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November 21, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
A Tokyo toilet cleaner (Koji Yakusho, left) bonds with his teenage niece (Arisa Nakano) in “Perfect Days.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2024
Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’ finds beauty in small pleasures
Koji Yakusho gives an evocative, multilayered performance as a Tokyo toilet cleaner with a passion for simple joys in this poetic drama.
A young woman (Hana Sugisaki) slips through the cracks of Japan’s family register system in “Ichiko.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2023
‘Ichiko’: Hana Sugisaki transfixes with career-high performance
Akihiro Toda’s impressive drama shows different sides of its slippery protagonist without passing judgment.
A 24-year-old convenience store worker (Erika Karata) is drawn out of her shell thanks to a renewed friendship in “When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2023
‘When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty’: Hidden strengths emerge despite daily grind
With an unhurried pace, Yuho Ishibashi’s drama quietly portrays the pressures of modern work culture and the importance of friendships.
While Hayao Miyazaki’s return to filmmaking, “The Boy and the Heron,” did not attain the ¥10 billion milestone that the beloved animator’s movies had once routinely surpassed, it debuted at the top of the North American box office and became the first original anime film to lead the box office in the United States and Canada.
CULTURE / Film / 2023 in Review
Dec 15, 2023
Japan’s auteurs and anime triumphed in 2023
From Hayao Miyazaki's “The Boy and the Heron” to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” the box-office hits kept coming.
Cinema at Sea film festival entry “God Is a Woman,” directed by Andres Peyrot, examines the complex feelings the Kuna, indigenous people living on Panama’s San Blas Islands, have about an unreleased documentary made about them in 1975.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2023
Cinema at Sea festival highlights diversity and unheard voices
The inaugural event for the film festival in Naha, Okinawa, boasted a strong lineup of features from places and peoples underrepresented in world cinema.
Filmmaker Kah Wai Lim (left) interviews the owners of 22 independent cinemas across Japan about the difficulties and joys of running a “mini-theater” in “This Magic Moment.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2023
‘This Magic Moment’: Mini-theaters keep indie cinema love alive
Kah Wai Lim highlights the resilient determination of small theater owners across the country who keep their businesses afloat against the odds.
A young boy (Tsukao Oga) struggles to survive in a war-ravaged city in “Shadow of Fire.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2023
The human costs of war linger in ‘Shadow of Fire’
While the film’s message about the lasting traumas of war is at times overt, newcomer Tsukao Oga centers the drama with an unsentimental performance.
After losing her eyesight in a car accident, a woman goes to the home of an eye doctor and his son to receive a miracle device to restore her sight in “My Mother’s Eyes.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2023
‘My Mother’s Eyes’: Psychodrama pushes to mad extremes
Takeshi Kushida’s atmospheric horror film about toxic parent-child relationships unfolds in a fantasy world that strains credulity.
The Saitama leader of a rebellion (Gackt, center) decides to unite the citizens of his home prefecture by creating a sea and beach for the area in “Fly Me to the Saitama II.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2023
‘Fly Me to the Saitama II’: Silliness abounds but the laughs do not
Hideki Takeuchi’s sequel to his award-winning hit comedy treads familiar and ridiculous ground, but it’s just not as funny as the first film.
Director Wim Wenders served as president of the competition jury at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival. Wenders' "Perfect Days," which opened the festival and features Koji Yakusho as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo, is Japan’s nominee for the Academy Awards’ best international feature film category.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2023
'Perfect Days' and '(Ab)normal Desire' turn heads at Tokyo International Film Festival
Wim Wenders' film opened the event, while Yoshiyuki Kishi’s multilayered drama made a splash, taking both the Audience Award and the best director prize.
Director Hideo Jojo made the switch from soft-core adult films to more mainstream entertainment with “On the Edge of Their Seats,” a drama about four teenagers watching their high school baseball team lose an important tournament game.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 10, 2023
'Pink film' director Hideo Jojo gets the red carpet treatment
Tokyo's annual film festival named Jojo — who has made over 100 titles, from soft-core adult films to theatrical features — this year's Director in Focus.
In a world where human speech is nonexistent, a woman (Misa Wada) survives on her own in an abandoned building in “Motion Picture: Choke.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2023
‘Motion Picture: Choke’: A silent 'tour de force' performance
Misa Wada offers a full range of emotions in Gen Nagao’s thought-provoking and imaginative film set in a reality where humans don’t speak.
A former pop idol (Mai Fukagawa) finds herself in a slump with little money, no partner and precarious mental health as she nears her 30s in “Tsundol.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2023
‘Tsundol’: Pop idol on the brink gets mental health uplift
While it is a predictable drama about a former singer getting her life together, the film addresses her mental well-being in a refreshing manner.
A fledgling film director (Mayu Matsuoka, center) returns home to make a film about her dysfunctional family in “Masked Hearts.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2023
‘Masked Hearts’: Catharsis comes out of familial discord
Yuya Ishii returns to his indie roots with a comedy-drama that comes from a personal and painfully real place.
A young man (Yuki Kura, left) who isn’t well-versed in wooing attempts to strike up a relationship with a convenience store clerk (Haruka Imou) he has a crush on in “How to Find a Lover.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2023
‘How to Find a Lover’: Quirky rom-com is deeper than it seems
Koji Maeda keeps the film’s tone fun and offbeat while not shying away from the emotional wounds of its lead characters.
“The Burden of the Past” is based on the real-life experiences of ex-cons and the editorial team of a magazine that supports former prisoners in finding jobs and reentering society.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2023
'The Burden of the Past' addresses bleak reality of ex-cons with some hope
Atsushi Funahashi’s film is grounded in the director’s own research about the hurdles former prisoners face when attempting to rejoin society.
Singer-songwriter Aina The End (center) plays a young woman who strives to overcome her hardscrabble life and become an indie musician in “Kyrie.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2023
'Kyrie': Musical melodrama celebrates youth
Shunji Iwai's film about indie musicians and female friendships may have an overstuffed plot, but it also has a visual energy unique to the director.
A woman (Yoko Maki) haunted by the trauma of her husband’s unexplained disappearance hires a detective to find answers in Rikiya Imaizumi’s “Undercurrent.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2023
‘Undercurrent’: All is not lost in cathartic drama
Yoko Maki and Arata Iura deliver committed performances in Rikiya Imaizumi’s introspective film about people who vanish for inexplicable reasons.
Directed by four different directors, the anthology film “Almost People” focuses on siblings who each lack an emotion.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2023
‘Almost People’: Anthology on emotions comes together in harmony
The film’s segments, which center on joy, anger, pleasure and loneliness, are beautifully integrated and show compassion for their characters’ flaws.
A TV director (Kanna Hashimoto, left) is haunted by the dead wife of an old office crush (Daiki Shigeoka) in “The Forbidden Play.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2023
‘The Forbidden Play’: J-horror mishmash offers satisfying scares
Horror legend Hideo Nakata's latest flick is a halfway return to form, in part due to actor First Summer Uika's chilling turn as a vengeful wraith.
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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