Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

While Hayao Miyazaki’s return to filmmaking, “The Boy and the Heron,” did not attain the ¥10 billion milestone that the beloved animator’s movies had once routinely surpassed, it debuted at the top of the North American box office and became the first original anime film to lead the box office in the United States and Canada.

CULTURE / Film / 2023 in Review

Dec 15, 2023

Japan’s auteurs and anime triumphed in 2023

From Hayao Miyazaki's “The Boy and the Heron” to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” the box-office hits kept coming.

Cinema at Sea film festival entry “God Is a Woman,” directed by Andres Peyrot, examines the complex feelings the Kuna, indigenous people living on Panama’s San Blas Islands, have about an unreleased documentary made about them in 1975.

CULTURE / Film

Dec 9, 2023

Cinema at Sea festival highlights diversity and unheard voices

The inaugural event for the film festival in Naha, Okinawa, boasted a strong lineup of features from places and peoples underrepresented in world cinema.

Filmmaker Kah Wai Lim (left) interviews the owners of 22 independent cinemas across Japan about the difficulties and joys of running a “mini-theater” in “This Magic Moment.”

CULTURE / Film

Dec 7, 2023

‘This Magic Moment’: Mini-theaters keep indie cinema love alive

Kah Wai Lim highlights the resilient determination of small theater owners across the country who keep their businesses afloat against the odds.

A young boy (Tsukao Oga) struggles to survive in a war-ravaged city in “Shadow of Fire.”

CULTURE / Film

Nov 30, 2023

The human costs of war linger in ‘Shadow of Fire’

While the film’s message about the lasting traumas of war is at times overt, newcomer Tsukao Oga centers the drama with an unsentimental performance.

After losing her eyesight in a car accident, a woman goes to the home of an eye doctor and his son to receive a miracle device to restore her sight in “My Mother’s Eyes.”

CULTURE / Film

Nov 23, 2023

‘My Mother’s Eyes’: Psychodrama pushes to mad extremes

Takeshi Kushida’s atmospheric horror film about toxic parent-child relationships unfolds in a fantasy world that strains credulity.

The Saitama leader of a rebellion (Gackt, center) decides to unite the citizens of his home prefecture by creating a sea and beach for the area in “Fly Me to the Saitama II.”

CULTURE / Film

Nov 16, 2023

‘Fly Me to the Saitama II’: Silliness abounds but the laughs do not

Hideki Takeuchi’s sequel to his award-winning hit comedy treads familiar and ridiculous ground, but it’s just not as funny as the first film.

Director Wim Wenders served as president of the competition jury at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival. Wenders' "Perfect Days," which opened the festival and features Koji Yakusho as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo, is Japan’s nominee for the Academy Awards’ best international feature film category.

CULTURE / Film

Nov 11, 2023

'Perfect Days' and '(Ab)normal Desire' turn heads at Tokyo International Film Festival

Wim Wenders' film opened the event, while Yoshiyuki Kishi’s multilayered drama made a splash, taking both the Audience Award and the best director prize.

Director Hideo Jojo made the switch from soft-core adult films to more mainstream entertainment with “On the Edge of Their Seats,” a drama about four teenagers watching their high school baseball team lose an important tournament game.

CULTURE / Film

Nov 10, 2023

'Pink film' director Hideo Jojo gets the red carpet treatment

Tokyo's annual film festival named Jojo — who has made over 100 titles, from soft-core adult films to theatrical features — this year's Director in Focus.

In a world where human speech is nonexistent, a woman (Misa Wada) survives on her own in an abandoned building in “Motion Picture: Choke.”

CULTURE / Film

Nov 9, 2023

‘Motion Picture: Choke’: A silent 'tour de force' performance

Misa Wada offers a full range of emotions in Gen Nagao’s thought-provoking and imaginative film set in a reality where humans don’t speak.

A former pop idol (Mai Fukagawa) finds herself in a slump with little money, no partner and precarious mental health as she nears her 30s in “Tsundol.”

CULTURE / Film

Nov 2, 2023

‘Tsundol’: Pop idol on the brink gets mental health uplift

While it is a predictable drama about a former singer getting her life together, the film addresses her mental well-being in a refreshing manner.

A fledgling film director (Mayu Matsuoka, center) returns home to make a film about her dysfunctional family in “Masked Hearts.”

CULTURE / Film

Oct 26, 2023

‘Masked Hearts’: Catharsis comes out of familial discord

Yuya Ishii returns to his indie roots with a comedy-drama that comes from a personal and painfully real place.

A young man (Yuki Kura, left) who isn’t well-versed in wooing attempts to strike up a relationship with a convenience store clerk (Haruka Imou) he has a crush on in “How to Find a Lover.”

CULTURE / Film

Oct 19, 2023

‘How to Find a Lover’: Quirky rom-com is deeper than it seems

Koji Maeda keeps the film’s tone fun and offbeat while not shying away from the emotional wounds of its lead characters.

“The Burden of the Past” is based on the real-life experiences of ex-cons and the editorial team of a magazine that supports former prisoners in finding jobs and reentering society.

CULTURE / Film

Oct 16, 2023

'The Burden of the Past' addresses bleak reality of ex-cons with some hope

Atsushi Funahashi’s film is grounded in the director’s own research about the hurdles former prisoners face when attempting to rejoin society.

Singer-songwriter Aina The End (center) plays a young woman who strives to overcome her hardscrabble life and become an indie musician in “Kyrie.”

CULTURE / Film

Oct 12, 2023

'Kyrie': Musical melodrama celebrates youth

Shunji Iwai's film about indie musicians and female friendships may have an overstuffed plot, but it also has a visual energy unique to the director.

A woman (Yoko Maki) haunted by the trauma of her husband’s unexplained disappearance hires a detective to find answers in Rikiya Imaizumi’s “Undercurrent.”

CULTURE / Film

Oct 5, 2023

‘Undercurrent’: All is not lost in cathartic drama

Yoko Maki and Arata Iura deliver committed performances in Rikiya Imaizumi’s introspective film about people who vanish for inexplicable reasons.

Directed by four different directors, the anthology film “Almost People” focuses on siblings who each lack an emotion.

CULTURE / Film

Sep 28, 2023

‘Almost People’: Anthology on emotions comes together in harmony

The film’s segments, which center on joy, anger, pleasure and loneliness, are beautifully integrated and show compassion for their characters’ flaws.

A TV director (Kanna Hashimoto, left) is haunted by the dead wife of an old office crush (Daiki Shigeoka) in “The Forbidden Play.”

CULTURE / Film

Sep 21, 2023

‘The Forbidden Play’: J-horror mishmash offers satisfying scares

Horror legend Hideo Nakata's latest flick is a halfway return to form, in part due to actor First Summer Uika's chilling turn as a vengeful wraith.

Ryo Onishi’s debut feature “Feelingscape” tells a slice-of-life story about a blind man struggling to connect to others while affirming his agency.

CULTURE

Sep 16, 2023

‘Feelingscape’: Ordinary lives made poignant

Ryo Onishi’s debut feature about a man living with a visual disability and his relationships goes into close detail that is both rare and revealing.

Yoji Yamada cast familiar faces in his latest heartwarming family drama “Mom, Is That You?!” including veteran Sayuri Yoshinaga (right), who has appeared in three other Yamada films. Yoshinaga plays the mother of a stressed salaryman (Yo Oizumi, left) in the new film.

CULTURE / Film

Sep 15, 2023

Film veteran Yoji Yamada warms the soul with 'Mom, Is That You?!'

Even after 60 years in the industry, the director continues to make hits. His latest offers a hearty helping of deeply felt human truths.

A former boxer (Koichi Sato, left) trying to restart his life in Japan takes on a young trainee (Ryusei Yokohama) with aspirations to win big in “One Last Bloom.”

CULTURE / Film

Sep 7, 2023

‘One Last Bloom’: Pugilist melodrama feels all too familiar

While the film takes the approach of local TV dramas, with broad narrative strokes and a zero-to-hero arc, the boxing scenes deliver insider details.

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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