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November 22, 2024
 

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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2016
Odious politicians could learn from 'Escobar: Paradise Lost'
As Donald Trump closes in on the U.S. presidency, it's worth remembering that the demagogic real-estate mogul is far from the most odious individual to have pursued a career in politics. Take Pablo Escobar, for instance: The notorious drug kingpin briefly served as a congressman in his native Colombia...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2016
Tarantino has a lot to say about nothing in 'The Hateful Eight'
Stranded by a blizzard in the wilds of post-Civil War Wyoming, a posse of Quentin Tarantino alumni convenes at a remote cabin for a murderous reunion party. They're an impressive bunch — weathered, whiskered and heavily armed — but their master's wit seems to have abandoned them to their fates, like...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2016
Apple fans get a fairly good origin story
'It's like five minutes before every launch, everyone goes to a bar and gets drunk and tells me what they really think," laments Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender) during the closing stretch of Danny Boyle's buoyant, breathless biopic. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has done an ingenious job of condensing Walter...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2016
Japan's unofficial rebuttal to 'The Cove'
For the past few weeks I've been having flashbacks of a video that a vegan acquaintance posted on Facebook. Shot on a hidden camera, it depicted hundreds of fluffy male chicks getting conveyed into an industrial grinder, their punishment for being deemed surplus to requirements. Omelets haven't tasted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 17, 2016
Inspiration that comes in dreams and rice balls
Ichiko Aoba takes her seat at an old-fashioned coffee house in Tokyo's Shibuya district, and places a sketchpad and a plump pouch of rolling tobacco on the table. During the hour-long conversation that follows, the tobacco goes untouched, but the sketchpad gets a thorough workout. As she talks, the 25-year-old...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 6, 2016
'It Follows' goes after misogynist slasher film cliches
In the heyday of slasher films, the fastest way for characters to get themselves killed was by having sex. For a few bloodthirsty years following the release of John Carpenter's "Halloween" in 1978, audiences delighted in watching homicidal maniacs dispatch casts of copulating teens, before finally being...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 30, 2015
'Timbuktu' reflects on Malian lives touched by radical Islam
It's common for local distributors to resort to some dubious tactics when promoting foreign films in Japan: Worthy arthouse flicks are routinely saddled with tawdry Japanese titles, or slushy trailers more befitting of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. Yet there's something particularly unfortunate about...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 11, 2015
Secrets of Lawrence of Arabia; a computer judges classical musicians; CM of the week: Panasonic
The Middle East is a region that seems defined by its ongoing factional disputes, many of which are difficult to make sense of. This week, NHK's documentary series "The Profiler" (BS Premium, Wed., 9 p.m.) attempts to shed some light on the background of some of those disputes by looking at the life...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 6, 2015
Punk survivor Phew changes direction on 'A New World'
Even as a child, Phew realized she was a bit different. "When I was at school, if the teacher told a joke and everyone else in the class laughed, I was always the one who couldn't see what was funny," she says. "I've always been like that."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Dec 4, 2015
Coffee Amp turns the tables on Tokyo's imported coffee culture
For coffee lovers in Tokyo, the past five years have felt like a never-ending bonanza. Where once you might have trekked halfway across town to get a decent brew, now nearly every neighborhood seems to have its own micro-roaster or fancy coffee stand. Yet when Coffee Amp first opened in early 2010, at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 2, 2015
'Spectre' relies on tired Bond film conventions
So this is it. After four outings as the world's best-dressed sociopath, Daniel Craig has announced that he's done playing 007. In a recent interview with London's Time Out, the 47-year-old actor declared with typically British understatement that he'd rather "slash my wrists" than sign on for another...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 15, 2015
Electronica producer Madegg gets warped on 'New' album
Something has gone awfully askew in the music of Madegg. The 23-year-old producer, real name Kazumichi Komatsu, used to delight in creating warm, shimmering electronica that seemed to come bathed in the lambent glow of a late summer evening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 11, 2015
Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo's 'White God' lacks teeth
Man and his best friend are having some serious relationship issues in "White God." Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo's tale of a teenage girl and her beloved hound is the stuff of canine nightmares, set in a present-day Budapest that feels more like a dog dystopia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS
Nov 6, 2015
Maruyama Coffee lets the beans explain themselves
From the hip barista conjuring latte art to the kissaten (traditional Japanese coffee shop) owner working an archaic siphon machine, there's a lot of fuss and theater involved in preparing coffee. So it can be hard to get excited about the French press sometimes. It's the saxophone of brewing methods:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2015
Killing time at the Tokyo International Film Festival
Covering a film festival can turn anyone into a stickler for scheduling. Key screenings and Q&A sessions always seem to overlap and priorities collide. Do you stick with the stodgy Japanese biopic that you're supposed to be writing about, or sneak out halfway through to go watch something more entertaining?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015
Spotlight on Harada films is well-deserved
Following last year's embrace of anime and "content," 2015 sees the Tokyo International Film Festival reassert its credentials as an event, first and foremost, for cineastes. One particularly welcome addition is the new Japan Now section, a roundup of recent and upcoming movies from the likes of Hirokazu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2015
Rare orchids and misfit sex workers at the Tokyo International Film Festival
Some of the hottest tickets at TIFF each year are for films that have already secured a commercial release date in Japan. For all the high-minded talk about artistry and creativity, most viewers just want to see the big movies before everyone else. But spare a thought for the less commercial offerings...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 18, 2015
Radio personality Peter Barakan brings the world to Tokyo for Live Magic!
'I'm going off track again. Wait a minute." Midway through a lengthy digression about an "amazing" New Orleans band named Boukou Groove, Peter Barakan pauses, ever so briefly, to check the conversational signposts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2015
'John Wick' lets Keanu Reeves out of 'The Matrix'
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Trevor Noah, the new host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," compared his surprise appointment to the casting of "The Matrix." Though the fact has now been consigned to an obscure bit of movie lore, the role of Neo — the po-faced hero so memorably played...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 11, 2015
Albino Sound explores angles on 'Cloud Sports'
When musicians from around the globe gathered in Tokyo last autumn for the 2014 edition of the Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) — an intensive series of lectures, gigs and studio sessions that aims to nurture promising artists — many of the participants had already found a foothold within the music...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
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

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