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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2021
‘Over the Town’: Offbeat locals give slacker’s life color
Rikiya Imaizumi's film about modern love may center on a scruffy man-child and his series of failures, but it's the four women who become involved with him that give the story heart.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2021
‘Ride or Die’: A wild road trip worth taking
Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato deliver committed performances in Netflix's new emotional and sexually explicit drama about two women on the run after killing a man.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2021
‘Zokki’: Five stories, three directors, one goofy time
Actors Naoto Takenaka, Takayuki Yamada and Takumi Saitoh joined forces to direct a clever offbeat comedy containing interconnected stories based on Hiroyuki Ohashi's manga.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Apr 3, 2021
Is change sweeping the sclerotic Japanese film industry?
The Japan Academy awarded top honors to the LGBTQ-themed drama “Midnight Swan” and its star, and Tokyo International Film Festival announced that its 34th edition would see more diversity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2021
‘Signal The Movie Cold Case Investigation Unit’: Obvious but with plenty of panache
This cop thriller based on a 2018 Fuji TV series may be gimmicky, but it delivers in the action department.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2021
‘Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction’: The politics of publishing can deliver a real bite
Warring editors of middling magazines go to battle over writers and readership in Daihachi Yoshida's intriguing drama about the publishing world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2021
‘Kontora’: A poetic meditation on the human cost of war
Director Anshul Chauhan's second feature is a haunting drama that transcends its Japan-specific World War II subject matter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2021
Standout talent tries a new path with ‘No Call No Life’
Aya Igashi's latest work, 'No Call No Life,' is based on a novel and enhanced with the director's own vivid colors and thematic visuals.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2021
‘You're Not Normal, Either!’: Oddball duo makes for hearty laughs
Koji Maeda's entertaining comedy has everything a true screwball film requires: sparring opposites, quick-witted banter and love gone awry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2021
A day to remember: Japanese films about 3/11
Japan's cinema grapples with the triple disaster of 2011 from a variety of angles.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2021
‘Under the Turquoise Sky’: A love letter to Mongolia
Director Kentaro's debut feature is a visually compelling tribute to the landscapes, culture and people of Mongolia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2021
‘Aristocrats’: Power performances capture the world of Japan's elite
Yukiko Sode's insightful drama about Japan's ruling class and the masses stars Kiko Mizuhara and Mugi Kadowaki as women who find common ground despite their vastly different upbringings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2021
'Under the Open Sky' depicts what lies between good and evil
Director Miwa Nishikawa's latest film stars Koji Yakusho as a hardened ex-con trying to restart his life after spending 13 years behind bars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2021
‘First Love’: Sensitive topic gets the mainstream treatment
Part mystery, part courtroom drama, Yukihiko Tsutsumi's film focuses on repercussions of sexual abuse, while making the subject matter digestible for a mass audience.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2021
‘Under the Open Sky’: Harsh realities about ex-cons hit home
Koji Yakusho delivers a captivating performance as a former yakuza thug struggling to adjust to life after leaving prison in Miwa Nishikawa's drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2021
‘Suicide Forest Village’: Little box of horrors goes over the top
Takashi Shimizu's latest horror offering about two sisters tormented by a deadly box presents the urban legends of Aokigahara, the titular forest, as fact.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 27, 2021
‘A Family’: This sentimental ode to yakuza life ignores reality
Michihito Fujii's yakuza film waxes nostalgic about the old-school days of gangsterdom with soggy sentimentality.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2021
‘Otona no Jijo’: When dinner guests stop being polite and start getting real
This remake of Italy's hit comedy “Perfect Strangers,” convincingly adapts the “party from hell” storyline for local audiences with a more heartwarming, less cynical undertone.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2021
‘The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window’: Stylish scares with a side of romance
Director Yukihiro Morigaki's horror-mystery film based on a u2018boys' love' manga focuses more on confronting inner demons rather than battling ghouls.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2021
Japanese films you won't want to miss in 2021
This year's release lineup is stacked with domestic films that have little competition for audiences as many Hollywood films have been set back by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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