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November 23, 2024
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2022
'Tokyo Side A': Making sense of the 'pandemic Olympics'
Official Olympics documentaries can be as triumphant as a gold-medal performance or they can end up in infamy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2022
'Inu-Oh’: A rock musical that won't be headlining anytime soon
While 'Inu-Oh' contains good insights into how folk traditions are born, the visuals and music could've benefited from more variety.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 12, 2022
‘Drive Into Night’: Middle age doldrums take a turn toward the bizarre
Dai Sako's offbeat drama involving a corpse in a car trunk is a wild ride to remember, even if its characters' memories and morals are suspect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 6, 2022
Emma Kawawada's humane portrayal of the Kurdish diaspora
'My Small Land,' which centers on young girl and her family seeking asylum in Japan, is based on extensive interviews that the director conducted over the space of nearly two years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2022
‘Bubble’: A thin plot brings down exciting visuals
Tetsuro Araki's film about teenage parkour practitioners living in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo has some exhilarating action sequences, but its jumble of genre elements falls flat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2022
‘Tsuyukusa’: A charming second shot at love and life
Satomi Kobayashi gives an endearing performance as a single woman whose life takes an unexpected turn after a close call with a meteorite.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2022
‘Tombi: Father and Son’: Showa nostalgia misses the mark
Takahisa Zeze's decades-spanning family drama is sentimental and unintentionally silly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 8, 2022
'Tokyo Vice' steps into the capital's criminal underworld
Ken Watanabe and Hideaki Ito star alongside Ansel Elgort in the cross-cultural series that brings to life an American reporter's memoir about investigating Japan's yakuza in the 1990s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2022
‘One Day, You Will Reach the Sea’: A haunting ode to those who couldn’t say goodbye
Yukino Kishii gives a controlled performance as a woman struggling to deal with the disappearance of a former friend in Ryutaro Nakagawa's drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2022
How well do you know Japan's Oscar history?
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's “Drive My Car” is nominated in four categories at the 94th Academy Awards, but win or lose, the film joins an exclusive club for cinematic greats.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2022
Eiko Ishibashi’s score sets the scene in Oscar-contender ‘Drive My Car’
The composer and musician's body of work spans from abstract art pop to experimental electronics, with her love for cinema serving as a major source of inspiration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2022
‘Kappei’: The end can’t come soon enough
Even a perfectly cast Hideaki Ito can't save this limp, low-calorie comedy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2022
‘Tamaran Hill’: A playful literary journey to get lost in
In Tadasuke Kotani's heartfelt adaptation of Senji Kuroi's short story, a young woman's exploration of Tokyo's hidden memories leads her down a path of self-discovery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2022
‘The Last 10 Years’: Keep a hanky handy for this weepy romance
Michihito Fujii's splashy terminal illness drama can't help succumbing to the usual genre tropes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2022
‘Chronicle in the Ruins’: An intimate look at a family’s rise from the ashes
Masato and Maori Hara's documentary poignantly captures the weight of memory and loss by incorporating footage recovered in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed their family home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2022
‘The Takatsu River’: A homey hometown drama
Yoshinari Nishikori offers a relatively upbeat take on a well-worn story of a rural Japanese community in decline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2022
Oscars nod launches director Ryusuke Hamaguchi into the global spotlight
Ryusuke Hamaguchi landed four major Oscar nominations this week, a phenomenal achievement for a filmmaker who is still really just hitting his stride.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2022
‘What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?’: Satoshi Miki’s inverted monster movie bites off more than it can chew
Satoshi Miki's disaster film about what happens after a monster attack sounds good on paper, but it's an almighty mess.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 27, 2022
‘Pure Japanese’: Dean Fujioka’s passion project is a fascinating muddle
A typical genre-movie premise gets complicated in director Daishi Matsunaga's film about a stuntman living out his fantasies of old-school heroism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2022
‘Missing’: Shinzo Katayama delivers a twisty thriller
Aoi Ito and Jiro Sato give standout performances in Shinzo Katayama's drama about a teenager trying to unravel the mystery of her father's sudden disappearance.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Saitama court bans demonstrations over anti-Kurd hate speech
Kurdish people in Japan in 2015. A court injunction has banned acts that defame the Japan Kurdish Cultural Association and are disrespectful, such as putting up banner flags or handing out fliers with hate speech like “Refugees should go back to their home countries.”
China reinstates visa-free travel for Japanese nationals
Beijing Daxing International Airport
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
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.

Podcast

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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

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