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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2004
The sound of the crowd leads to an indie gem
Josee, The Tiger and The Fish Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Isshin Inudo Running time: 116 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Why does one small indie film pack theaters week after week, while others with similar themes play to no one...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 23, 2003
Comic culture is serious business
Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 16, 2003
Yoji Yamada
A director since 1961, with 77 films to his credit, Yoji Yamada, 71, is a Japanese film industry icon. His "Tora-san" series, about a wandering peddler who is forever falling in love, but never gets the girl, generated 48 hit installments -- and made Yamada the most successful Japanese director of his...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 15, 2002
Screen dreams of the good old samura days
With the stock market heading south and the political situation taking an uncanny resemblance to the last sclerotic days of the Soviet Union, no wonder Japanese moviegoers want to be anywhere but here and now. Even so, the number of new and recent Japanese films set in the past is extraordinary, given...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 22, 2002
Japanese movies eyed for makeover
With "The Ring," the horror film based on the 1998 Hideo Nakata hit "Ringu," sailing past the $100 million mark in the United States, remakes of Japanese and other Asian films are suddenly hot in Hollywood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2002
The busiest bad guy around
Show Aikawa is the hardest-working man in Japanese movies, but one that Japanese cinemagoers have rarely, if ever, seen. Unless, that is, they happen to be fans of straight-to-video films. They would know Aikawa as the gangster glaring down from the boxes of dozens of action films with titles like "Shuraba...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 7, 2002
Love will tear them apart
Lovers who say goodbye in the last reel exist in Hollywood films -- remember Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca"? -- but far more common are variations of Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard's happy stroll into the sunset in "Modern Times."
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2001
My heart will go on . . . for 1,000 years
Sennen no Koi Hikaru Genji Monogatari Rating: * * * Director: Tonko Horikawa Running time: 143 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001
The revolution will be cinematized
Hikari no Ame Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Banmei Takahashi Running time: 130 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2001
The school of hard knocks
Mabudachi Rating: * * * * Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya Running time: 99 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2001
Face to face with Imperial evil
Japanese Devils Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Minoru Matsui Running time:160 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2001
Not fade away
Ka-chan Rating: * * * Director: Kon Ichikawa Running time: 96 minutes Language: Japaneese
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2001
Hunters on the mean streets
Pain Rating: * * * * Director: Masato Ishioka Running time: 114 minutes Language: Japanese Showing until Dec. 7th at Box Higashi Nakano
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2001
All under the sun
The Japanese, my barber once told me, "don't really think of Hawaii as America -- for us, it's more like part of Japan." But after Sept. 11, many Japanese who might have otherwise booked a wedding in Honolulu or a golf holiday in Maui suddenly realized that Hawaii really was part of the United States...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2001
When marketing hits the target, that's amore
Reisei to Jonetsu no Aida Rating: * * Director: Isamu Nakae Running time: 124 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2001
Coming to America 10 years too late
America is the foreign country most familiar to Japanese people -- and the hardest one for Japanese filmmakers to get right.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2001
Disturbing signals from distant Planet Y
All About Lily Chou ChouRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Shunji Iwai Running time: 146 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2001
The nail that sticks out -- defiantly
Go Rating: * * * * Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 122 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Art
Oct 31, 2001
The gift of Ghibli
When I first heard that Hayao Miyazaki was planning a museum in Mitaka dedicated to the films that his Studio Ghibli animators and he had created over the years, I imagined animation cels framed on beige walls. Save for dedicated fans, it wasn't the most thrilling prospect for a Saturday afternoon, especially...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2001
His turn to talk
I interviewed Hideyuki Hirayama in the summer of 2000 at Nikkatsu Studio, after spending a morning inside a dim, dank soundstage, watching him film Riho Makise. Makise was working on an etching and was padding silently about her house -- an early scene in "Turn," but one of the last in the shoot.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’