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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
Jan 5, 2007
'Les metamorphoses du choeur'/'Je ne suis pas la pour etre aime'
As far as documentaries go, "Les metamorphoses du choeur (The Metamorphosis of the Choir)" is a lesson in understatement. In fact, director Marie-Claude Treilhou seems motivated by a simple, unassuming love of music. Hers is a low-temperature fascination. Along with cinematographer Pierre Stoeber, she...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 12, 2006
Pluck, trim, extend -- making up is hard to do
The word kesho (makeup) is beautiful to look at -- made up of the kanji characters ke (to metamorphose) and sho (to decorate). Combined, they evoke far more than the mere act of making up. Novelists have poured much ink over the depiction of a woman applying powder, dabbing rouge or performing that special...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 8, 2006
Sauper: Tanzania's devil speaks
"Darwin's Nightmare" is an exercise in irony that probably would not have been lost on Charles Darwin himself, who by all accounts was a lucid if embittered scholar with a penchant for sardonic humor. The lessons to be culled from this documentary are so varied that it's impossible to take it all in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2006
Journey into the mind of a musical genius
Agnieszka Holland has long been known for translating classical/historical material into pop-culture matter (in "Total Eclipse," for instance, she cast Leonardo di Caprio as a punkish Arthur Rimbaud) and her latest, "Copying Beethoven," is a fictional biopic of the famed composer during the last years...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 14, 2006
Boyfriends of today bring out the prince in Genji
Boyfriend stories used to be boring.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2006
It's not about porn, it's all about art
Lucile Hadzihalilovic strides into a room and the mood immediately becomes dense with awe. It's not just her striking looks or her height (over 1.85 meters in stockings), but the way she seems to mute these things behind a natural quietness and engaging shyness, as if she's whispering: "Please don't...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 12, 2006
Owning the bragging rights to work addiction
The Japanese were once famed for their work ethic. Now, shigoto-chudoku (workaholism) has been franchised out to the rest of the world and become a fact of globalized life.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 8, 2006
Osim is next to continue 'sports bully' tradition
In the wake of Japan's disastrous World Cup campaign, the mood in the country has swung quickly from darkly pessimistic to remarkably upbeat. Much of it has to do with the appointment of the new national team coach, Ivica Osim.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2006
Breaking teeth on 'Hard Candy'
Thonggrrrl, 14, could just be the girl of Lensman's dreams. She's sexy, she's witty, she's currently reading the autobiography of Jean Seberg and making all kinds of intelligent comments. And she's all of 14 years old.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 11, 2006
Multitasking recluses find route to respectability
There are many factors behind the shoshika (the declining birth rate) trend. One is mistrust on the part of Japanese women toward child rearing. The feeling is: Why have children and divest the best years of one's life bringing them up when they're likely to metamorphose into shonen-hanzaisha (underage...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 2, 2006
Tamiyo Kusakari: Dancing with body and soul
Tamiyo Kusakari has been on her toes since the age of 8. Japan's most treasured ballerina virtually grew up in her toe shoes, and spent her youth dancing on one stage after another. Now, at the age of 41, she continues to enthrall legions of fans with the skill and eloquence of her craft.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2006
She sticks the boot into a male world
There aren't a whole lot of women filmmakers and even fewer of them who choose to depict fighting, mayhem and group violence.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 13, 2006
World Cup commentary a whole new ball game
It's the season of the Warudo Kappu (World Cup, duh!), the season that screams: Sakka fuan ni arazuba hito ni arazu (Those who aren't soccer fans aren't even people). At least until July 11 (the day after the World Cup final) that is, or until the sakka netsu (soccer fever) abates -- whichever comes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 9, 2006
He's moving on up
Andrew Lau belongs to a new generation of Hong Kong action filmmakers comfortable with drawing out their characters' psyche and personality as much as choreographing wire stunts and deploying CG techniques.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2006
A Japanese Jim Jarmusch
If the name Atsushi Funahashi doesn't ring any bells in the Japanese film industry, it's mainly because the domestic film scene had never been his primary concern.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 9, 2006
Hierarchy at work, hiding in underwear drawer
Here's a dating story with a twist: One of my girlfriends had finally started dating a guy she had liked for a long time. She was the one who did the kokuhaku (admission of love), the one who did the calling and messaging, the one who offered to come to his apartment and cook dinner on a Saturday night....
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 11, 2006
Linguistic art of cutting and running gets a tweak
Last week, a girlfriend of mine was at an over-30s-only go-kon (singles drinking party) and came back sorely disappointed. Her gripe was that all the men there -- handsome, well-off and working for high-profile companies -- were nigegoshi (noncommittal, making ready to cut and run) from start to finish....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2006
Girl at the (cutting) edge
"Me and You and Everyone We Know" is an exercise in subdued radicality: writer/director Miranda July delivers some incredible scenes involving sex between minors, self-inflicted violence, an unsupervised 7-year-old assuaging the sexual frustrations of an adult woman online. But the whole thing is delicately...
Japan Times
Features
Apr 2, 2006
Taking tanka to a new and timeless plane
Machi Tawara made a spectacular debut as a tanka poet at the age of 25 in 1987, and since then the Osaka-born artist has devoted her life to condensing her world into those neat, rhythmic but not rhyming, 31-syllable compositions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2006
Lapping up success
When she's not working as an actress or DJing at a Saami language radio station in Helsinki, Anni-Kristiina Juuso is a reindeer farmer in her native Lapland. "Yes, like my character in the film. So in many ways, I was totally in my element!" So laughs the 27-year old Juuso, who is one of few Lapp women...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world
mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

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