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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2013

The poster nation of unusual graphic design

Art often thrives as it wriggles out from under a big heavy rock. This can be said about creativity in Czechoslovakia from the 1960s to '80s. As the nation broke free of Stalinism, careered toward the Prague Spring and then finally celebrated the end of Communism in 1989, music, art and film began mixing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 10, 2013

Evocative novel bridges Japan and China, past and present

That the Western world has lost interest in Japan, and particularly in Japanese literature, and is turning its attention more and more to the colossus across the sea (China, not America) is a constant plaint on the part of Japan specialists and translators.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013

The dead get their day as zombies go mainstream

My first zombie movie was "Night of the Living Dead," viewed at a midnight screening at the old Harvard Square Cinema, attended by a small coterie of late-night freaks and stoners. With its relentless dread and entrail-chomping ghouls, it was a film beyond the pale of normal, daytime moviegoers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 29, 2013

Film, music and Moomins: events at Setouchi Triennale 2013

Though Setouchi is often referred to as an 'art festival,' there are plenty of other events taking place across the islands, including lectures, theater performances and concerts.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 11, 2013

Resort offers movie night under the stars

You don't need to be an outdoors-type person to enjoy lying down and gazing at the stars. And you don't have to be a indoors-type to enjoy a good movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2013

Jesse Ruins take cinematic inspiration for debut full-length

Although many Japanese indie bands find it a struggle breaking into overseas markets, Tokyo's Jesse Ruins have always seemed to strike a chord among both international and domestic listeners alike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

'The Complete (Existing) Films of ...'

Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 14, 2013

Star Troupe's top otokoyaku star speaks out

Ahead of their current Taiwan tour, Yuzuki Reon, the current top otokoyaku (male-role actress) with the Takarazuka Revue, took time out between rehearsals at the city-center Tokyo Takarazuka Theater to share with readers of The Japan Times something of her view from such a lofty show-biz height.
LIFE
Feb 24, 2013

An inclined view: The life and work of Donald Richie

It was with a heavy heart that I heard from Donald Richie's longtime friend and editor Leza Lowitz that he had passed away on the morning of Tuesday, this week. He was 88.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 24, 2013

Sharing films with a master critic

Donald Richie was my friend and mentor for more than 20 years and my inspiration before that. When I was preparing to come to Japan for the first time in 1975, I read many books about the place, but Donald's masterpiece "The Inland Sea" was the one that entranced me. My first long trip after my arrival...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2013

The unexpected awaits at Media Arts Festival

When asked to describe his latest film in one word, director Shunichiro Miki repeated what most cinema critics worldwide had said after their own somewhat botched attempts to describe it: 'Indescribable.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013

Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson is one of those directors who, love him or hate him, has been remarkably consistent. Each film, from "Rushmore" right on down, is an artfully constructed and totally hermetic world unto itself, with flawed or absent father-figures, a closet's worth of funky-yet-chic pop-culture knickknacks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 26, 2013

Looking back on a major turning point

Routinely acclaimed as a giant of world cinema in his lifetime, Akira Kurosawa has slipped in the global director league rankings since his death in 1998.
JAPAN / Media
Jan 19, 2013

Oshima was in a realm of his own

Film director Nagisa Oshima passed away Tuesday. He was 80.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / BEST OF 2012
Dec 28, 2012

Hold the McFilms, pass the cinematic cassoulet

It always puzzles me that people turn to the Food page curious to find out about off-the-beaten-track joints that serve up a savory cassoulet or artisan shōchū or whatever, yet so many come to the film page expecting a review of this week's McBurger. Guess what? Tasted pretty much like the last one....
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2012

Special screenings and other spinoffs at TIFF

The Special Screenings section at Tokyo International Film Festival is largely made up of films that will soon be opening in Japan anyway, but there are still a few hot tickets this year. With "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away," TIFF has scored the world premiere of this 3-D spectacle featuring the much-loved...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2012

Tokyo International Film Festival hits 25

This year, Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) celebrates its 25th edition and will hold commemorative programs, including a three-day screening of six Japanese films from the Showa Era (1926-89) in the very Showa-esque district of Nihonbashi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

'The Expendables 2'

The "Expendables" franchise certainly deserves some credit for truth in advertising, although I suppose "The Disposables" or "The Predictables" might have been even more on the mark: This is the sort of generic action movie you're already forgetting as the lights come up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2012

'This is Not a Film'

I met Iranian director Jafar Panahi back in 1996, shortly before his debut feature film "The White Balloon" picked up the Gold Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival — one of many prizes that film garnered. My interview has been lost to the sands of time (hard to believe, but there was a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2012

'Like Someone in Love'

The definition of "sublime" goes through a subtle overhaul in Abbas Kiarostami's latest "Like Someone in Love," filmed in Tokyo and featuring an all-Japanese cast. To witness the movie is to experience a massive who-would-have-thought-moment. This is Kiarostami we're talking about: one of the world's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2012

'Seesaw'

Many Japanese indie films never achieve the grail of a theatrical release, and some arrive on theater screens here only after a long journey on the festival circuit. Seeing the latter on a distributor's lineup years after shooting wrapped, I feel like saying otsukare-sama ("job well done") to the filmmaker...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 25, 2012

'Men in Black 3'

How do you feel about men in black suits? Black shoes? Narrow (but not too narrow) black ties? Call me strange, but I've always had a weakness for that look, ever since Jake and Elwood Blues of "The Blues Brothers" perfected the mode in 1980. Always trust the guy in the suit, as my granny used to say....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2012

Director flirts with film history in 'The Artist'

With hindsight, successful ideas always look brilliant, but that doesn't mean everyone involved viewed them as such from the outset. That's especially true in the world of film finance, where producers are loathe to gamble with people's money, and the best approach is usually the one that worked last...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2012

'My Week With Marilyn'

In his book "Retromania," music critic Simon Reynolds makes the case that pop music/rock has gone distressingly meta, feeding on its accumulated history at the expense of any further forward evolution musically. It's a bold argument — and well worth a read — but one could probably make the same case...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2012

'Shame'

Sexual addiction is defined by one recovery-program website as "any compulsive or impulsive sexual activity that falls into one of three categories: shameful, secretive or abusive." Well, that's a bit of a party-killer, isn't it? Beyond the fact that this defines as illness so much common sexual activity...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 24, 2012

Film focuses on Brazil's favelas

Brazil, halfway across the globe from here, is known for its colorful Carnival, devotion to soccer, and increasing economic power. Its image, however, is sometimes marred by street violence, drug-trafficking and police corruption.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2012

'The Hunter' / 'Poetry'

One of cinema's most constant motifs is the flawed, morally corrupt character who in the last reel listens to his conscience and decides to do the right thing. There's a good reason for this: Audiences know all too well how easy it is to be a "good German," and desperately wish it weren't so. You often...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2012

'The Devil's Double' / 'Un Prophete'

It's sometimes funny how filmmakers' careers play out, and how the hand of fortune can give them a boost or a brush-off. Take Lee Tamahori: This Kiwi director had a powerhouse of a breakthrough film with "Once Were Warriors," an unflinching tale of alcoholism and revenge set in Auckland's Maori community,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 30, 2011

Films that make you feel it like the first time

My one wish for the New Year would be to wipe my brain clean of all the movies I've ever seen. With a fresh slate, I could sit back and enjoy, say, some new neo-noir without comparing it to "Chinatown." On a bad day I'll think that cinema is most intense at first blush, that the films that imprint themselves...

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Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?