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January 08, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

A dystopian future set in the present aftermath

With "Homo Sapiens", director Nikolaus Geyrhalter paints a haunting dystopian vision of civilization minus its creators. This unique documentary consists of nothing but steady, perfectly framed wide-shots of abandoned structures and wastelands. Imagine Wes Anderson doing location shots for "The Walking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

'River': sink, swim or keep running

Up until about 10 years ago, being a white man in Southeast Asia meant you did pretty much what you pleased and damn the consequences, at least in the realm of fictional cinema. (See Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach.") Often, the characters are thrown into prison on drug trafficking charges and narrowly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017

'The Handmaiden': A sinfully silly gothic psychodrama

Korean genre stylist Park Chan-wook is best known to Western audiences for his "Vengeance" trilogy: a trio of malevolent, blackly comic thrillers that included his 2003 breakout hit, "Oldboy." But his recent films have coalesced into an informal trilogy of their own, linked by a shared enthusiasm for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2017

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda represented the voice and conscience of a nation

"I stood here just after the end of the war," Polish film director Andrzej Wajda said. "I was only 19 years old. The entire area was flattened, just rubble. The Stare Miasto (Old Town) was one big gaping pit that I stared into."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017

'La La Land': Sometimes we need a trip to la-la land

La-la land: the mental state of someone who is not aware of what is really happening, and a nickname for the American entertainment industry centered on Los Angeles. These two meanings bleed into each other in director Damien Chazelle's multi-Oscar-nominated musical, "La La Land," which is about a state...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017

'Cell': Sometimes it's better to just hang up

After seeing "Cell" I wanted to call my grandmother who, with the emergence of the world's first iPhone in June of 2007, predicted the end of civilization as we know it. Five months later she passed away, and some of my cousins whispered that perhaps it was the curse of technology that did her in, or...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 15, 2017

It'll get released in Japan — come 'Hell or High Water'

Among the snubs and surprise inclusions in this year's Oscar nominations, one might have stood out for Japanese movie fans — and I'm not talking about "Your Name." In what's surely a first, a Best Picture nominee has bypassed cinemas here and gone straight to Netflix.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017

'Green Room': Saulnier runs a red light on violence

The opening aerial shot of "Green Room" soars over the wavy green mass of an Oregon cornfield, before finding a swath through it where a van has swerved off the highway. Inside the van, so shabby you can practically smell the stale beer and B.O., four members of a rough-living punk band, The Ain't Rights,...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 1, 2017

Hiroki Matsukata: a gangster farewell

Hiroki Matsukata, who died at age 74 on Jan. 21, may have been born into an acting family — his father was jidaigeki (historical drama) actor Jushiro Konoe — but in his yakuza films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s, Matsukata's portrayals of feral-but-charming hoods seemed to boil up off...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 28, 2017

British actor John Hurt, star of 'The Elephant Man,' dies at 77

Veteran British actor Sir John Hurt, nominated for an Oscar for his starring role in "The Elephant Man" and his supporting role in "Midnight Express," has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 27, 2017

Ceausescu bunker offers a window into Romania's brutal communist past

The hermetically sealed heavy steel door to the bunker of Romania's late communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, opens with a squeak, releasing a burst of cool air.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2017

T-C-T and TPAM set to offer a hot winter's feast of the arts

A bonanza is brewing in Tokyo and Yokohama for lovers of cross-cultural contemporary theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2017

Sion Sono swan dives into Shinjuku's chaos

Celebrated abroad for films that mash up everything from extreme sex and gore to Christian imagery and classical music, Sion Sono has emerged as one of the most distinctive directors in Japanese cinema this century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2017

Shinya Tsukamoto and the song of 'Silence'

Since his early films, such as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) and "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" (1992), pioneered the cyberpunk genre with a crazed energy and invention, Shinya Tsukamoto has had a reputation as Japanese cinema's outlaw. While doing the occasional work for hire, he has stayed outside the industry...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 12, 2017

'Garage Rockin' Craze': 'It's not about fame, they want 15 minutes of fun'

Mario Cuzic used a video camera to face the question that keeps many expat English teachers up at night: What am I going to do before I head back home? His answer, "Garage Rockin' Craze," is a documentary on the history of Japan's underground garage rock scene that has nurtured internationally renowned...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2017

'Dirty Grandpa' is quite a stinker

'Dirty Grandpa." The un-ironic title is like a spray-painted graffiti sign warning everyone to stay away from this sewage-swilling clogged cesspit masquerading as a movie. Woe betide anyone who catches this on an airplane, they may wind up using all the airsick bags in their row, because it really stinks....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2017

From Iceland to Maldives, Chinese seek 'lung-cleansing' trips

Toxic haze that settled over much of China during the last three weeks has triggered a flight reflex among residents, leading to the rising popularity of smog avoidance travel packages to far-flung locations such as Iceland and Antarctica.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 4, 2017

'Tampopo' has blown back to our screens

Released in 1985, Juzo Itami's "Tampopo" was famously a flop in Japan, but a hit abroad, especially in the United States, where it became the second-highest-earning Japanese film ever. This "noodle Western" about a rough-hewn truck driver (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who helps a spunky widow (Nobuko Miyamoto)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2017

'Wiener-Dog': Todd Solondz is always painfully funny

Trigger warning: I am about to discuss a Todd Solondz film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 28, 2016

'14 That Night': Not quite abreast of teenage angst

Japanese films about high schoolers are many; junior high schoolers, few. One reason is that producers can cast a film about 17 year olds with 27-year-old actors who have massive fan followings. The result: bigger box office than if they had used newcomers barely into adolescence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2016

'Knight of Cups': Is Malick's cup half-full or half-empty?

Halfway through "Knight of Cups," the latest treatise from philosopher-filmmaker Terrence Malick, the movie's chorus of internal monologues yields a line that could be read as a memo to the director himself: "Don't get your head too far up your own ass."
Dec 8, 2016

Florence Foster Jenkins / Osaka Station City Cinema / 2016-12-10 to 2016-12-16

Dec 1, 2016

Babysitting 2 / Human Trust Cinema Shibuya / 2016-12-03 to 2016-12-09

Dec. 3, from Dec. 5 11:50, 21:05 / Dec. 4 12:00, 21:15
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2016

'Tale of Tales': Do we need fables for adults?

The current ideological system that governs our lives — call it late capitalism, the spectacle, or just Babylon — is most devious in its ability to take any and all resistance, any deviance from the hamster wheel of consumerism, and repackage it as just another product, whether that's Che Guevara...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 30, 2016

The diversity of religion captured on film

Reflecting on the rise of a generation of Japanese that has grown up suspicious of organized religion — particularly those who came of age in the shadow of 1995's terror attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult — Nihon University's College of Art has put together a Religion Film Festival, which will be...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Nov 20, 2016

Believe it or not, virtual reality's takeover now underway

For game lovers, 2016 is likely to be remembered as the year when virtual reality technology, having become widely affordable, began to take over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2016

'In This Corner of the World': Katabuchi's war film has a human heart

Going into "In This Corner of the World" ("Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni"), Sunao Katabuchi's animation about a girl's coming of age in prewar Hiroshima and wartime Kure, I was vaguely expecting an anti-war film like Isao Takahata's classic "Grave of the Fireflies" ("Hotaru no Haka," 1988), with its heart-rending...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2016

'At the Terrace' offers witty, coarse fun

"I know that many film fans have an allergy to films based on plays," writes Kenji Yamauchi on the website for his new film, "At the Terrace" ("At the Terrace: Terasu Nite"). "The never-changing setting and the long conversations bore them."
2720 — the year when Japan is left with just one child
Children at a traditional festival in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. A forecast made by Tohoku University professor Hiroshi Yoshida estimates that Japan will be left with just one child on Jan. 5, 2720, based on current birthrate trends.
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sue U.S. government for blocking deal
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sued the U.S. government Monday for blocking the merger of the two companies.
In Shizuoka, plastic models are not just child's play
A monuments of a plastic model of an armor worn by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, is seen in the city of Shizuoka on Dec. 6.
The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
Riot police march in front of the main building of Ssangyong Motor in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, on Aug. 6, 2009.
Ishiba warns blocked U.S. Steel deal could impact investments
Nippon Steel had touted the takeover of U.S. Steel as a lifeline for a company that is long past its heyday, but opponents warned that the Japanese owners would slash jobs.
2720 — the year when Japan is left with just one child
Children at a traditional festival in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. A forecast made by Tohoku University professor Hiroshi Yoshida estimates that Japan will be left with just one child on Jan. 5, 2720, based on current birthrate trends.
‘Fracture’ dissects 100 years of Japanese graphic design
Ian Lynam's "Fracture" is the result of 15 years of research and production and excavates 100 years of Japanese graphic design history from the Meiji (1868-1912) to Showa eras (1926-89).
Taking a page from Ukraine war, SDF carves out growing role for drones
An Air Self-Defense Force airman sets up a drone during a bilateral live fire exercise at Draughon Range, near Misawa Air Base, in Aomori Prefecture in July 2023.
Japan’s ‘quiet revolution’ of luxury travel nears fruition
Scheduled to welcome its first guests in early 2025, the Waldorf Astoria Osaka is just one of many luxury hotel openings Japan has seen in recent months.
Brooklyn brewers take on sake, America's new hip tipple
A brewer stirs the mix for making sake at a brewery in Tokyo.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Kathryn Wortley

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