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CULTURE

TV & Streaming

Entertainment news

The new Nippon TV series “The Hot Spot” follows an alien superhero navigating rural Japanese life but focuses more on dialogue than splashy, action-packed plot points.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle

Feb 10, 2025

‘The Hot Spot’: Close encounters of the mundane kind

By Patrick St. Michel

Japanese dramas have been taking bolder risks recently, and Bakarhythm’s new sci-fi series surprises by centering its high-concept ideas on trivial occurrences.

Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama "Meteor Garden," died from a respiratory illness during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

Feb 3, 2025

Taiwan's 'Meteor Garden' star Barbie Hsu dies at 48

The actor, who rose to fame as the romantic lead in a 2001 television drama based on a manga series, died from a respiratory illness during a family holiday in Japan.

Players in Jakarta, Indonesia, take part in the “Red Light, Green Light” game from the Netflix series “Squid Game.”

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

Jan 30, 2025

'Cute and murderous': How the iconic killer doll in 'Squid Game' came to life

By Minwoo Park and Hyunsu Yim

Young-hee, the innocent-looking robotic doll who has a deadly role in the mega-hit Netflix series, is partly inspired by the production designer's daughter.

Animated series “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” premiered on Cartoon Network on Nov. 29, 2004, and ran for three seasons. The show is based on real-life J-pop band Puffy.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

Jan 24, 2025

The cartoon chaos of ‘Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi’ was ahead of its time

By Patrick St. Michel

Love for the J-pop duo’s zany Cartoon Network series has endured online for over 20 years since its premiere.

“The Elephant Man” and “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch became a favorite among Japanese moviegoers who flocked to new arthouse cinemas (known as “mini theaters”) popping up around the country in the 1980s and ’90s.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

Jan 23, 2025

How 'Twin Peaks' turned David Lynch into Japan's favorite weirdo

By James Hadfield

The director’s work thrived in the early days of arthouse “mini theaters,” and cherry pies and canned coffee fueled the nation's "Twin Peaks" mania.

In season two of "Squid Game," protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) returns to put an end to the deadly competition.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle

Jan 12, 2025

The unnervingly timed return of ‘Squid Game’

By Erik Augustin Palm

The show’s themes of wealth disparity and exploitation of power resonate far beyond South Korea, tapping into a universal vein of unease about the unstable systems we live under.

“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” centers on three teenage protagonists who are transported into a fantasy world where they must grapple with a foreign culture.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming

Jan 11, 2025

Isekai anime offers a key to understanding globalization

By Stevie Suan

The fantastical genre wherein characters are dropped into unlikely worlds — and sometimes bodies — can be read as an allegory for the structure of the contemporary anime industry.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

The sun shines from behind a waving Philippine flag at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Eighty years after the Battle of Manila, old foes forge new ties

By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

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