author

 
Menu
Search
 
November 21, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Mark Schilling
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2001
When it comes to comedy, it's sync or swim
Waterboys Rating: * * * * Director: Shinobu Yaguchi Running time: 91 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2001
Composer plays musical chairs
Quartet Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Joe Hisashi Running time: 113 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001
Epiphany in a puddle
Mamiko Kawamoto and I interviewed Katsuyoshi Kumakiri and his two stars, Susuma Terajima and Yuriko Kikuchi, at the press suite of the Focus on Asia -- Fukuoka Film Festival, where "Sora no Ana" was screened to a full-house crowd. Kumakiri was agreeably sincere and Kikuchi becomingly modest, while Terajima...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001
The comfort of strangers
Sora no Anna Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri Running time: 127 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001
Asia's best shine at cinema showcase
Film festivals are addictive, especially if you've got that magical piece of laminated paper called a press pass. Volunteers smile at you, directors schmooze with you and theater doors swing open for you at the flash of a badge. Best of all, you can spend all day watching movies with no guilty feelings...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 25, 2001
No, really, it's completely unspoiled!
Paradise in the South Pacific? Isn't that only ad copy for getaway resorts that put little beach umbrellas in the cocktails and charge prices the locals could only afford after a winning lottery ticket?
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2001
Pixels can't really tell the whole story
Final Fantasy Rating: * * * Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi Running time: 106 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2001
Welcome to my worst nightmare
Kemonogare -- Orera no Saru to Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hideaki Sunaga Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2001
Truly, madly, but not too deeply
Zeitaku na Hone Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
'Electric Dragon 80000V'
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
A bolt from the past
Electric Dragon 80000V Rating: * * * Director: Sogo Ishii Running time: 55 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing What should rockers do when the paunch starts to sag over the jeans and the gray hair starts to glint in the spotlights? Have some self-respect and stop shaking that wrinkled booty,...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
'Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu'
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Just please don't ask 'why?'
The first questions John Williams is always asked about "Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)" are the "whys": Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don't come easy, "because I never imagined I would end up making a film here."
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Bridging the gap
Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu Rating: * * * * Director: John Williams Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing For decades, foreign directors have been going to Hollywood and making movies with American settings, stories and stars that American audiences have accepted as their own. Charlie...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2001
The powerful roar of distant waves
Nami Rating: * * * * Director: Hiroshi Okuhara Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing Are we all going to end up slaving 24/7? The Japanese have long led the way to an all-work, no-play future, but now the Americans, writes Martin Kettle in Guardian Unlimited, are catching up....
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001
Are the fishing fools running out of line?
Tsuri Baka Nisshi 12 Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Katsuhide Motoki Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 18 Some sequels make sense, but a "3" or "4" after the title of a Hollywood movie is generally a good reason to stay away unless you happen to be feeling charitable toward a studio...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001
A samurai flick for the MTV generation
Red Shadow Aka Kage Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 108 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 11 at Marunouchi Toei and other theaters Silent-era samurai movies fulfilled the same function as the westerns of W.S. Hart and Tom Mix: They entertained the common herd, particularly...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001
Lost and found in a dream
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) Rating: * * * * * Director: Hayao Miyazaki Running time: 125 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animators had their biggest-ever triumph with "Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke)," an eco-fable set in premodern...
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001
When we had heroes
They were voices in the silence, stars in the night they showed the way and they showed what was right
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2001
Ms. Tokyo takes a trip to reality
Koko ni Iru Koto Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Masahiko Nagasawa Running time: 115 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing The TV trendy drama was a bubble-era phenomenon, with its stories about the love troubles of beautiful young singles working at glamorous "katakana jobs" (such as "event planner"...
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.

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’
Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER