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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
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2011
'The King's Speech'
The Prime Minister (ours) is on Twitter. That's basically a so-what situation given the present digital (and alas, political) climate, but a mere five or so decades ago, people in public office were much more selective about their methods of exposure. In fact, some of them had a definite aversion to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011
'Copie Conforme (Japan title: Tosukaana no Gansaku)'
"Copie Conforme" is intimate without being intrusive, blending insight and cynicism to portray the dynamics of a marriage that never was.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2011
'Apart Together (Japanese title: Saikai no Shokutaku)'
What do two people — once man and wife — do when they meet for the first time in over half a century? Answer: They sit down to eat. Or at least, that's the case in this carefully polished jewel of a film, "Apart Together" ("Saikai no Shokutaku" in Japan), which won the Silver Bear at the 2010 Berlin...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 19, 2011
Paying respect to the Japanese toilet god
One of the mildly disconcerting surprises awaiting the foreign visitor to Japan is the sheer abundance and creativity of its toilet facilities, public and otherwise.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011
'Soul Kitchen'
German-born Turkish filmmaker Fatih Akin has made a rapid climb up the ladder of cinema success: three major award wins in six short years including "Head On" (2004) and the dark, soulful "Edge of Heaven" (2007). Issues of immigration, ethnic diversity and the conflicts that rise from Eastern tradition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2011
'The Social Network'
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in December and his upfront portrait photo on the cover echoed the upfront portrait photo of the "Social Network" movie poster. Though both show well-groomed guys in their 20s, there's something a bit creepy about the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010
2010 top movies: Japan feels a crazy little thing called love
This was the year of love in Japan. Not that there was a sudden rise in the marriage rate (ain't happening), but you could sense a certain savviness about love-related issues that wasn't present before.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2010
'Charlie St. Cloud (Kimi ga Kureta Mirai)'
Charlie St. Cloud is blessed: Not only does he have a fantastic name (just screaming for a Hollywood treatment, in fact), he's also young, incredibly cute, and has just got a ticket to Stanford via a boating scholarship. For all that, he's humble and sincere, hailing from a working-class background and...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2010
'Welcome'
The reviews were mixed when "Welcome" won the European Parliament's 2009 Lux Prize, awarded to films that show "the process of building Europe in a different light." Previous winners were the highly acclaimed "The Edge of Heaven" and "Lorna's Silence" — and criticisms of "Welcome" focused on the fact...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2010
'Film Socialisme'
Jean-Luc Godard once said in an interview in the magazine Cahiers du Cinema during the 1980s that 1960's "A Bout de Souffle (Breathless)" was his least favorite of his own films. The interviewer responded that he understood, and that the problem with Godard's first, most watched and most commercially...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 8, 2010
When even teachers run to get things done
It's here: Shiwasu (師走, the month of December), whose kanji characters are composed of shi (師, teacher) and hashiru (走る, running) — put them together and you get a month so busy and jam-packed with events that even teachers have to sprint to get everything done.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010
'Robin Hood'
Ridley Scott has never been one to cushion the blow when it comes to sticking it to modern consumerist society. From "Blade Runner" to "Thelma & Louise," "Black Hawk Down" to "American Gangster," the diseases of so-called civilization become exposed in tableaux of greed, discontent and a cunningly concealed...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 26, 2010
'The Killers (Kiss & Kill)'
Mark Bittman of the New York Times once wrote that real cooks don't need big kitchens or the latest culinary gadgetry — cooks just cook, in pretty much any circumstances, and they are mostly fueled by the will to produce something delectable.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 19, 2010
'The Experiment'
With some movies, there's nowhere to go but down. "The Experiment" is one such experience, when, after the first few minutes of cozy hopefulness (a loving couple discussing a trip to India and how to finance it), darkness closes in, smothering the senses like a polyester blanket. Oxygen, please!
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010
'Ricky'
When Katie (Alexandra Lamy) meets Paco (Sergi Lopez) during a cigarette break at the cosmetics factory where they both work, her life is about a step shy of being in the dumps. The job is hard, she's underpaid, and her husband walked out on her years ago — leaving Katie to pay the bills and look after...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 10, 2010
Six-mat chic: Small spaces suit us just fine
As the minimalism movement gains momentum in the United States, it's probably a good idea to re-examine the concept on our own shores. Minimalism is a Japanese birthright — what Western culture views as monkish habits, Zen aesthetics or the joys of simplicity, the Japanese have pretty much taken for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2010
Portrait of the artist's mother as a young woman
Even today, you'd have to go far to run into a radical individual like Leonie Gilmour. But in America in 1901, to meet a young woman like her must have been on par with witnessing a comet.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2010
'Amelia'
"Adequate" is the name of the game in Mira Nair's ("Monsoon Wedding" "The Namesake") biopic of the iconic American pilot Amelia Earhart. With other subjects, adequate may have been fine — but for this particular woman and vehicle, "adequate" just doesn't pack enough firepower to get the film off the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2010
'All God's Children Can Dance'
Someone I knew in college said that the success of Haruki Murakami's fiction lay in the fact that everyone in his stories got laid. Someone else said the only Japanese to have love and sex on a regular basis were Murakami's characters. As for my friend Greg, he came to Japan after reading his fill of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010
First-time director takes on Murakami
Many filmmakers say the difficulties of adapting a best-selling novel to the screen can be daunting. How about the challenge of adapting a story by a foreign best-selling author ("All God's Children Can Dance" by Haruki Murakami) from a country one had never visited (Japan) and to choose the project...
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.
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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