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Mark Schilling

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)

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...

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.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Sep 7, 2017

Mizuko Yamaoka takes a different approach in documentary about people with disabilities

Disability presents different challenges for everyone but wheelchair users share a common dilemma: Their mode of locomotion stands out, while they often struggle with social isolation. That was my takeaway from "The Lost Coin," a 2016 short by Mizuko Yamaoka, a filmmaker who has been using a wheelchair...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 7, 2017

Filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda: 'I wanted to do something different'

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 6, 2017

'The Third Murder': Director Hirokazu Koreeda triumphs with a trial drama that keeps the focus on character

Murder mysteries are popular film and television fodder in Japan, but most revolve around puzzle plots that hold as much real-world probability as the cases of Sherlock Holmes.

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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