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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 14, 2010

'Enter the Void'

If "Lost in Translation" is the film you'd make when all you know about Japan are the pampered press junkets at Shinjuku 5-star hotels, then "Enter the Void" is what you would make if you never got beyond the Roppongi pub-crawl. Full of strip clubs, drug deals and loveless love-hotel sex, the latest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 14, 2010

'From Paris With Love'

When Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that life got better after 50, he could have been prophesying about John Travolta. His career has been one of peaks and plunges, punctuated by some of cinema's most interesting fashion moments ("Saturday Night Fever" and "Battlefield Earth" come to mind). Ever since...
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
May 11, 2010

Cycling community offers helping hand to fair trade

During the three weeks between the Earth Day Festival in Tokyo on April 17 and Waorld Fair Trade Day last Saturday, cyclists and supporters of fair trade were busy threading their way through the dense Tokyo traffic with the help of a map that connected the dots between some of the main outlets selling...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 9, 2010

To realize its cultural potential, Japan must celebrate its strengths

Europe received a cultural shock of major proportions during the last quarter of the 19th century. The exquisite shikisai kankaku (sense of color), the startling spatial and compositional elements and the sublime craftsmanship of the Japanese arts took the continent by storm. Many well-known collectors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 7, 2010

'Green Zone'

Hey, here's some news for you: There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and elements of the administration of President George W. Bush deliberately deceived the public! If new Iraq war film "Green Zone" had come out with this plotline circa 2004, I would have cheered, but at this late stage...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
May 7, 2010

Righteous Kill

Director: Jon Avnet
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010

Tortoise

Tortoise's blending of dub, electronica and jazz over its two decades in existence has established the instrumental five-piece as the band that brought progressive rock into the present.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 30, 2010

'The Box'/'9'

You'd be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of certifiably cult movies from the past decade, but Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" (2001) is definitely one of them. This strange hybrid about a troubled teen and his invisible friend (a giant evil-looking rabbit named Frank) could best be described...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 27, 2010

Craftsman gets creative with Yakushima wood

Derrel Grisham is an American, but it was a sense of nostalgia that drew him to the island of Yakushima off the southern coast of Kagoshima Prefecture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2010

'Johnny Mad Dog'/'Clash of the Titans'

For a quick snapshot of the alternate and opposing directions being taken by cinema in the 21st century, it's worth considering a pair of films on release this weekend: "Johnny Mad Dog," by French director Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, is a provocative, intensely realist look at child soldiers on the rampage...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2010

IMAX to build more 3-D screens

Megascreen theater company IMAX Corp. said Tuesday it will expand in Japan in the latest in a series of international deals inked recently amid growing demand for 3-D movies following the success of the science fiction blockbuster "Avatar."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 16, 2010

'Moon'/'An Education'

If hell is other people, as existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre famously put it, then Sam Bell has the best job in the world: He leads a solitary existence on a lunar base, where he's the only human employee in charge of a mostly robotic-controlled installation that mines fusion energy from beneath...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / ART BRIEF
Apr 9, 2010

"Native Land"

Scai the BathhouseCloses April 17
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2010

Sharp boasts 3-D mobile tech

Sharp's latest 3-D displays deliver bright, clear imagery without the cumbersome glasses usually required for such technology. Now the bad news: They only work on a 7.5-cm screen held 30 cm from the viewer's face.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'The Wolfman'

"The Wolfman" stars Benicio Del Toro, which normally means I would readily suffer pain and humiliation and even demonstrate some nonexistent rock- climbing skills if need be, just to see my beloved. It's a lonely quest in Japan, where Del Toro doesn't have quite the following he deserves: He's too craggy,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 28, 2010

Tri-lingual system proposed for world communications

May 15, 1939
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 28, 2010

Study of Noh continues in West

Dec. 10, 1939
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 24, 2010

Sony steps back from 3-D rush; Panasonic reworks CD-blaster

LCD price system: Amid the expensive scramble to sell 3-D televisions, Sony has come up with a new series of high-definition LCD TV sets that are fairly reasonably priced.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 12, 2010

Yazaki opens up about 'Lies'

A leader of Japanese cinema's 1990s New Wave, Hitoshi Yazaki dropped off the radar for more than a decade, returning in 2006 with "Strawberry Shortcakes," a widely praised drama about four lonely women in search of, not just a partner, but reasons for living. In his new film, "Sweet Little Lies," the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 12, 2010

Molice channel silver screen on new album

"We're really inspired by Stanley Kubrick and we want to create a sound that reflects Kubrick's visual image," says guitarist Yuzuru Takeda of Molice. The band is due to release a new album titled "Catalystrock" later this month, and we're here in a small coffee shop on the band's home turf in Kokubunji,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2010

Intolerance in India putting artists to flight

CHENNAI, India — Indians have always taken pride in being a tolerant and understanding society, and the country's predominant religion, Hinduism, has often been described as a way of life that never relies on conversions, force or violence. These virtues, however, appear to be fading.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 5, 2010

'The Hurt Locker'

There's a moment near the end of "The Hurt Locker," Kathryn Bigelow's masterful look at life and death on Baghdad's mean streets, where one American sergeant — a cool, tough professional on mission after mission — finally breaks down and loses it after yet another close brush with death. "Another...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 5, 2010

Shibusashirazu Orchestra set to sprawl

Things got off to a memorable start at England's Glastonbury Festival in 2002. Revelers were roused from their tents on the first morning to find the main Pyramid Stage overrun by a 40-strong Japanese big band, complete with costumed performance artists, butoh and go-go dancers. The late radio DJ John...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 19, 2010

DJ Krush spins some tales

After 20 years in the DJ game, DJ Krush is widely acclaimed as the king of Japanese hip-hop, and, as a much sought after turntabilist, his impeccable skills have impressed crowds all over world.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 14, 2010

Tiger of the snows

White flakes slip delicately down. Dusting the glow of graceful moss-clad forest relics rotting back into the ground, they illuminate the few giants still standing — majestic Japanese yew and lofty Korean pine. The ancient trees are silent; the only sound is from the hustle of our camouflaged legs...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 14, 2010

An 'eroduction' to Japan's saucy cinema

The Nikkatsu studio is the Japanese film industry's oldest — it will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012. In the 1950s and early 1960s it was also a box-office leader, turning out hit after hit with Japan's biggest postwar star, Yujiro Ishihara. By the 1970s, however, Nikkatsu and the rest of the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2010

China struggles with Internet reality

The Internet plays an increasingly vital role as a forum of public opinion in China as other forms of media remain under tight Communist Party control, though government restrictions on the Web will likely intensify, experts said at a recent symposium held in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 12, 2010

Hokkaido town chills out with film festival

Hokkaido has more than just skiing and snowboarding on offer this week.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2010

The magical mystery tour of 'media artist' Yuri Suzuki

The youngest artist showing at "Cyber Arts Japan," 29-year-old Yuri Suzuki, is among the generation that grew up immersed in the culture that informs so much of new media art today. He has received honorable mentions in Ars Electronica's interactive art division for two pieces — "Prepared Turntable"...

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