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July 17, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 30, 2015
Quadruple amputee yakuza raises hell in 'Daruma'
Yakuza are not usually thought of as disabled, but more than a few have had their pinky fingers, or a section thereof, sliced off with a blade. Traditionally, this disabling is punishment for violating the gang code.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2015
An unlikely partnership between women blooms in 'Rasen Ginga'
A fresh, incisive take on a common if little-filmed type of relationship, especially in hierarchy-loving Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2015
Japan through the lens of its film genres
As a new reporter for a movie trade magazine, I quickly learned that every film has its genre — even ones that don't play by genre rules. The industry slices genre-straddling films into discrete categories: action, comedy, sci-fi, etc. Call it crude, but this system serves a purpose: If you're...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2015
Girls take charge of their love lives in 'Chigasaki Story'
Koji Fukada's 2013 beach film "Hotori no Sakuko" ("Au Revoir l'Ete") was a loving homage to French master Eric Rohmer, with lengthy European-style vacations bestowed on Fukada's Japanese protagonists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 9, 2015
Schoolgirls with dubious impulses run wild in 'Our Huff and Puff Journey'
When I was living in a student sharehouse, a fellow resident proposed breaking into a nearby public pool for a midnight swim.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 9, 2015
Kyoto International Art and Film Festival is a challenge to Tokyo's cultural power
The Kyoto International Film and Art Festival, which takes place from Oct. 15 to 18 in Japan's ancient capital, began as a sort of challenge to the local film industry's power center, Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 2, 2015
'Neko Samurai 2' finds a swordsman and his feline shipwrecked on a tropical island
Japanese audiences have long loved movies about dogs and cats. But non-Japanese critics and festival programmers? Not so much. The rampant sentimentalism and blatant commercialism of these films have stuck in the craw of many critics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 26, 2015
Ex-AKB48 star resists a sleazy stranger on train in 'Round Trip Heart'
Pushing a food-and-drinks cart on an express train used to be a something of a glamour job for young Japanese women (or something of a comedown if they aspired to be flight attendants).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 26, 2015
Will another Miyazaki save Japanese cinema from Hollywood?
In the 1990s, when I was reporting on the Japanese film business for a British trade magazine, big-budget Hollywood movies with splashy special effects dominated the local box office. And the industry consensus was that resistance — in the form of made-in-Japan effects extravaganzas — was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2015
A militaristic turn for the Japanese film industry
Why have Japanese filmmakers recently been turning out so many films about World War II and its aftermath? The obvious answer is that they're commemorating the 70th anniversary of that war's end, which was marked on Aug. 15. But there are far fewer new films about WWII in most of the countries that fought...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2015
'At Home' paints a terrible portrait of crime and family in Japan
So you want to make a movie about a happy family with a burglar dad, swindler mom and three smiling kids who have no problems with what their parents do for a living? Surely the obvious — indeed only — approach to a film like this is to make it a black comedy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 15, 2015
Memoir of Akira Kurosawa's right-hand man reveals a history of vexed scripts
The films of Akira Kurosawa used to be the gateway into Japanese cinema for many non-Japanese. (That role has since been assumed by the films of Hayao Miyazaki and other animators.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2015
Love blooms like incendiary bombs in 'Kono Kuni no Sora'
Veteran scriptwriter Haruhiko Arai spent three decades trying to adapt Yuichi Takai's 1983 novel "Kono Kuni no Sora" ("This Country's Sky") for the screen — and the wait was worth it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2015
A more complex portrayal of Emperor Hirohito
Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa, had a procession of public images during his long reign from 1926 to 1989 — though none were quite accurate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2015
Cannibalism and confusion in live-action 'Attack on Titan'
Stories about giants are ancient and universal. It isn't hard to understand why: Children are born into a world populated by big, lurching terrors with bad breath and enormous teeth — or is that Uncle Frank just trying to be chummy?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 29, 2015
'Obon no Ototo' is one director's attempt to portray his real life through a fictional self
...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 29, 2015
Tokyo International Film Festival promises a more diverse selection this year
Second-guessing the programming of the annual Tokyo International Film Festival is a favorite sport of movie types in Japan — I've been doing it myself for years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015
War in the jungle and war in Japan
Actor and director Shinya Tsukamoto often takes violence to strange extremes. In his first film, the 1989 horror "Tetsuo" ("Tetsuo: The Iron Man"), a businessman accidentally kills a crazed metal fetishist (played by Tsukamoto himself) with his car and, becoming "infected" by his victim, horrifically...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015
A second look at bloody WWII novel 'Fires on the Plain'
Japanese war films typically frame themselves as anti-war, even when they glorify the sacrifices made by brave Japanese boys in defense of the homeland, as in the 2013 hit "Eien no Zero" ("The Eternal Zero").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 15, 2015
Hayao Miyazaki cleans up Japan
Rich, famous, semi-retired people commonly take up good causes (based on whatever they define as "good"), but animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki does things differently.
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
China’s economic growth comes in worse than expected
Pedestrians in the Wangfujing shopping area in Beijing on July 11, 2024. China's economic growth in the second quarter was lower than forecast, adding pressure on Chinese leaders to lift confidence at the Chinese Communist Party's third plenum this week.
Kansai airports to increase takeoff and landing slots ahead of Osaka Expo
Kansai International Airport in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture. The upper limit on the number of takeoff and landing slots at the airport as well as Kobe Airport in Hyogo Prefecture will be raised in spring next year ahead of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.

Podcast

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

Longform

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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Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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