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April 05, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2008
'Kodomo no Kodomo'
Teenage pregnancy has always been with us, but attitudes toward it have changed. A generation ago, the situation of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's daughter — 17, pregnant and unwed — would have inspired conservative tut-tutting. Now it's a cause of conservative celebration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2008
'Paco to Maho no Ehon'
Tetsuya Nakashima is being hailed as a genius by the Japanese film world, an epithet that didn't occur to many in the 1990s when his pitch-black comedies, including "Natsu Jikan no Otonatachi (Happy-Go-Lucky)" (1997) and "Beautiful Sunday" (1998), were playing to tiny audiences here and getting little...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2008
'Okuribito'
Aculture's attitude toward death is always going to be something of a mystery to outsiders, even ones who try to immerse themselves in the local language and customs. I had my own cultural shock when my wife's father passed away, and I experienced the Japanese funeral process for the first time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2008
'Detroit Metal City'
Soichi Negishi (Kenichi Matsuyama) hates what he does for a living. After every night on the job, he can't wait to strip off his work clothes and relax with his favorite light J-Pop tunes. With his pudding-bowl hairdo, goofy grin and foppy gestures, he looks like the younger Japanese brother of Jim Carrey's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2008
'R246 Story'
Omnibus films — collections of segments, usually by different directors — are hard commercial sells, but rarely complete disappointments.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2008
'Dosokai'
Nostalgia keeps changing. The music, TV shows and junk food that leaves one generation misty-eyed are regarded by the next as quaint curiosities from a distant past, until they finally pass into that dead, hallowed realm known as history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008
'The Sky Crawlers'
The Battle of Britain, in which the Royal Air Force fought the Luftwaffe for supremacy over the skies of Britain in 1940, became famous for not only the heroism of the Allied defenders, who saved the country from Nazi invasion, but their high casualty rates, especially among the young, inexperienced...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2008
'Yami no Kodomotachi'
In our anything-goes age, pedophilia remains one subject that makes everyone from film industry executives to ordinary fans nervous, to put it mildly. In "Lolita," Stanley Kubrick made the title character older than the 12-year-old in Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel, while suggesting the sex rather...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008
'Kimi no Tomodachi'
Kids often make friends easily — and lose them quickly. The boy who was your best buddy yesterday has today found a new friend, a new crowd, a new world that doesn't include you. He has moved on — and you're just part of the receding scenery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2008
'Guilala no Gyakushu — Toyako Summit Kiki Ippatsu'
Political comedy is conspicuous by its absence on Japanese TV. Where are the shows that skewer politicians in the manner of American news satires "The Colbert Report" or "The Daily Show"? One might as well as search for the habitat of the Japanese unicorn (a bird that never flew).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2008
'Gake no Ue no Ponyo'
Hayao Mizayaki is the reigning giant of Japanese animation — and the Japanese box office. Since "Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service)" in 1989, every Miyazaki film has been a smash hit, drawing the widest possible audience. In 2001, his coming-of-age fantasy "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2008
'Hana Yori Dango: Final'
Japanese TV networks and other makers of films for the masses have developed a formula for megasuccess: Produce a movie that is essentially a superspecial of a popular TV drama series. "Hero," which revived a smash-hit 2001 series about a punkish public prosecutor, was of this mold — and become the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008
'Aruitemo Aruitemo'
Family drama is the default setting of serious Japanese cinema. No matter what genre first brings Japanese directors fame or fortune, be it Sci Fi/fantasy, yakuza epics or horror, they often end up making a family drama, especially if they want to establish their auteurist credentials. The Western used...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008
Director Kore'eda on his '24 -hour' epic
Hirokazu Kore'eda began directing in 1991, while working for TV Man Union, a major TV production company. His first theatrical feature, 1995's "Maboroshi no Hikari" (English title: "Maboroshi"), was selected for the Venice Film Festival competition — a rare honor for a tyro director. His international...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2008
'The Magic Hour'
Koki Mitani is the reigning king of comedy in Japan, as the writer and sometimes director of a string of hit stage plays, TV series and three feature films that culminated in 2006 with "The Uchoten Hotel (Suite Dream)." This laugh-packed take-off on the 1932 Greta Garbo classic "Grand Hotel," based on...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2008
'Kamisama — no Puzzle'
Directors and producers who score big hits become big powers in the industry, ipso facto. They can consequently make films that would get their less successful brethren laughed out of a pitch meeting. A new case in point is "Kamisama no Puzzle (God's Puzzle)," an SF thriller by hit-making director Takashi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2008
One man, two worlds
Ryosuke Hashiguchi is one of the few gay filmmakers in Japan to have had a measure of popular success making films with gay themes. His third film, "Hush" (2002), about a gay couple whose life changes when one of them is drafted into becoming a father by a desperate woman, was an indie hit, as well as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2008
Lily Franky's first starring role plunges him into a 'dark place'
L ily Franky is a true multitalent, having found success as an illustrator, designer, essayist, lyricist, photographer, novelist and band vocalist. His 2005 autobiographical novel "Tokyo Tower: Okan to Boku to Tokidoki Oton (Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me and Sometimes Dad)," in which he described his relationship...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2008
'Johnen — Sada no Ai'
Rokuro Mochizuki was a leader of the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s, making films such as "Shin Kanashiki Hitman (Another Lonely Hitman)" and "Onibi (The Fire Within)" that redefined the yakuza genre. His tough guy heroes may have had a lonely nobility as they fought for their own vision of happiness,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008
'Bakemono Moyo'/'Mukidashi Nippon'
Still only 24, Yuya Ishii has not only made four feature films in a blazingly short time, but had them screened in his own section (hard to call it a retrospective) at the 2008 Rotterdam Film Festival. Also, at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival, he received the first Edward Yang New Talent...
U.S. tourist arrested after bringing a handgun into Japan
Hyogo police believe the handgun a U.S. tourist inadvertently brought into Japan slipped through security procedures at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture.
3D printer used to construct train station building in Japan
A train station building (front) is assembled from parts printed using 3D printer technology, in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
Japan’s leader didn’t read the job description
Prime Minister and ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader Shigeru Ishiba is facing a political funding scandal that has damaged his reputation and sparked speculation that internal efforts to remove him are underway.
Japan promises 'bold and speedy' response to Trump’s surprise 24% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump unveils new U.S. tariffs at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
Tokyo’s KK Line to close for decadelong overhaul as public greenway
People enjoy running and yoga on Tokyo Expressway’s KK Line, a 2-kilometer elevated expressway cutting through the capital’s commercial Ginza district, when it was opened as a pedestrian space in May last year.
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.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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