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November 22, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 22, 2017
Marty Gross and 'The Lovers' Exile'
At various times and places in his four-decade career, Canadian native Marty Gross has been a potter, art teacher, film director and a producer, with most of his personal and professional roads leading back to Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017
'Slavemen': Men enslaved by juvenile fantasies
Noboru Iguchi would seem to be in the enviable position, at least to his mostly male fan base, of doing exactly what he likes and never having to grow up. A veteran director of low-budget exploitation films, Iguchi has an unabashedly adolescent obsession with short-skirted schoolgirls, spandex-clad superheroes,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 10, 2017
Fukada's filmmaking a breath of fresh air
Koji Fukada's black comedy "Hospitalite" ("Kantai") won best film in the Tokyo International Film Festival's Japanese Eyes section in 2010 and since then he has become accustomed to stepping up on stages to receive prizes for his work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017
'Bring on the Melody': The heroic way to strike up the band
Zero-to-hero movies, usually about athletes or musicians or other folks engaged in something competitive and cinematic (baseball, yes; darts, no), are a staple of the film business in Japan. One reason: Audiences here admire gaman — the perseverance the protagonists display in pursuit of their group...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017
'Snow Woman': chillingly modern
The Japanese folklore story of the "Snow Woman" has been told in many places, in many ways, and in many versions, but best-known is that of Lafcadio Hearn, the Greek-Irish writer who published it in his 1904 collection, "Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017
Kanji Furutachi: Reacting to Japan's film industry
Over the years I've heard many complaints about the bad acting in Japanese films, from the hammy emoting of over-indulged veterans to the amateurish turns of "idols" cast more for their agency connections than any perceptible talent. I've added to this chorus of negativity, but I've also noticed that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 22, 2017
Asian Film Festival unspools in Osaka
Why go to Osaka to see films? I may sound like an insufferable Tokyo snob asking this, but given all the hundreds of movies on offer in the nation's capital, it's worth answering to justify the shinkansen ticket.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017
'Close-Knit': The pride that breaks the prejudice
Japan would seem to be a paradise for LGBT people. Transgender "talents" have been appearing regularly on Japanese TV for decades and LGBT folks can walk the streets here with little fear.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017
'One Week Friends': Groundhog day in the 'friend zone'
Someday soon someone is going to come up with an algorithm for commercial seishun eiga (youth films). Plug in the variables — teenaged love in its more innocuous variations being first and foremost — and pop out a script for another hit.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017
'Survival Family': Soft-pedaling through dystopia
To Hollywood, "dystopian future" usually means invading aliens, exotic technology and gigantic explosions. Shinobu Yaguchi's "Survival Family" posits an alternative, more mundane cause of civilizational collapse: Japan's electric grid suddenly freezes up, like a laptop that's been doused with hot coffee....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2017
'The 100th Love With You': Happily stuck in a time-travel groove
Time travel is and will forever be a fantasy, physicists say. But fantasies can tell us more about human longings and dreams than dull facts, can they not? Despite doubting science types, time-travel-themed films have long constituted a thriving, sub-genre in Japan, as they do elsewhere.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 1, 2017
Hiroki Matsukata: a gangster farewell
Hiroki Matsukata, who died at age 74 on Jan. 21, may have been born into an acting family — his father was jidaigeki (historical drama) actor Jushiro Konoe — but in his yakuza films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s, Matsukata's portrayals of feral-but-charming hoods seemed to boil up off...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2017
Publishing pioneer Kikuko Ireton introduced the world to Japanese film
Kikuko Ireton, who co-founded "Movie/TV Marketing," a pioneering English-language trade journal about the domestic film industry, died in Tokyo on Thursday from complications of pneumonia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2017
'Honnouji Hotel': Drama on the wrong side of history
Is Haruka Ayase the Japanese version of Anne Hathaway? In everything from their perky public personas and sterling work ethic to their toothy smiles and flawless complexions, the two stars symbolize a type of good-girl perfection. And yet they also rub some imperfect types the wrong way, though Hathaway...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2017
Sion Sono swan dives into Shinjuku's chaos
Celebrated abroad for films that mash up everything from extreme sex and gore to Christian imagery and classical music, Sion Sono has emerged as one of the most distinctive directors in Japanese cinema this century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2017
Shinya Tsukamoto and the song of 'Silence'
Since his early films, such as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) and "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" (1992), pioneered the cyberpunk genre with a crazed energy and invention, Shinya Tsukamoto has had a reputation as Japanese cinema's outlaw. While doing the occasional work for hire, he has stayed outside the industry...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2017
'Hamon: Yakuza Boogie': Dancing around the gangster issue
Over the years, acquaintances of mine have boasted of their brushes with local gangsters. But few, I would wager, have become pals with one. Yakuza and katagi (straight citizens) tend to move in separate circles, with the former often viewing the latter as sheep to be fleeced or chickens to be plucked....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2017
'A Drop from Tomato': Planting the seeds of reconciliation
For independent filmmakers from elsewhere in Asia with high censorship or distribution hurdles, Japan must look like paradise. Last year, most of the 581 local films released here were low-budget indie titles. Hardly any of their makers got rich, but at least their films saw the theatrical light of day....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2017
'Our Meal for Tomorrow': Changing roles in romantic drama
Gender-bending comedy certainly exists in Japanese films, though it may not be mainstream. In Yosuke Fujita's "Fuku-chan of FukuFuku Flats" ("Fukufukuso no Fukuchan," 2014), popular female TV comedian Miyuki Oshima starred as a male house painter who becomes allergic to the opposite sex after being jilted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 4, 2017
'Tampopo' has blown back to our screens
Released in 1985, Juzo Itami's "Tampopo" was famously a flop in Japan, but a hit abroad, especially in the United States, where it became the second-highest-earning Japanese film ever. This "noodle Western" about a rough-hewn truck driver (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who helps a spunky widow (Nobuko Miyamoto)...
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.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

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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