Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Meta

Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 20, 2018

Bruce Nachbar brings Hollywood know-how to Japanese filmmaking

The Japanese film industry may be the second-biggest in Asia, but to Hollywood it is still an island unto itself, its inner workings little understood. And the knowledge gap goes the both ways too; Japanese filmmakers may mine Hollywood for ideas and inspiration, but few try to make films — let alone...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 15, 2018

'Hard-Core': Of robots and socially marginalized men

Live-action manga adaptations — from weepy dramas about teenage love to goofy comedies set in fantasy worlds — usually reflect real life only at its extremes, whether it's the melodramatic or the idiotic.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Nov 8, 2018

The Japanese films that made a splash at TIFF

Every year people from the film industry — buyers, programmers and critics — descend on the Tokyo International Film Festival to see what this country has to offer, and every year they usually find at least one gem among the selections in the Japanese Cinema Splash section for indie films.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 7, 2018

'Lying to Mom': A film about suicide that isn't as heavy as you'd expect

The Japanese suicide rate has fallen for eight straight years, to 21,321 in 2017, but this number is still high compared to other advanced countries, and is course of no consolation to the families of those who take their own lives.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 31, 2018

'Love At Least': There's a shadow looming over this tale of romance

Mental illness takes many forms, but depression is among the most baffling to family and friends, since the afflicted may be physically healthy and verbally coherent but barely stir from bed for weeks or months at a time.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 30, 2018

The ghosts that have been haunting cinema-goers in Japan for over a century

Twenty years ago, people packed theaters to watch a couple of Japanese teenagers view a strange videotape and soon after receive an ominous phone call with a cryptic message: "Seven days."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 24, 2018

'Ten Years Japan': Chilling and sharp, these five shorts are a must-see for fans of 'Black Mirror'

In 2015, a dystopian omnibus film by five young directors from Hong Kong titled "Ten Years" became an indie hit. Envisioning the deteriorating state of the city in a decade's time, the film enraged Chinese authorities — and inspired "Ten Years" versions in Taiwan, Thailand and Japan.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 24, 2018

Junji Sakamoto points his camera at small-town Japan in 'Another World'

Born in Osaka in 1958, Junji Sakamoto belongs to a generation of Japanese directors who carved out independent paths in the industry, outside the then-defunct studio system. His feature debut, the 1989 boxing film "Knockout," won a shelf of domestic prizes, including the Blue Ribbon Award for best film....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 18, 2018

Your guide to our Japanese film picks at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival

The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) offers fans a rare chance to see dozens of new and classic Japanese films with English subtitles on the big screen. Among my own picks for the event's 31st edition:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 18, 2018

The meteoric rise of Mayu Matsuoka

As a film critic, I occasionally come across something on the screen that sets off fireworks in my brain. It happened with Sakura Ando's explosive performance as a desperate boxer in "100 Yen Love" and with the funny, surprising and moving zombie comedy "One Cut of the Dead." And last year it also happened...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 17, 2018

Akio Fujimoto trades drama for authenticity in film about the refugee experience

Akio Fujimoto's "Passage of Life," a drama about the struggles of a Myanmar family in Japan and the troubled return of a mother and her children to Yangon, premiered at last year's Tokyo International Film Festival before continuing on to win honors and acclaim at more than a dozen festivals around the...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 17, 2018

'Passage of Life': A family drama that treats refugees with respect

Hollywood films about the immigrant experience are common enough (see "The Godfather" and other classic gangster movies for examples), while Japanese films on the same topic are rare, save for those about Zainichi (ethnic Koreans) in Japan. (Among the best is Zainichi director Yoichi Sai's "Blood and...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 10, 2018

'Every Day a Good Day': The wonder of tea with Kirin Kiki

I attended my first tea ceremony decades ago, as part of a company orientation. Kneeling on the floor, I sat in the formal seiza position, stumbled through the motions and sipped the thick green tea. Just as the pain in my legs was reaching a crescendo, I bowed to my host and hobbled out. I had next...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Oct 4, 2018

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia's mini party is worth a little look

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, which selects a qualifying short film for the Academy Awards every year, will present its Autumn Screening from Oct. 5 to 12 at two locations in Tokyo.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Oct 3, 2018

'Dare to Stop Us': Japanese cinema's bad boy as seen by one of the women who worked with him

In the 1960s Koji Wakamatsu was Japanese cinema's enfant terrible: A real-life outlaw — he once joined a yakuza gang and served time in prison — he made pioneering "pink" (softcore porn) films such as "The Embryo Hunts in Secret" (1966) and "Go, Go, Second Time Virgin" (1969), whose extreme...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 3, 2018

'You Are the Apple of My Eye': A missed chance at romance isn't a bad thing

"You Are the Apple of My Eye," a teen romance by writer and director Giddens Ko in 2011, became a hit not only in his native Taiwan but across Asia. Seeing it at the Udine Far East Film Festival, I was struck by the raunchiness of the humor, starting with a classroom masturbation contest, and the originality...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 26, 2018

'My Dad is a Heel Wrestler': A body-slamming celebration of a spandex brotherhood

Movies about pro-wrestling seldom star actual pro wrestlers. Instead we get Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") or Ryuta Sato ("Gachi Boy: Wrestling with a Memory"). But the ascent to Hollywood stardom of Dwayne Johnson, who wrestled professionally as "The Rock," has inspired New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Japan's...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 19, 2018

'The Hungry Lion': A nuanced account of the social media nightmare we all fear

Teenagers take chances that, to the adults in their lives, are sheer idiocy (as I know first-hand from both sides of the teenager-adult divide). These days anything they do or say can also end up on social media, which can instantly turn an adolescent goof into a mass roasting by thousands of strangers....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 5, 2018

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Cannes submission tackles the difficulties of relationships

It has been more than two decades since Takeshi Kitano, Naomi Kawase, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda began collecting major festival invitations and prizes as the leaders of Japanese cinema's 1990s new wave. Since then younger directors have struggled to crack this "4K" establishment to gain...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 5, 2018

'Asako I & II': Things are vague in this girl-meets-boy-meets-boy's doppleganger tale

"There will never be another you" goes the old song. Then again, some people believe in doppelgangers, doubles to living humans who are ghostly in form and malign in intent.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

Omron helping firms achieve carbon neutrality

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports