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Mark Schilling
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001
The comfort of strangers
Sora no Anna Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri Running time: 127 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001
Asia's best shine at cinema showcase
Film festivals are addictive, especially if you've got that magical piece of laminated paper called a press pass. Volunteers smile at you, directors schmooze with you and theater doors swing open for you at the flash of a badge. Best of all, you can spend all day watching movies with no guilty feelings...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 25, 2001
No, really, it's completely unspoiled!
Paradise in the South Pacific? Isn't that only ad copy for getaway resorts that put little beach umbrellas in the cocktails and charge prices the locals could only afford after a winning lottery ticket?
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2001
Pixels can't really tell the whole story
Final Fantasy Rating: * * * Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi Running time: 106 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2001
Welcome to my worst nightmare
Kemonogare -- Orera no Saru to Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hideaki Sunaga Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2001
Truly, madly, but not too deeply
Zeitaku na Hone Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
'Electric Dragon 80000V'
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
A bolt from the past
Electric Dragon 80000V Rating: * * * Director: Sogo Ishii Running time: 55 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing What should rockers do when the paunch starts to sag over the jeans and the gray hair starts to glint in the spotlights? Have some self-respect and stop shaking that wrinkled booty,...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
'Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu'
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Just please don't ask 'why?'
The first questions John Williams is always asked about "Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)" are the "whys": Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don't come easy, "because I never imagined I would end up making a film here."
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Bridging the gap
Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu Rating: * * * * Director: John Williams Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing For decades, foreign directors have been going to Hollywood and making movies with American settings, stories and stars that American audiences have accepted as their own. Charlie...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2001
The powerful roar of distant waves
...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001
Are the fishing fools running out of line?
Tsuri Baka Nisshi 12 Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Katsuhide Motoki Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 18 Some sequels make sense, but a "3" or "4" after the title of a Hollywood movie is generally a good reason to stay away unless you happen to be feeling charitable toward a studio...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001
A samurai flick for the MTV generation
Red Shadow Aka Kage Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 108 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 11 at Marunouchi Toei and other theaters Silent-era samurai movies fulfilled the same function as the westerns of W.S. Hart and Tom Mix: They entertained the common herd, particularly...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001
Lost and found in a dream
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) Rating: * * * * * Director: Hayao Miyazaki Running time: 125 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animators had their biggest-ever triumph with "Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke)," an eco-fable set in premodern...
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001
When we had heroes
They were voices in the silence, stars in the night they showed the way and they showed what was right
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2001
Ms. Tokyo takes a trip to reality
Koko ni Iru Koto Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Masahiko Nagasawa Running time: 115 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing The TV trendy drama was a bubble-era phenomenon, with its stories about the love troubles of beautiful young singles working at glamorous "katakana jobs" (such as "event planner"...
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Jul 13, 2001
Whatever can go wrong . . .
Writers of how-to articles about traveling with kids usually talk about Baby's ears popping in airplanes and keeping little Junior and Sis amused on long drives so they don't refight the Macedonian War in the back seat. Older kids, these writers seem to assume, can take care of themselves, when they...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001
Screenwriting by remote control
Stereo Future Rating: * * Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Filmmaking is about putting images on the screen. It is also, if not always, about telling a story. Hollywood has long subordinated images to story, the classic ideal being the "seamless" style...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001
Full-speed ahead into cinematic chaos
Rush Rating: * * Director: Takehisa Zeze Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Now playing at Cine Amuse in Shibuya Takehisa Zeze's "Rush" is a reviewer's ultimate nightmare: a film whose plot is all but impossible to follow, let alone describe. Walking out of the theater, I laughed -- it was...

Longform

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