James Hadfield - The Japan Times

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James Hadfield

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 31, 2018

'Manhunt': Action maestro John Woo drops the baton

'Manhunt' has got the white doves, gratuitous slo-mo and operatic gunplay that fans of Woo's earlier films would expect, but the whole thing is as slackly executed as an 'Expendables' movie.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 30, 2018

Falsettos offers an alternative to 'macho rock'

If you're playing in a group in Japan and your members all happen to be female, sooner or later you're going to get slapped with the "girls' band" tag. The term has been used willy-nilly to describe everything from the manufactured guitar-pop of late-'80s chart-toppers Princess Princess to the experimental...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 24, 2018

'Midnight Bus': A trundling bus trip to boresville

Taizo Harada plays Toshikazu 'Riichi' Takamiya in Masao Takeshita's 'Midnight Bus,' a film that feels overlong and lacks emotional punch.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 23, 2018

London is the place to be for Luby Sparks

Some bands have all the luck. While many of their peers will probably be toiling on the live circuit for years before gaining any recognition beyond their immediate circle of friends, the college kids of Luby Sparks are already going places.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 20, 2017

Working in the film industry as a non-Japanese has its own challenges

Japan is home to one of the most lucrative movie industries in the world, and also one of the most prolific: 1,149 films received a theatrical release during 2016, over 600 of which were domestic productions. It can be hard to stand out in such a crowded marketplace and the challenges are often compounded...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 29, 2017

'Vu Ja De': Fans of Haruomi Hosono are rewarded with a deep dive

At a recent concert in Tokyo, Haruomi Hosono enlisted a pair of comedy acts to open the proceedings. First stand-up duo Knights did a routine based on mangled misreadings of the headliner's Wikipedia page, then impersonator Michiko Shimizu and her brother, Ichiro, performed the Happy End song "Aiaigasa"...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 16, 2017

Steven Soderbergh looks to get 'Lucky' with a new distribution model for films

He's been away for such a short time, you may not have noticed Steven Soderbergh had even stopped making movies. In 2013, the director — who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes with his 1989 debut, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," when he was just 26 years old — announced his retirement from filmmaking,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Nov 14, 2017

The music you didn't realize you grew up with: Chip Tanaka's 8-bit revolution

If you grew up during the 1980s or 1990s, there's a good chance that you spent more time listening to the music of Hirokazu Tanaka than to many of your favorite pop songs. Such was the reach of the work that the Kyoto native created during his nearly 20-year tenure as a sound designer at Nintendo, as...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Nov 8, 2017

When you go to a film festival, all you can do is roll the dice and pray for gold

Covering a film festival is what's known in the profession as a crapshoot. No matter how many screenings you manage to clock, you're probably going to miss half of the flicks that end up winning prizes.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 17, 2017

Psych-rock act Kikagaku Moyo makes a virtue of DIY and keeping it 'sloppy'

If you were to glance at Kikagaku Moyo's tour itinerary for 2017, it would be easy to forget that the group was Japanese at all. The psych-rock quintet recently completed the second leg of a European tour that encompassed nearly 50 dates, having racked up 26 shows around North America earlier in the...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?

Oct 14, 2017

Sound artist Aki Onda explores memory through sound

'I never miss Japan,' says New York resident Aki Onda. 'Now I have a distance — that's why I enjoy going back to Tokyo.'

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 20, 2017

Sapphire Slows is getting more vocal, and not just in her music

When she first emerged on Tokyo's bedroom producer scene in 2011, Sapphire Slows shot to prominence almost instantly, scoring a release on voguish Los Angeles label Not Not Fun mere months after starting out. A full-length album, "Allegoria," followed on the same label in late 2013; and then, like the...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Sep 12, 2017

Wonk plays around with 'experimental soul' on a pair of new albums

"The way music from America and other Western countries got imported into Japan, the roots are different," says Ayatake Ezaki, keyboardist for Tokyo-based quartet Wonk.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 31, 2017

Miho Hazama will celebrate 100 years of jazz at Tokyo Jazz Festival performance

Japanese audiences are renowned as some of the world's most respectful listeners, but for musicians accustomed to getting more raucous receptions elsewhere, the experience can be a little unnerving.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 31, 2017

Drum prodigy Senri Kawaguchi doesn't put limits on her music

In 2010, the online encyclopedia Drummerworld added a 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl to its list of the world's greatest players. Senri Kawaguchi had rocketed to fame after posting YouTube videos of herself drumming along to songs from the "K-On!" anime series, wearing the same sailor-suit school uniform...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 25, 2017

Netflix's 'Death Note' may be dumber, but is it really evil?

After the furor over the recent "Ghost in the Shell" adaptation, moviegoers should be familiar with the concept of "whitewashing," the insidious Hollywood practice of casting Caucasian actors in roles that originated as non-white characters. But when Lakeith Stanfield, who is African-American, was picked...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Aug 1, 2017

Fuji Rock Festival: It may not make sense on paper, but the end results are glorious

This year's Fuji Rock Festival was a damp and turbulent affair, albeit only in the most literal sense. Whatever the formula is for convincing people to blow their entire summer vacation budget on a few days in the Japan Alps — much of which will likely be spent lining up for the toilet, getting drenched...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 27, 2017

Quruli has noticed a change in the way young people listen to music

Many musicians will admit to having a special affection for Fuji Rock Festival, which unfurls at Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture this weekend. Few, however, have a history as tightly intertwined with the event as Quruli, the affable guitar-rock outfit from Kyoto.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 18, 2017

Keiji Haino at 65: 'I want to be a bad boy, right until the end'

"I don't want people to treat me like a god," says Keiji Haino, chuckling. "I want to be a bad boy, right until the end."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 5, 2017

Cornelius opens up a little more on his latest album, 'Mellow Waves'

Though it has been 11 years since his last album, Keigo Oyamada never really went away. The studio wizard known as Cornelius has spent the past decade diversifying his portfolio: creating soundtracks for anime and educational TV; playing in electro super-group Metafive and collaborating with J-pop singer...

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

Exploring Japanese culturevia Tohoku’s festivals

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