Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 23, 2016

'A Cappella' conjures up the spirit of revolution in 1960s Japan

When I see Japanese films set in the late 1960s and early '70s, at the height of student protests, I always feel that something is off, while knowing that the "something off" is me.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Mar 23, 2016

Tokyo cafe to screen controversial short films by Iranian director Keywan Karimi

Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi has been sentenced to one year in prison and 223 lashes for making "Writing on the City," a movie authorities consider anti-government propaganda and an insult to the religion of Islam. His subject: The history of Tehran from the 1979 Revolution to the present, as shown...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 16, 2016

'Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation' hits all the wrong targets

Films about women in the yakuza world are many but real female gangsters are few, including women who inherit gang leadership from a husband or male relative.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 9, 2016

Okinawan prodigy returns to directing with 'Girl of the Sea'

The once-arduous process of becoming a movie director in Japan — involving university film studies and years of assistant-director serfdom — has been drastically simplified. Technically, you can now shoot a movie on your smartphone and edit it on your laptop, with your name in the credits...

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Mar 9, 2016

'Fukushima: A Nuclear Story' stands out among 3/11 documentaries

The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster has been examined in hundreds of documentaries to date, counting all media, nationalities and languages. But "Fukushima: A Nuclear Story" stands out for one simple, powerful reason: Its central figure, Italian journalist Pio d'Emilia, was among the first foreign reporters...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 2, 2016

'Oyster Factory' dredges up the dreams and fears of Japan's rural workers

Japanese documentaries tend to be blandly inoffensive, especially those dealing with sensitive topics. Typically, a velvet-voiced narrator sets the scene and a sympathetic interviewer lobs questions to her subjects as gently upbeat music plays in the background.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 24, 2016

Languorous women and amorous men in Wayne Wang's first Japanese film

An extended stay at a resort hotel, seaside villa or a similar escape hatch is only a dream for most of Japan's working adults. But local filmmakers — who are in the dream business — have made enough ensemble dramas about romantic/erotic entanglements in such places to launch a small subgenre. Wayne...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 17, 2016

Breaking into and out of Japanese show biz

Eiji Uchida's scabrous new comedy about the struggles of a down-and-out indie film director, "Lowlife Love" ("Gesu no Ai"), confirms what I have known for years: Japanese show business can be brutal to the weak or clueless. They end up used and discarded, like so many human Kleenexes.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 17, 2016

'The Shell Collector' wields a healing kind of poison

In English, you usually don't want to be compared to marine life. "Cold fish," "shark" and "whale" are not often intended as compliments, and "come out of your shell" is commonly addressed to the anti-social.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 10, 2016

Grim universe of horror manga 'Litchi Hikari Club'

When I was 13, I belonged to a neighborhood gang called, ironically, "The Hoods." We committed minor acts of vandalism as a sort of game and talked about invading the turf of a rival gang a few blocks over (but never got around to it). We were, to put it plainly, idiots.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Feb 10, 2016

The 11th edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival

Tokyo tends to suck up all the media oxygen when it comes to film festivals and events in this country, but there's plenty going on beyond the capital's borders, as evidenced by the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The 11th edition of the festival, unspooling March 4-13 at venues in Osaka, will present a wide-ranging...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 3, 2016

'Children of Iron' turns the parent-trap formula on its head

Mom and Dad decide to divorce and their kids try to bring them back together — it's a familiar story here, on screens big and small. And it's not hard to understand why: The kids nearly always succeed, making for a happy ending. Veteran hitmaker Yoji Yamada uses it for his first comedy in two decades,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 27, 2016

'The Actor' gets inside the mind of a struggling Japanese actor

How do Japanese actors do it? I don't mean the stars of mainstream films — those "multi-talents" that are busy 24/7 with TV, stage and advertising gigs — I'm talking about the legions of supporting actors who may have only a single scene or line in a film, or play a body floating in a river. How...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 20, 2016

J-horror master Yoshihiro Nakamura returns to form

Yoshihiro Nakamura entered the film world on a well-trodden path. After making 8 mm films while studying at Tokyo's Seijo University and winning a prize at the 1993 Pia Film Festival — a famous incubator for young Japanese filmmakers — he worked as an assistant director for Juzo Itami, Yoichi...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 20, 2016

Ghosts go hunting for the living in 'The Inerasable'

Have you ever walked down a corridor or into a room in the dead of night with your heart beating and your skin crawling? Something spooks you, for reasons that — in the clear light of day — seem to have to nothing to do with the real world. Or do they?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 13, 2016

Pink and Gray not just an idol film

No one likes spoilers, right? But in some films a major plot twist comes so early that the choice is to either mention it or write an entire review consisting of little more than winks and nods. For example, in Nobuhiko Obayashi's "Exchange Students" ("Tenkosei," 1982) a teenage boy and girl — spoiler...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 6, 2016

Wrestling with Japan's physically challenged, literally

In 1994, I reviewed "Invincible Handicap" ("Muteki no Handicap"), a documentary by scriptwriter and filmmaker Daisuke Tengan about a professional wrestling group called Doglegs whose members were both physically challenged men and able-bodied volunteers. Started in 1991, the Doglegs hardly fit the template...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 6, 2016

'Miss Doc' shows the struggles of a lone female doctor in rural Japan

Change comes slowly to the Japanese film industry. The hagiographic biopic about a doctor, scientist or similarly distinguished personage — rarely seen in Hollywood since the days of Jack L. Warner and Louis B. Mayer — is still alive and well here.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 30, 2015

'Their Distance' explores the pain of being young and in love

'Honesty," Billy Joel famously lamented in song, "is hardly ever heard." The characters of Rikiya Imaizumi's ensemble drama "Their Distance" ("Shiranai, Futari") seem to have been listening: They are honest to a fault with each other about their feelings, even ones that hurt their listener.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 23, 2015

Top 10 films of 2015: War, slackers and a love hotel

It's hard to be an optimist about the present state of Japanese cinema. One reason is the decline of the mid-budget film, previously the refuge of much quality work, with many talented directors going either fully commercial or extremely indie. Micro-budget films are not inferior per se but their subject...

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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