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CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001

I've got to have you under my skin

The Isle Rating: * * * Japanese title: Sakana to Neru Onna Director: Kim Ki Deok Running time: 90 minutes Language: Korean Now showing Looking at the alluring and mysterious poster for "The Isle," it's hard not to think David Lynch. A nude young woman stands gazing straight ahead with an intensity...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

Just please don't ask 'why?'

The first questions John Williams is always asked about "Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)" are the "whys": Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don't come easy, "because I never imagined I would end up making a film here."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2001

A love affair with languor

a la verticale de l'ete Japanese title: Geshi Rating: * * * * Director: Tran Anh Hung Running time: 112 minutes Language: VietnameseNow showing Tran Anh Hung is a director who effortlessly defies categorization. While his films -- "The Scent of Green Papaya" and "Cyclo" -- are invariably described...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Playing close to home

As in so many other films, Zhu Xu's role in "Shower" is that of a devoted father. He laughs that directors tend to see him in this light and though he would like to "branch out" sometimes, he feels quite comfortable with this role. "Shower" turned out to be one of his favorite projects -- he himself...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2001

Now you see her, but know you don't

Malena Rating: * * * * Director: Giuseppe Tornatore Running time: 92 minutes Language: Italian/EnglishOpens June 9 These days, we've become used to women in cinema meeting certain standards. They should be visually stunning, but they must also be brave, self-assertive, sometimes violent, smart and...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 27, 2001

Late shift at the Factory

Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the...
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2001

Generation X

While this month may mark artcore's high tide on Tokyo screens, the wave has been building over the past few years. Here's a quick review of some of the more controversial and boundary-pushing films to have opened here within the past six months alone:
CULTURE / Art
Mar 10, 2001

Graphic design's hammer and sickle revolution

The Art Deco architectural style of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum is one usually associatedwith the plutocrats and movie moguls of the 1930s. It may therefore seem a tad ironic to hold an exhibition of posters from Communist Russia at such a venue. But the rivalry between the Soviet Union and...
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 3, 2001

Wake us for the next dance

The abundance of new dance and theater available in Tokyo during the months of February and March is a sure indicator of just how profoundly new work in this city depends on grants and other handouts from funding bodies. These budgets, such as they are, must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2001

He ain't heavy, he's Beat Takeshi. And he likes real handguns.

Turning out to promote "Brother" were director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, stars Omar Epps and Claude Maki, and producers Masayuki Mori (of Office Kitano) and Jeremy Thomas, who has worked in the past with Nagisa Oshima and Bernardo Bertolucci. Filmed on two continents, "Brother" is easily Kitano's most ambitious...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 15, 2000

Timeless tales reflect the times

SANSHO DAYU, by Dudley Andrew & Carole Cavanaugh. BFI Film Classic Series. London: British Film Institute, 2000, 80 pp., with b/w illustrations, $20. Kenji Mizoguchi's 1954 film, "Sansho Dayu" (Sansho the Bailiff), is based upon the well-known 1915 Ogai Mori narrative, which was in turn taken from...
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 1999

The end of a movie era

In this multimedia age, when new electronic entertainment devices for use in the privacy of one's home -- or anywhere -- proliferate endlessly, it can seem hopelessly old-fashioned to trendsetters to sit in a darkened movie theater watching stars emote in heart-tugging dramas, daredevil adventure stories...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 1999

Cartoon eroticism, for real

EROTIC ANIME MOVIE GUIDE, by Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements. London: Titan Books, 1998, 192 pp., b/w photos, 12.99 British pounds. Japanese animated films, familiarly called "anime," have become well-known worldwide. With the success of the 1988 "Akira," the genre became a sound commercial export...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Fukuoka's megamall to let you shop till you drop

Combining a huge cinema complex, a membership wholesale warehouse and a number of specialty shops and restaurants, an American-style megamall -- the largest in Japan -- will open Friday in a suburb of Fukuoka.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2023

Seoul theater chain swaps screens for climbing walls to lure young Koreans

South Korea's largest multiplex movie chain operator started installing climbing walls in 2021 in one of its multiplexes, demolishing two movie screens to make way for the walls.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2023

‘In Her Room’: An unsettling journey of self-discovery

Director Chihiro Ito's captivating dreamscapes are eerie and mysterious in her slow-burning relationship drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 26, 2023

French documentary and Spanish girl clinch top prizes at Berlinale

The top prize went to a documentary and the best acting award to an 8-year-old actress at a Berlinale awards ceremony full of surprises.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 14, 2023

New Ghibli film draws early morning crowds despite little promotion

“Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru Ka?” is Hayao Miyazaki’s first film in a decade and one that brought him out of retirement once more.
A theater-goer takes a photo of the promotional poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s new film, “The Boy and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2023

‘The Boy and the Heron’: It’s so good to be back in Hayao Miyazaki’s world

Studio Ghibli’s latest film takes viewers on one last journey to the familiar world of a master animator who has captivated audiences worldwide for decades.
Director Christopher Nolan (right) poses with "Oppenheimer" cast members (from left) Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt at the film's premiere in Paris earlier this month.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 27, 2023

Summer film releases in Japan and the 'Oppenheimer' problem

Moviegoers may not get their "Barbenheimer" moment, as Japan likes to keep things family friendly in summer.
A woman takes a picture of the poster for the new Hayao Miyazaki film, “The Boy and the Heron.”
PODCAST / deep dive
Aug 2, 2023

Hayao Miyazaki’s confusing new masterpiece

Our critics Thu-Huong Ha and Matt Schley discuss what they thought of the new Hayao Miyazaki film, “The Boy and the Heron.”
The protagonist of Yu Miri’s “The End of August” is a fictionalized version of the author’s maternal grandfather, a long-distance runner who lived in Japanese-occupied Korea.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2023

Yu Miri’s new book is a bleak, dizzying epic in colonized Korea

In “The End of August,” the Akutagawa Prize-winning author excavates her own family history and traces multiple generations living under Japanese rule.
Members of the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists walk a picket line outside of Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles. Hollywood actors and writers are currently on strike, effectively bringing the giant movie and television business to a halt in the first industry-wide walkout in 63 years.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 10, 2023

The Hollywood strike is a wake-up call to Japan's film industry

With Hollywood writers and actors on strike, what lessons can creatives in the Japanese film industry learn from the fray?
A promotional poster for the film "Barbie" in Tokyo earlier this month
CULTURE
Aug 12, 2023

Hollywood blockbuster 'Barbie' opens in Japan after controversy

Tickets sold fast in Japan as fans flocked to the theatrical release, timed to coincide with the start of the Bon holiday period.
A transfer student (Yuta Kishi, bottom center) hoping to find romance at his new school gets more than he bargained for in Toichiro Ruto’s manga adaptation, “G-Men.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2023

‘G-Men’: Pop heartthrobs surprise in silly smackdown

Toichiro Ruto’s film about a class of delinquent high-school brawlers scrapes by with a passing grade.
Sept. 7, 1998
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Sep 4, 2023

Japan Times 1923: Foreigners leave; destroyers are here

When a 7.9-magnitude earthquake hit Kanto on Sept. 1 a century ago, The Japan Times resorted to daily bulletins before returning to normal on the 17th.
"Lost in Translation" was a sleeper hit about two people meeting in an unfamiliar city and forming an intense and fleeting emotional bond.
CULTURE / Film / Longform
Sep 9, 2023

'Lost in Translation' at 20: A Tokyo perspective

The Japanese cast and crew of Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" reflect on their experiences decades later.
Sofia Coppola (right), Bill Murray (center) and Scarlett Johansson attend the Venice Film Festival to present their movie “Lost in Translation” in August 2003.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 13, 2023

The complex legacy of ‘Lost in Translation,’ 20 years on

Sofia Coppola's acclaimed film relaunched Tokyo's global fame, but along the way it forgot to show its Japanese characters some love.
Characters from the Super Mario Bros. franchise adorn the front of Super Potato, a well-known retro game shop in Akihabara.
LIFE / Digital
Sep 20, 2023

Let the gaming begin: A guide to Tokyo's video game landmarks

Whether it's arcades, retro finds or chip-tune nightclubs, Japan's capital won't disappoint gamers wanting to geek out.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 22, 2023

Is this the end for Japan’s iconic Studio Ghibli?

It’s tough to find an appropriate analogy for the Ghibli sale; the only one that comes close is Disney's purchase of Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake