and walks into each scene as if she owns the movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'Prison Break: The Final Break'
Directors: Brad Turner and Kevin Hooks
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
The amazing thing about a modern Spider-Man
Too often, superheroes are clueless about what women want. Sure, they can catch the villains and save the world, but when it comes to relationships, they stink.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 20, 2014
I heart cherry blossoms — the rise of Japan's petit nationalism
My friend Naoki has a new strategy when it comes to getting dates; these days he says the best bet is to kusuguru (くすぐる, tickle, or appeal to) a woman's sense of aikokushin (愛国心, patriotism).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014
Tortured POW meets his Japanese tormentor
"He is most interested in having contact with you for he has lived with many unanswered questions all these years, questions to which perhaps only you can help him to find the answers." So wrote Patricia Lomax in a letter sent from her home in England to Takashi Nagase, who at the time lived in Okayama...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014
'The Railway Man'
Speaking as a Japanese, "The Railway Man" is extremely difficult to sit through, as it deals with the treatment of British POWs by the Japanese Army after they took Singapore during World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014
'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'
While other fantasy heroes and heroines — such as Katniss Everdeen ("The Hunger Games") or, heck, Harry Potter — had no time or funds to enjoy themselves, the heroine of "The Mortal Instruments," Clary Fray (Lily Collins), is a privileged teenager living in a cozy Brooklyn apartment with her attractive...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2014
'47 Ronin'
Director: Carl Rinsch
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2014
'August: Osage County'
As far as craziness in families goes, it can't get worse than what's shown in "August: Osage County." Start to finish, the film recalls rusty barbed wire, the type usually seen around maximum security prisons. Mind you, the story has nothing to do with prisons or crime (unless bad-mouthing and mean-spiritedness...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2014
'Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones'
Despite the unoffical verdict that the "found footage" genre is dead as the dodo, there are those who have a weakness for the stuff, namely myself. Forgive me if I seem predisposed toward "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," but it does breathe a bit of life into the found-footage cadaver.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2014
'The Killing'
Language: English
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2014
Finding a heap of treasure in 'Zipang Punk'
It's the late 16th century, when Japan was in the vicelike grip of rich and ruthless warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Things were good at the top, but the rest of Zipang (Japan) was poor, hungry and repressed. Welcome to "Zipang Punk — Goemon Rock III."
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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