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July 16, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2018
'The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan': It's never too late to make your move
Chess pops up in a surprising number of feature films. Just look at all the documentaries and dramas about the outrageously gifted Bobby Fischer. Shogi, or Japanese chess, is a different and smaller story, though "Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow," a 2016 film about prodigy Satoshi Murayama, garnered awards...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2018
'Sunny': The gang reunites for some 1990s nostalgia
Compared to today's Tokyo, where teenagers quietly curate their Instagram feeds in Starbucks and tourists happily snap selfies from the middle of Shibuya Crossing, the 1990s were a wilder, freer time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2018
'Killing for the Prosecution': A complex crime drama stuffed with exposition
Once a maker of Hollywood-style sci-fi ("Gunhed," 1989) and noir ("Painted Desert," 1993), Masato Harada has become a director of films about fact-based, character-testing group missions, be it police routing radicals from a Karuizawa villa ("The Choice of Hercules," 2002) or samurai fighting the biggest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2018
'The Exorcist Nurse': Horror hits the hospital for some summer chills
Summer was once the peak season for horror in Japan, part of the local custom of beating the heat with chills from scary stories.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2018
'Sensei Kunshu': Looking for love in all the wrong places
Student crushes on teachers are a pop culture staple (ask any Van Halen fan). In real life, they're a minefield, with trip wires becoming ever more sensitive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2018
'Bleach': Easy entry into an action-packed manga world
Marvel and DC may rule the North American multiplex, but that doesn't mean their fans have read the source comics. In Japan the opposite is true: The manga comes first and foremost in a media chain that eventually leads to anime, games and, at the end, live-action films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2018
'Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa': Gripping stories told by Okinawans provide a firsthand account of war
By documenting the tales of those who lived through the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, filmmakers Chie Mikami and Hanayo Oya question the island's current role as a military stronghold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2018
'Still Life of Memories': An erotic drama that perpetuates the male gaze
Hitoshi Yazaki goes slightly overboard with visual innuendo in an otherwise artistic film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2018
'The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine': A sumo subplot stands out in a crowded film
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I'm not sure if Takahisa Zeze knows this phrase but it applies to the heroes of his new film, "The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine," an overly long, high-energy passion project that languished in development hell for nearly two decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2018
John Williams presents a made-in-Japan take on one of Kafka's classics
Written at the start of World War I and published in 1925 after its author's untimely death, Franz Kafka's "The Trial" is one of those novels everyone knows by reputation (or, in my case, from a fevered reading in high school).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2018
'You, Your, Yours': Goofball gags that'll go over well with goofball guys
Love can drive you nuts. One recent illustration of how can be seen in the American TV show "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," about a successful New York lawyer who runs into her teen crush one day, and soon after quits her job and moves to California to be near him. That is, she becomes his stalker, but would...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2018
'Japan's grandmother' Kirin Kiki has defied conventions throughout her long film career
Now 75, Kirin Kiki is everyone’s favorite Japanese grandmother, a role she has been playing for years now on big screens and small. But she has also never been anyone’s stereotype of quietly suffering, nobly self-sacrificing Japanese womanhood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2018
'The Name': Ren Komai's performance raises a multilayered drama
What's in a name? On one level, it's how you identify yourself to yourself (as in dorky name, dorky self-image). On another, it's your social calling card, your link to family, going back generations (or not, if an ancestor decided to exchange one name for another).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 20, 2018
Bill Hersey, man about Tokyo, 1930-2018: some tributes
Writer's kindness was legend, and his photos and columns told the story of a Tokyo social scene's rebirth after war and Occupation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2018
'One Cut of the Dead': A zombie flick that brings indie filmmaking back to life
Both budgets and box-office prospects for Japanese indie films have been declining for years. As the former approaches the zero mark, so do recognizable actors and other standard indicators of quality. Audiences, smelling amateurism, stay away.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2018
'Shoplifters': Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winner is an eloquent look at the human condition
When a Japanese director wins the Palme d'Or — the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, the film world's equivalent of soccer's World Cup — the response of the local media is to celebrate: Our side won.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2018
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda visits the stadium that's home to all of America
'The Big House' captures more than just football in a documentary about the University of Michigan's main stadium.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2018
'Enokida Trading Post': A slacker film goes for lazy laughs
Japan has long had an image as a country of workaholics, dedicating their lives to the almighty yen. But recent Japanese movies, especially at the lower end of the budget spectrum, are full of furiitā ("freeter," a fairly young part-timer or freelancer) trying to decide what to do with their lives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2018
'Over Drive': An unrealistic racing flick puts the action into top gear
Car movies from Japan are few and far between, which is strange given the huge automotive industry and millions of car lovers here. Now industry leader Toyota has joined forces with Toho, Japan's biggest film distributor and exhibitor, to fill that gap with "Over Drive," a full-throttled cinematic ode...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
May 23, 2018
Young filmmakers looking to follow in Hirokazu Kore-eda's footsteps have their work cut out for them
Hirokazu Kore-eda joins a list of Japanese master filmmakers after winning the top prize at Cannes. The road he took to get to this point, however, is not an easy one to copy.
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

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

Longform

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

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals
Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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