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November 23, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 28, 2018
'Sunny/32': If idol-pop and 'Saw' were to have a baby, this may be it
Visitors to Japan are often surprised by the visual and aural clutter they encounter in what they might know as the land of Zen. Instead of minimalist rock gardens, Japanese cities assault the senses with bright lights, ads and loudspeaker noise. This overload extends to other areas: from stocked-to-the-rafters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 22, 2018
Awards season blows through Japan with a conspicuous lack of buzz
It's awards season. Many a film journalist, from those working at the trade papers to those at the major dailies, spend months speculating who'll get Oscar nods and, as we get closer to the March 4 ceremony, who'll win.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 21, 2018
'Going the Distance': A powerful take on the Japanese definition of family
Marriages in Japan were long between families, with the omiai (arranged marriage) process typically serving to both introduce prospective partners to each other and vet their respective family backgrounds. Have the wrong sort of ancestors? The wedding's off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2018
'River's Edge': Strong characters make this teen drama more than just a nostalgia trip
Teenagers in seishun eiga (youth movies) tend to be pure-hearted types meant to inspire sighs of nostalgia from older audiences. But anyone who looks back at those years honestly will recall attitudes and actions not so naive — and some not so easy to forgive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2018
Isao Yukisada swaps feel-good teen drama tropes for brutal honesty in 'River's Edge'
In a two-decade directing career that began with the 1997 relationship drama "Open House," Isao Yukisada has made everything from the critically acclaimed "Go" (2001), with its rebellious Zainichi Korean hero battling his way through a Japanese high school, to the smash hit "Crying Out Love in the Center...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 14, 2018
'Thicker Than Water': Family fights and a great comedic turn from Keiko Enoue
"Sibling rivalry" is a term often heard; "sibling harmony," not so much. Brothers and sisters can be like two crabs fighting in a bucket, going round and round with no end or escape — even when they heart-of-hearts love each other.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 7, 2018
'The Scythian Lamb': A plan to repopulate the countryside starts out funny and descends into tense drama
Seeing Daihachi Yoshida's "The Scythian Lamb" for the second time at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, I was reminded of "Black Mirror," the British series with provocative "what if" scenarios set in an alternative present or near future. Yes, I am a binge-watcher.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2018
'Blank 13': Dark dysfunctional-family drama offers no easy answers
A father steps back into his family's lives, after a gap of 13 years, to tell them he is dying of cancer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 24, 2018
'Bamy': Slightly barmy but spooky as hell
Expect to see plenty of umbrellas in Jun Tanaka's 'Bamy,' which is heavy on strangeness and the creep factor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 17, 2018
'Our house': A deftly constructed work of mystery
What if the same dwelling was populated by two pairs of seemingly living humans, neither of whom is aware of the other? That is the conundrum posed by Yui Kiyohara's 'Our House.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 10, 2018
'We Make Antiques!': A caper flick that's the genuine artifact
One of my guilty pleasures is watching "Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan," which translates loosely as "Get Lucky! The 'Anything Goes' Appraisal Team" in English. It has been airing on TV Tokyo since 1994 and has encouraged countless folks to unearth family treasures for inspection by expert appraisers. Quite...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018
'Tremble All You Want': Mayu Matsuoka gives a star-making turn in delightful romcom
Hopeless crushes are typically the stuff of teen comedies, not romcoms aimed at grownups. Yet in the corner of many an adult brain exists at least one excruciating memory of that special teenaged someone you never quite worked up the nerve to speak to.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018
Koji Yakusho reveals what makes a good director and how it feels to play 'dirty'
With a career spanning four decades, Koji Yakusho has been both a star overseas ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Babel") and an award-winner at home, most notably for his 1996 breakthrough "Shall We Dance?" But through it all he has maintained a Tom Hanks-esque nice guy image.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018
Diving into Southeat Asian cinema at the Singapore International Film Festival
Since its start in 1987, the Singapore International Film Festival has become a key regional film event, despite being held in a city state that produces only a handful of feature films annually.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018
'Mr. Long': Chang Chen's charisma carries a stylish film
The cool, tight-lipped killer-for-cash that Clint Eastwood played in the Sergio Leone Westerns of the 1960s has become an icon and, in his many imitators, something of a cliche.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
Surefire formulas failed Japanese cinema in 2017
In a quarter-century of reporting on the Japanese film industry, I've yet to find one optimist about its future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
A courtroom drama, an alien takeover and the lives of sex workers all feature in the best Japanese films of 2017
This year was bad for Japanese films box office-wise, but not quality-wise. Here are my best 10:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 6, 2017
'Vigilante': Brotherly love takes a beating in an intense family drama
Saitama doesn't get a lot of respect. This prefecture has a reputation, especially among those who live in the posher precincts of Tokyo, as the land of boring bed towns, populated by the tragically unhip.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 6, 2017
'Hanagatami': Extravagance on the edge of war
Despite a lengthy filmography that began in the 1960s, Nobuhiko Obayashi is known in the West mainly for his 1977 feature debut "House." This horror-fantasy about a house that devours its inhabitants is a surreal riot of the imagination that tosses local filmmaking conventions out the window.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 29, 2017
'And Then There Was Light': Moments of beauty engulfed in miserabilism
Tatsushi Omori's films have been pushing boundaries since his 2005 debut "The Whispering of the Gods," with its story of a young murderer's return to a Christian community presided over by the priest who abused him as a child.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

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