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July 16, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 23, 2017
Sun, sand and the silver screen
...
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...
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.
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.

Podcast

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

Longform

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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