Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 12, 2019

'To the Ends of the Earth': Tough times for travel reporting

Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Atsuko Maeda make an odd couple: The former is best known abroad as a master of horror, starting with his 1997 international breakthrough "Cure," while the latter was a star of idol-pop group AKB48, but has since gone on to a thriving acting career.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 5, 2019

'Erica 38': The rise and fall of a true con artist

Con artists in movies are typically likeable rogues who prey on the deserving. The title character of Yuichi Hibi's "Erica 38," who is neither "Erica" nor "38," is closer to the unlikable reality: A woman who dupes others with no discernible guilt or remorse, even when her victims are on the verge of...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 29, 2019

'A Long Goodbye': Taking a lighter look at Alzheimer's

Japanese films about dementia are by now many and, given demographic trends here, interest in the subject is both natural and necessary.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

May 23, 2019

Japan takes a backseat at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival, the world's premier film event, has long been a holy grail for Japanese filmmakers. Selection for the main competition is the ultimate goal for many, though screenings in other sections convey prestige at home that other festivals, in Japan and elsewhere, can't match.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 22, 2019

Short Shorts 2019: Short on time, but never short on creativity

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, whose 21st edition takes place from May 29 to June 16 at venues around Tokyo, is one of the largest festivals of its type in Asia. And, starting this year, four winners of its competitions will be eligible for an Academy Award in the short film category, up from...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 22, 2019

'Jesus': Our father, who art in the Japanese mountains

Christianity has never really taken hold in Japan, despite hundreds of years of proselytizing (with a long Edo Period interruption for persecution). In his novel, "Silence," Catholic author Shusaku Endo famously described the country as a "swamp" where the sapling of the Christian faith is doomed to...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 15, 2019

'Only The Cat Knows': The dying days of a 50-year marriage

The husband who gets home late and says nothing to his wife but "furo" ("bath"), "meshi" ("food") and "neru" ("sleep") is a cliche about Japanese married life that is often not far from the truth. The macho ideal has traditionally been the quiet type and Japanese women have traditionally been expected...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 8, 2019

'Kakegurui': A high-stakes high school battle

Japanese films set in high schools are now about as common as cherry trees in Tokyo. This makes box-office sense: Japanese teens read a lot of manga about kids their own age and the more popular become fodder for films.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 1, 2019

'Jeux de plage': A romantic roundelay by the beach

Japanese film companies mostly make local films for the local market. Often the films may as well have "not for export" written in the credits.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Apr 25, 2019

Okinawa rolls out the red carpet for its annual film festival

The Okinawa International Movie Festival has never been just about movies — or even Okinawa. Held from April 18 to 22, the 11th edition was a showcase for the talents of sponsor Yoshimoto Kogyo — an Osaka-based agency that supplies Japanese TV with many of its comedians and emcees.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 24, 2019

'Lust in a Karaoke Box': Celebrating the joys of student life

When I taught at colleges here in the 1980s, I marveled at my students' freedom, including freedom from study. They could spend most of their waking hours at part-time jobs or club activities and still, somehow, graduate.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 17, 2019

Peaks, troughs and international awards: Japanese films in the Heisei Era

The Heisei Era began in January 1989 and I started writing reviews of Japanese films for The Japan Times in July that year. In 1990, I became Japan correspondent for a British movie trade magazine, a job description that, with a change of publication, I have held ever since.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 17, 2019

'Kingdom': An admirable try at Chinese history

Why should Japanese kids care about a manga set in China's Warring States Period, (475-221 B.C.)? The players and power struggles are hard enough for professional historians (and this reviewer) to grasp, let alone 10-year-olds.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 10, 2019

'Love's Twisting Path': An old-school samurai swashbuckler

Now a spry 84, Sadao Nakajima is one of the few directors from Japan's studio era who is still active. After joining Toei in 1959 and making his directorial debut in 1964, Nakajima shot yakuza actioners and samurai swashbucklers (chanbara eiga) for more than three decades with Toei's Kyoto studio as...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 3, 2019

'Afternoon Breezes': Hitoshi Yazaki's pioneer of Japanese LGBTQ cinema is revisited

What was Japan's first LGBTQ-themed film? One often-mentioned candidate is Keisuke Kinoshita's 1959 melodrama "Farewell to Spring," though more for the emotional ties between its young male protagonists than anything explicitly erotic. More upfront in its treatment — and more critically acclaimed...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 3, 2019

'JK Rock': A rock 'n' roll battle of the sexes

There are many Japanese musical films about aspiring rock and pop stars (though not Hollywood-style musicals, which are seldom made here.) Among the best-loved is "Linda, Linda, Linda," Nobuhiro Yamashita's 2005 film about four teenage girls who hastily form a band and wow the kids at a school cultural...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 27, 2019

'Marriage Hunting Beauty': When dating dilemmas fail to excite

Last year veteran director Akiko Ohku had a breakthrough hit with "Tremble All You Want," a romantic com edy about a 24-year-old office clerk still obsessed with her girlhood crush but yet to have an actual boyfriend. Played with discombobulated verve by Mayu Matsuoka, this loser-at-love won audience...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 20, 2019

'Makuko': Love, life and that same old E.T. story

The "visitor from another planet" story is doable, even for an indie filmmaker with no budget. All you need are aliens who have assumed human forms, but don't quite get the whole humanity thing. Two recent examples are Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2017 films "Foreboding" and "Before We Vanish," in which aliens...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 19, 2019

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival offers a world of fascination

Held annually from 1990, save for 2007 when its host town was facing financial difficulties, the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival has become a little corner of Hokkaido where for four days in March the cinematically weird and wonderful can flourish.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 13, 2019

'Ramen Shop': Finding your family through food

Food is sustenance, food is pleasure and, as Eric Khoo's nostalgia-drenched "Ramen Shop" reminds us, food is memory.

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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