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August 15, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2019
'Minori, on the Brink': An unusual take on confrontation
Minori Hagiwara stars in Ryutaro Ninomiya's feature about a young women who refuses to bow down to sexism and male chauvinism
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2019
'The Flowers of Evil': Overacted, overblown and odd
Noboru Iguchi takes a manga-like approach to his latest film, which tells the story of a teenage boy's relationships with a handful of very different girls
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2019
Telling the story of Japanese rugby's miracle match
As the 2019 Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan, 'The Brighton Miracle' takes a look at the Brave Blossoms' 34-32 defeat of South Africa in the 2015 competition, a game which signified Japan had become a force to be reckoned with.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2019
'No Longer Human': A biopic with no decent biography
Mika Ninagawa's 'No Longer Human' tells the story of celebrated Japanese author Osamu Dazai, with a particular focus on his turbulent love life
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 12, 2019
With 'The Naked Director,' Japan scores a global Netflix hit
Netflix series 'The Naked Director' has been a runaway hit, with a second series announced shortly after the first began streaming. But not everyone is a fan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 11, 2019
'Hit Me Anyone One More Time': A return to form for comedy stalwart
Koki Mitani's latest comedy feature follows the life of a Japanese prime minister trying to make good as he deals with memory loss
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2019
'Stormy Family': Dysfunctional family, dysfunctional film
Masahide Ichii delivers a drama about family members dealing with their own long-standing resentments while facing an impending typhoon
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2019
Haruhiko Arai: Still pushing boundaries after 40 years in film
In a four-decade career, Haruhiko Arai has become an acclaimed scriptwriter with credits that include "Vibrator" (2003), "It's Only Talk" (2005) and "Kabukicho Love Hotel" (2014), three of the best films by his frequent collaborator, the director Ryuichi Hiroki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2019
'Mugen Foundation': When adolescence becomes too much
The seishun eiga (youth film) is not exclusive to Japan — plenty of films from elsewhere deal with the joys and agonies of adolescence — but this popular genre has acquired certain only-in-Japan quirks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2019
'Dance With Me': A homegrown Japanese musical has landed
Genres never really die, but they often mutate into something different on foreign soil. John Ford's cowboys became Akira Kurosawa's samurai, and Kurosawa's samurai became Sergio Leone's serape-clad, cigarillo-chewing "The Man With No Name." And the list goes on.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2019
'Dance With Me': Short on laughs, but big on energy
The Japanese film industry has made many musical films, but almost no Hollywood-style musicals. One reason why is Eizo Sugawa's "You Can Succeed, Too" (1964), a singing, dancing salaryman musical inspired by the Broadway hit "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Billed by the Toho studio...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 15, 2019
How to sell your film abroad
As a reviewer, reporter and programmer, I go to six or seven film festivals a year. This is nothing compared to some colleagues, who trudge the festival circuit in a never-ending loop, but it's enough to give me a heap of festival badges.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2019
'Aesop's Game': Ueda follow-up is neither tortoise nor hare
Last year, Shinichiro Ueda made Japanese film history with "One Cut of the Dead," a zombie comedy he scripted and directed. Opening in just two Tokyo theaters in June, 2018, the film ended up earning ¥3.21 billion — or more than 1,000 times its ¥3 million budget.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 8, 2019
Marking 30 years since Takeshi Kitano's debut feature, 'Violent Cop'
On Aug. 12, 1989, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano's debut as a director, "Violent Cop," was released in Japan. Kitano was already famous here as a TV comic and emcee, and was known abroad for his role as a brutal POW camp guard in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 World War II drama "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence."
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 7, 2019
'The Naked Director': A story of naked ambition and dubious morals
Since it launched here in September 2015, Netflix has built a long list of Japanese programming, from the hit reality series "Terrace House" to the manzai (comic duo) drama "Hibana: Spark." Mostly, though, it's the sort of fare you can find on network TV or in your local multiplex.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2019
'Paradise Next': When the music is better than the story
The lone, wandering gangster is as standard a figure in Japanese cinema as the lone, wandering samurai. Traditionally, both fought out of a self-imposed sense of duty and obligation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 31, 2019
'Melancholic': When cleaning the tub brings dirtier jobs
Almost every year at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) at least one film by a new Japanese director gets talked up by visiting programmers, journalists and critics as a find.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 24, 2019
'A Girl Missing': You can run, but you can't hide
Mariko Tsutsui already had many stage, TV and film credits when she appeared in Koji Fukada's 2016 drama "Harmonium." But her performance as a woman whose life is destroyed by Tadanobu Asano's seductive ex-con was a revelation. She made the leap from the naive and sexually starved wife of the film's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 17, 2019
'Tokyo Ghoul "S"': A college, a cafe and a cannibal
Big pop-culture franchises generate movie sequels as naturally as chickens lay eggs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 11, 2019
Tomorrow's film legends descend on Saitama
Launched in 2004 to promote digital cinema, the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 13-21) in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, has become a showcase for emerging filmmakers. Among the Skip City alumni who have gone on to thriving careers are Cannes Palme d'Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan ("Winter...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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