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April 08, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2017
Issey Ogata finds wonderland in Riga in 'Magic Kimono'
Issey Ogata has built his career on virtuoso one-man theater shows in which he changes characters, from drunken salaryman to female fishmonger, as easily as other actors change clothes, while amusing audiences and winning critical accolades with sui generis portrayals that dig down to universal human...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2017
'Marriage': Dean Fujioka evokes sympathy for the con man
Marriage scammers in the movies may be masters of deception, but their motives are usually clear enough. In Charlie Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947) the title character weds and murders widows to support his family. In Miwa Nishikawa's "Dreams for Sale" (2012), a husband and wife resort to serial...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2017
Don't follow this scary Pied Piper to the cinema
Released in 2003, Takashi Shimizu's "Ju-on: The Grudge" and "Ju-on: The Grudge 2" both had a simple premise — vengeful ghosts turn an ordinary suburban house into a death trap — but the scares, such as a kohl-eyed dead boy with a terrifying grip, were fresh and effective.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jun 15, 2017
A scorched-earth fix to a celebrity scandal
Scandals can send a celebrity's career careening off a cliff. This is especially true in Japan, where minor violations of the social code can lead to major personal repercussions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jun 14, 2017
Sion Sono serves up some blood-sucking fun in 'Tokyo Vampire Hotel'
Vampires have been a staple of Western pop culture since Bram Stoker published his best-selling novel "Dracula" in 1897. The hit "Twilight" series of films (2008-12) made the monsters hot again as millions of teens swooned to the romance of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and ageless vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson)....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 14, 2017
Kendo drama 'Mukoku' takes a stab at Showa Era sports spirit
One of the attractions of Asian martial arts for many Westerners (including this one) is the promise of self-improvement that goes beyond better street fighting.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2017
'To Each His Own': Every wage slave needs a friend like this, but who is he?
Izuru Narushima's 'To Each His Own' is a serious treatment of the theme of 'black companies' that flirts with fantasy in its first half but shades to heart-warming melodrama in its second.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 31, 2017
Love comes as a light in the dark in 'Radiance'
'Radiance,' winner of the Ecumenical Prize at Cannes, is being promoted as a love story, but director-scriptwriter Naomi Kawase has more on her mind than getting her age-inappropriate pair into a clinch.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
May 27, 2017
Kyoko Sato: Curator inspired by New York's artistic energy
Kyoko Sato hit bottom soon after arriving in New York in 2002 to be with the man who was to become her husband (since divorced). "I had been able to work freely in Japanese society, so I really suffered when I came (to the States) since I couldn't do that anymore," she says. "I had really loved my job...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 25, 2017
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia teams up with Exile's Hiro to create a contemporary fusion of vision and sound
From its debut in 1999 as the passion project of actor Tetsuya Bessho, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia has grown into a big event on the local and regional film calendar. Size is one reason: The 19th edition, which unspools from June 1 to 25 at six venues in Tokyo and Yokohama, features nearly 250...
CULTURE / Film
May 24, 2017
'A Beautiful Star': I'm an extraterrestrial, get me outta here
In 'A Beautiful Star,' Lily Franky plays the father in a family that turns out to be made up mostly of aliens.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2017
Japan's filmmakers expand their idea of overseas opportunity
The Japanese film industry has long been insular, making films by and for Japanese with little input from, or concern for, the outside world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 17, 2017
Takeda scores a KO in 'Poetry Angel'
In last week's review of Yuya Ishii's "The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue," I wrote that poetry-based Japanese films are rare — but here seems to be another: Toshimitsu Iizuka's "Poetry Angel." One more example and I'll have a trend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 10, 2017
A love story that's overly dense with prose
These days, Japanese films are based on everything from novels to game apps, but Yuya Ishii's "The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue," which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival this year, is a rare feature inspired by a book of poetry. Its author, Tahi Saihate, is only 31 but has...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 3, 2017
'Teiichi: Battle of the Supreme High' takes high school politics to a whole new level
Japan's film and TV industries are populated by hundreds of comedy writers, but few find politics funny, at least in public. One exception is filmmaker Akira Nagai, whose power struggles unfold not in the Diet, but at an elite boys' high school in "Teiichi: Battle of the Supreme High."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2017
'Blade of the Immortal': Film version of manga hit goes overboard in its execution
Based on Hiroaki Samura's long-running (1993-2012) manga, the samurai swashbuckler "Blade of the Immortal" promises the sort of fun, over-the-top action that has long been a trademark of its director, Takashi Miike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2017
Roger Pulvers challenges the idea of a hero in directorial debut, 'Star Sand'
Roger Pulvers has had the sort of free-ranging, multifaceted career that seems like a dream in this specialized age, when academics labor in their narrow professional silos.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2017
Romance takes an unusual turn in 'Love and Goodbye and Hawaii'
"Breaking up is hard to do," goes the old song, and for some, it's so hard that they never quite manage it. A typical example is the partner (or, worst-case scenario, the spouse) who one day tells you they're back with an ex.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 12, 2017
The young comics of 'Laughing Lucky Cats' learn that in comedy, timing is everything
The struggles of comics, be they up-and-coming or down-and-out, is a popular theme in Japanese film and television. A recent example of this was "Hibana," a 10-part original Netflix drama about the decade-long career arc of a manzai (comic duo) act.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 5, 2017
Acting is a fighting sport in 'Matsumoto Tribe'
The feature mockumentary doesn't have many practitioners in Japan. Two who do come to mind are TV comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto ("Big Man Japan," 2007) and Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Girls in the Psychic Club," 2014). Both have a dry sense of humor and a bit of a cruel streak.
Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Nikkei plunges in third-biggest daily loss ever amid Trump tariff concerns
Pedestrians stand in front of an electronic board showing the numbers of the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in the Japanese capital on Monday.
Ride-hailing services spreading in Japan
Vehicles used for ride-hailing services in the city of Kiryu, in Gunma Prefecture
Taiwan eyes zero tariffs with U.S., pledges more investment
Kids view the area from a lookout point over cranes and containers at the Port of Keelung, Taiwan, on Thursday.
‘Let’s make it practical’: NATO chief eyes greater defense-industrial ties with Japan
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte plans to visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday — his first to the Indo-Pacific region since taking office in October, as he seeks to implement lessons from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.

Podcast

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

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
By Alex K.T. Martin

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