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November 23, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016
Tokyo Talkies seeks to broaden exposure to Indian films
Indian cinema is prolific and diverse, with 1,969 feature titles released by 20 regional film industries in 2014, but movie fans in Japan have few chances to see this vast output. (Let's not count Bollywood musicals playing silently on monitors in Indian restaurants.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2016
'Bitter Honey': Fishing for the love of a writer
Films about elderly men falling for elusive young women (and utimately regretting it) go back to "The Blue Angel" (1930). One Japanese example is Kaneto Shindo's 1992 "Bokuto Kidan" ("The Strange Tale of Oyuki"), a biopic about writer Kafu Nagai and the prostitute he came to love. Unlike the deluded...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2016
Forever young: Riko Narumi gives up old roles
In 2000, Riko Narumi made her first appearance on TV at age 7. She has worked steadily in both television and film ever since, and has 24 entries in her filmography, ranging from the drama "Shindo"(2007), where she played a troubled teen piano prodigy, to quirky comedy "Seaside Motel" (2011), in which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2016
'A Cappella' conjures up the spirit of revolution in 1960s Japan
When I see Japanese films set in the late 1960s and early '70s, at the height of student protests, I always feel that something is off, while knowing that the "something off" is me.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 23, 2016
Tokyo cafe to screen controversial short films by Iranian director Keywan Karimi
Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi has been sentenced to one year in prison and 223 lashes for making "Writing on the City," a movie authorities consider anti-government propaganda and an insult to the religion of Islam. His subject: The history of Tehran from the 1979 Revolution to the present, as shown...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2016
'Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation' hits all the wrong targets
Films about women in the yakuza world are many but real female gangsters are few, including women who inherit gang leadership from a husband or male relative.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2016
Okinawan prodigy returns to directing with 'Girl of the Sea'
The once-arduous process of becoming a movie director in Japan — involving university film studies and years of assistant-director serfdom — has been drastically simplified. Technically, you can now shoot a movie on your smartphone and edit it on your laptop, with your name in the credits after "Director."...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 9, 2016
'Fukushima: A Nuclear Story' stands out among 3/11 documentaries
The Fukushima nuclear plant disaster has been examined in hundreds of documentaries to date, counting all media, nationalities and languages. But "Fukushima: A Nuclear Story" stands out for one simple, powerful reason: Its central figure, Italian journalist Pio d'Emilia, was among the first foreign reporters...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2016
'Oyster Factory' dredges up the dreams and fears of Japan's rural workers
Japanese documentaries tend to be blandly inoffensive, especially those dealing with sensitive topics. Typically, a velvet-voiced narrator sets the scene and a sympathetic interviewer lobs questions to her subjects as gently upbeat music plays in the background.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016
Languorous women and amorous men in Wayne Wang's first Japanese film
An extended stay at a resort hotel, seaside villa or a similar escape hatch is only a dream for most of Japan's working adults. But local filmmakers — who are in the dream business — have made enough ensemble dramas about romantic/erotic entanglements in such places to launch a small subgenre. Wayne...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016
Breaking into and out of Japanese show biz
Eiji Uchida's scabrous new comedy about the struggles of a down-and-out indie film director, "Lowlife Love" ("Gesu no Ai"), confirms what I have known for years: Japanese show business can be brutal to the weak or clueless. They end up used and discarded, like so many human Kleenexes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2016
'The Shell Collector' wields a healing kind of poison
In English, you usually don't want to be compared to marine life. "Cold fish," "shark" and "whale" are not often intended as compliments, and "come out of your shell" is commonly addressed to the anti-social.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2016
Grim universe of horror manga 'Litchi Hikari Club'
When I was 13, I belonged to a neighborhood gang called, ironically, "The Hoods." We committed minor acts of vandalism as a sort of game and talked about invading the turf of a rival gang a few blocks over (but never got around to it). We were, to put it plainly, idiots.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 10, 2016
The 11th edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival
Tokyo tends to suck up all the media oxygen when it comes to film festivals and events in this country, but there's plenty going on beyond the capital's borders, as evidenced by the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The 11th edition of the festival, unspooling March 4-13 at venues in Osaka, will present a wide-ranging...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2016
'Children of Iron' turns the parent-trap formula on its head
Mom and Dad decide to divorce and their kids try to bring them back together — it's a familiar story here, on screens big and small. And it's not hard to understand why: The kids nearly always succeed, making for a happy ending. Veteran hitmaker Yoji Yamada uses it for his first comedy in two decades,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 27, 2016
'The Actor' gets inside the mind of a struggling Japanese actor
How do Japanese actors do it? I don't mean the stars of mainstream films — those "multi-talents" that are busy 24/7 with TV, stage and advertising gigs — I'm talking about the legions of supporting actors who may have only a single scene or line in a film, or play a body floating in a river. How...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2016
J-horror master Yoshihiro Nakamura returns to form
Yoshihiro Nakamura entered the film world on a well-trodden path. After making 8 mm films while studying at Tokyo's Seijo University and winning a prize at the 1993 Pia Film Festival — a famous incubator for young Japanese filmmakers — he worked as an assistant director for Juzo Itami, Yoichi Sai...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2016
Ghosts go hunting for the living in 'The Inerasable'
Have you ever walked down a corridor or into a room in the dead of night with your heart beating and your skin crawling? Something spooks you, for reasons that — in the clear light of day — seem to have to nothing to do with the real world. Or do they?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2016
Pink and Gray not just an idol film
No one likes spoilers, right? But in some films a major plot twist comes so early that the choice is to either mention it or write an entire review consisting of little more than winks and nods. For example, in Nobuhiko Obayashi's "Exchange Students" ("Tenkosei," 1982) a teenage boy and girl — spoiler...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2016
Wrestling with Japan's physically challenged, literally
In 1994, I reviewed "Invincible Handicap" ("Muteki no Handicap"), a documentary by scriptwriter and filmmaker Daisuke Tengan about a professional wrestling group called Doglegs whose members were both physically challenged men and able-bodied volunteers. Started in 1991, the Doglegs hardly fit the template...
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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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