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

Oct 22, 2010

'Meres et Filles (Kakusareta Nikki)'

Films about women almost always turn out to be magnetic fields of stereotype and generalization — mostly because it's so much easier to categorize and define the collective female experience (comprised of familiar landmarks such as endless chores and thwarted desires). We've heard that famous line...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 15, 2010

'Cheri (Watashi no Kawaii Hito Cheri)'

"After 40, a woman doesn't need a lover so much as a good PR agent." That would be a great quote for the mythos surrounding Cleopatra, the global metaphor for ageless beauty of the past three millenniums. Besides her hefty cache of personal charms, she knew the value of self-promotion — you can't...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 15, 2010

Lopez-Curval tells moving motherly tale

"Meres et Filles" (released in Japan as "Kakusareta Nikki)" is a film about women. But contrary to expectations, it's not a celebration of womanhood. Director Julie Lopez-Curval (working from a script by Sophie Hiet) is more concerned with the telltale details of women's lives: the momentary coldness...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Oct 13, 2010

In rice we trust — come winter, war or wage slips

How's your relationship with rice been of late? For people outside Japan, it's probably not an issue. But many of us in the archipelago — consciously or not — gauge how we're doing in life by how we're doing with our okome (お米, reverent rice). At this time of year Japanese rice is at...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 8, 2010

'Le Petit Nicolas'

For the defeated nations of World War II, the 1950s were a time of chaotic struggle, but for the victors, it was a time of stability, growing affluence and general cheerfulness (at least on the surface). Suited dads went to work and returned home for dinner, while moms stayed at home and could be relied...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 1, 2010

'Eccentricities Of a Blonde-Haired Girl'

Portuguese filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira should be listed in the dictionary under "antiaging" — at 100 years old, he has released the wonderfully titled "Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl" (released in Japan as "Blonde Shojo wa Kagekini Utsukushiku"), which is packed with romantic loveliness...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 24, 2010

Oh to live in 1962, when people guzzled gin guilt-free and dragged innocently on cigarettes, when they drove huge great cars without worrying about global warming, when women (and men for that matter) had silhouettes instead of mere shadows. This is on the condition that it's a 1962 drawn up by Tom Ford,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 17, 2010

You can take the boy out of France but you can't take France . . . You know how it goes. In "Afterwards," French heartthrob Romain Duris ("The Beat that My Heart Skipped") plays workaholic Manhattan attorney Nathan, and though this should be a celebratory vehicle that marks his jump across the Atlantic...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 10, 2010

'Eat Pray Love'

My grandmother had a standard line when any of us bothered her with an unforgivable statement or question ("Can I have ¥10,000 to get to Nagoya to see a heavy metal grunge punk band no one's ever heard of?"), which was: "By talking like that, you just hacked off several years from my life span!"...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Sep 8, 2010

Despite the big spender image, Japanese actually love to save

There's this image that the Japanese are drop-dead, go-all-out kaimono-chūdokusho (買い物中毒症, shopaholics), despite whatever the latest dreary news bulletin on the global recession says. While that may be true, it's also a fact of our collective lives that the Japanese hate spending, with...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 3, 2010

'Night-Tokyo-Day (Map of the Sounds of Tokyo)'

Many Tokyoites believe there are two versions of the city: Version A is where the Japanese inhabit — defined by cramped spaces, excessively long working hours and totally functional toilets. Version B is the Tokyo known to non-Japanese, which by all accounts is ambivalent, exotic and infinitely...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 27, 2010

"About Elly" is the kind of ensemble film that recalls Robert Altman ("Pret a Porter," "Gosford Park") or an early Kenneth Branagh ("Peter's Friends"). A group of characters come together on screen, casual conversation is tossed about, relationships are forged or renewed or become strained — and...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 20, 2010

'Mao's Last Dancer'

Some say that art thrives best in the face of adversity and "Mao's Last Dancer" is certainly proof of this. Based on the life and breathtaking ballet skills of Li Cunxin, who honed his art under the red flag of China's Cultural Revolution, "Mao's Last Dancer" could be a lesson in perseverance and keeping...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 13, 2010

Korean suspense thrillers are a little like Korean soccer games: rough, provocative and erupting with violence. Ultimately though, the scenes — like the soccer plays — are rigorously disciplined and calculated down to the tiniest detail. It goes without saying that both are extremely watchable....

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Aug 11, 2010

Death lingers throughout Japan's hottest month

August is the month of death in Japan, what with commemorations marking the 1945 atomic bombings (原爆記念日, genbanku kinenbi) of Hiroshima (the 6th) and Nagasaki (the 9th) coming early in the month, the shūsenkinenbi (終戦記念日, end-of-war memorial day) on the 15th and the Bon holiday...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 6, 2010

'No One Knows About Persian Cats'

Persian cats may be the next cool thing, but don't be misled: We're not talking about the feline kind.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 30, 2010

Never has an actress looked so good in a tank top under a sleek black pants suit — with the exception of maybe Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie proves she has the Hollywood femme action market cornered, and she even does a lot of her own stunts.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 23, 2010

When a woman values her art over personal happiness, the result can yield sheer, mesmerizing beauty. Tolstoy wrote that women prevail because of their "ingrained talent" to achieve happiness, but at the same time this talent becomes their downfall in achieving true greatness. Indeed, had Frida Kahlo,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 16, 2010

'Le Grand Alibi'

One of the lasting mysteries of the French, along with their ability to guzzle wine and foie gras and still look great at the end of the meal — is an innate flair to appear relaxed and gorgeous during the summer months when that sort of aura becomes all- important. In this sense, "Le Grand Alibi"...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Jul 14, 2010

World Cup rekindles lost pride in being Japanese

Soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata, a former member of Japan's national team, told the media in the weeks leading up to the World Cup: "Wārudo Kappu no koto wo kangaeru to Nihonjin de aru koto wo saininshi ki suru (ワールド・カップのことを考えると日本人であることを再認識する,...

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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