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November 21, 2024
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2006
Director Yanagimachi explores the human condition
Mitsuo Yanagimachi is enjoying a moment in the sun after nearly a decade in the twilight: His new film "Camus Nante Shiranai (Who's Camus Anyway?)" was screened in the Director's Fortnight section at Cannes, picked up for distribution in the United States and showered with rave reviews from everywhere....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 25, 2005
Creators, not hacks
OUTLAW MASTERS OF JAPANESE FILM by Chris Desjardins. London, New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005, 262 pp., $19.95 (paper). IRON MAN: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto, by Tom Mes. FAB Press, 2005. 237 pp., $24.95 (paper) Foreign critics used to worship at the altars of Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi...
Features
Dec 25, 2005
Haruki Kadokawa: Spirits of the Yamato
Haruki Kadokawa is the closest Japanese equivalent to fabled Hollywood moguls like Sam Goldwyn or Howard Hughes in their glory days as master promoters and unrepentant egotists.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 16, 2005
Stripping it down, thriving on basics
Born in 1970 into an acting family -- his father is butoh master Akaji Maro and his brother is rising star Nao Omori -- Tatsushi Omori served as an assistant director for Junji Sakamoto and Kazuyuki Izutsu before working for producer/director Genjiro Arato on "Akame Shijuha-taki Shinju Misui" in 2003...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2005
Making a difference in Japanese cinema
Film critics, like any one else, have their pet causes -- films and careers they want to boost or bury. But unless they wield the clout of a Roger Ebert, they are just one voice in a choir that, with the Internet, is growing by the dozens every day. Singing as sweetly as they want about their favorite...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2005
A prize-winning director quite happy to have a laugh
With his short-brimmed hat and carefully trimmed goatee, Kenji Uchida looks strikingly like the private investigator played by So Yamanaka in "Unmei Janai Hito."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2005
Directing duo blossoms
In 1990, shortly after I started reviewing for The Japan Times, I saw a film by a former porno director, Shun Nakahara, that made me think I was not wasting my time after all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2005
Not a whodunit but a whydunit
Coming last in a daylong round of media interviews, I was expecting my 40 minutes with Shinji Aoyama to be strained, as in "I'm so tired I can hardly stand." Instead, he came into the meeting room at Toho with a smile and a brisk manner, as in "I'm just getting warmed up." While he was obviously there...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 29, 2004
Buy local produce
Japanese films had a good 2004, even if eight of the 10 top box-office slots went to Hollywood. The Japanese exhibition business is coming to resemble the American one, with more multiplex screens and wider openings. This structure favors major Hollywood product -- the latest "Harry Potter" or "Lord...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 22, 2004
Making love from the inside out
Vital Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Shinya Tsukamoto Running time: 86 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When Shinya Tsukamoto released his first feature, "Tetsuo," in 1989, many critics compared the crazed black-and-white speed dream...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 22, 2004
Tsukamoto's great escape
Although his onscreen characters usually range from the demonic to the neurotic, in person Shinya Tsukamoto is the picture of gentle-spirited, well-mannered sanity. One can imagine him as the ideal maitre d' for an exclusive club, able to soothe even the most savage millionaire.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 15, 2004
Godzilla is dead, long live Godzilla
What do most non-Japanese, Western or otherwise, know about Japanese films? About Japanese pop culture, period? More than they did a decade ago certainly, but let's get real: Go to a typical family gathering in America — blue state or red, it doesn't much matter — and ask those assembled for the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 8, 2004
Dark clouds over Japan
Lady Joker Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hideyuki Hirayama Running time: 121 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Why do films about salarymen tend to be either heavy-footed, with the principals rarely cracking a smile or otherwise dispelling...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2004
Wanting a piece of the rebel
Aoi Kuruma Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Hiroshi Okuhara Running time: 90 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Plenty of Japanese directors are making films about the way the young live now, so many that I could probably fill this space...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 22, 2004
And in the tattered black tights, Papa
Backdrop Papa Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Toshio Lee Running time: 98 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Oct. 8 [See Japan Times movie listings] Boys want their fathers to be heroes. Men want to be heroes to their sons. These truisms sound old-fashioned in today's unheroic Tokyo,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2004
You can't beat an old master
Coffee Jiko Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hou Hsiao- hsien Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Yasujiro Ozu's trademark style -- the low camera angles, the straight cuts, the actors talking at the camera in medium closeup...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 8, 2004
Director follows kabuki offstage to find the essence of onnagata
Musume Dojoji Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Yukiko Takayama Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kabuki plays were an important source of material for early Japanese filmmakers, conferring prestige and popularity on their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004
Flickers in the dead of night
Kaidan Shinmimibukuro Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: See review Running time: 92 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The older I get, the harder I am to scare -- with horror movies at least. After a certain age, real life, including medical...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004
No easy answers from Kore-eda
Directors who have been on the PR circuit long enough often have their answers ready before the interviewer's questions are halfway out of his mouth. Not Hirokazu Kore-eda. Despite the dozens of interviews he's given since "Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai)" screened in competition at this year's Cannes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004
While Mom was away
Nobody Knows Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda Running time: 141 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings]
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
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.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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