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November 23, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 23, 2017
Sun, sand and the silver screen
Launched in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) was the first film festival in the United States to focus on films from the Asia-Pacific region. Being a bridge between East and West is still its mission, but HIFF now has plenty of company around the world....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 22, 2017
'Spark': A fool and a straight man walk into a bar...
Stand-up — one comic in front of a microphone — is the default setting for live comedy in the United States. In Japan the equivalent has long been rakugo, a traditional form in which a single performer tells comic stories. Today, however, aspiring comics usually opt for manzai, a style of duo comedy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 22, 2017
'The Lowlife': A complicated look at the motivations of AV actresses
Poverty and debt are two traditional reasons for becoming a porn actress. But as Takahisa Zeze's new film "The Lowlife" nonjudgmentally shows, the women who work in Japan's giant AV (adult video) industry today may also have other, more personal motivations, though they are still social outsiders.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Nov 18, 2017
Ishiro Honda: The master behind Godzilla
Everyone knows "Godzilla," the 1954 film that introduced Japan's most famous monster to the world. But the name of its director, Ishiro Honda, was for a long time only mentioned by foreign critics and fans in passing, if at all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 15, 2017
'Yocho "Foreboding"': The doctor is in ... and he's terrifying
In a Hollywood that is increasingly obsessed with superhero blockbusters, the place to see many acclaimed filmmakers these days is on the small screen. In Japan, though, the Wowow entertainment channel has been producing original dramas by local auteurs for some time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 8, 2017
'Hyouka': Teen detectives delve into dark territory
Teenage sleuths date back to the days of "The Hardy Boys" and "Nancy Drew," but unlike those literary icons, the high schoolers who set out to solve a mystery in Mari Asato's "Hyouka" do not perform thrilling deeds of detection and derring-do.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 1, 2017
When it came to casting 'Kokoro,' director Vanja d'Alcantara says her search began and ended with Jun Kunimura
Jun Kunimura has long been one of the most active Japanese actors overseas, starting with the Ridley Scott thriller "Black Rain" in 1989 and continuing with the South Korean horror hit "The Wailing" last year. Able to shift gears effortlessly from comedy to drama or from bumbling husband to slithery...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 1, 2017
'Goodbye, Grandpa!': Even at a funeral, there's no escaping a dysfunctional family
Funerals are just about as common in Japanese family dramas as weddings, but few films make them the focus of the story. The funniest would be Juzo Itami's "The Funeral," a 1984 black comedy about two married middle-aged urbanites negotiating the intricacies of a traditional Japanese funeral when the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 25, 2017
'Mixed Doubles': A match made in heaven falls flat
Mainstream Japanese films, goes the common lament, are now merely the last links in a corporate media chain that begins with a hit property, be it a novel, comic or a smartphone app. Original scripts are thin on the ground.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2017
The Tokyo International Film Festival can be a time of true cinematic discovery (if you know where to look)
Film festivals have multiplied like bamboo shoots in Japan over the past two decades, from Okinawa in the south to Sapporo in the north. But the country's biggest is still the Tokyo International Film Festival, whose 30th edition takes place from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 at venues centering on Roppongi Hills....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2017
Japan's main film festival has come a long way from the days of 'bubble era' excess
The Tokyo International Film Festival, which begins on Oct. 25, will celebrate its 30th edition this year. It was first held in 1985 and I started attending it, as a reporter, in 1991.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 19, 2017
Kyoto's ambience is key to making KIFF special
Film festivals don't take place in isolation: An interesting city makes for a more interesting festival, unless you are the sort of movie nerd who sees six films a day and lives on convenience store sandwiches.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2017
'Outrage Coda': Takeshi Kitano's kill count climbs high for trilogy's finale
In his nearly three decades as a director, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano has won many critical plaudits and prizes abroad. But in Japan he is best known as a TV personality and comedian. These two strands of his artistic personality — master director and mass entertainer — have come together in his "Outrage"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2017
'Dawn Wind in My Poncho': Boys come of age on a typical road trip
Japanese road movies are many; ones featuring high school kids, relatively few. One was Daigo Matsui's 2015 "Our Huff and Puff Journey," about four high school girls in Fukuoka who set off on their commuter bikes to see a concert in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2017
Food, folks and film: Yamagata festival dives deep into documentaries
Once an obscure corner of a film world dominated by the fantasies of Hollywood, documentaries are now drawing more attention from both paying audiences and wider society. And the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, whose 15th edition unspools from Oct. 5 to 12 in Yamagata, has long been...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2017
'Ernesto': Dealing with the politics of making a political movie
In the late 1960s, posters of Ernesto "Che" Guevara were in every North American college dorm, mine included. Alberto Korda's famed 1960 photo of the Cuban revolutionary leader as rock star had a lot to do with it, as did his execution by Bolivian troops in October 1967, making him an instant martyr...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 27, 2017
'Poolsideman': Bringing life to the mundane
In his three films to date, Hirobumi Watanabe has created a unique cinematic world. "And the Mud Ship Sails Away" (2013), "7 Days" (2015) and now "Poolsideman" (2016) were all shot in black-and-white in Watanabe's native Tochigi Prefecture, with music by younger brother Yuji and cinematography by Woohyun...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2017
'Okuda Tamio ni Naritai Boi to Deau Otoko Subete Kuruwaseru Garu': A bumbling Romeo falls into love
Many are the Japanese movies about virginal guys who are hopeless with women. One template is "Train Man," a 2005 hit about a shy otaku (geek) who lucks into a date with his dream girl — and needs an online support network to survive it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 13, 2017
Kiyoshi Kurosawa examines the threat within in sci-fi thriller 'Before We Vanish'
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is best known for films about ghosts and other types of strange phenomena that are capable of stirring foreboding feelings through mininal means such as curtains rustling ominously in the breeze or red duct tape stuck incongruously on doors.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 13, 2017
'Before We Vanish': Tension builds steadily during an alien attack
How do you imagine the coming alien invasion? Movies have been all over the map with this question, though in recent Japanese films such as Takashi Yamazaki's "Parasyte" duology (2013-14) and Daihachi Yoshida's "A Beautiful Star" (2017), extraterrestrial visitors take a human form.
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.

Podcast

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

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
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By Kathryn Wortley

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