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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 17, 2005

The Tokyo Python returns

Once upon a time in the 1980s, there was a theater company called Gekidan Kenko (Health Theater), whose zany, nonsensical and sometimes radical stagings became the stuff of cult legend. But then, in 1992, this quirky gem was dissolved by its quirky Japanese founder, self-styled Keralino Sandoroviich,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 6, 2005

Puneet Nanda

"The sari," said Puneet Nanda in Tokyo, "is a most elegant and amazing garment."
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Jul 28, 2005

A one-way trip down psycho alley

Feeling that virtual, killer instinct when playing violent games is a guilty pleasure of the PlayStation era. We kill zombies in "Biohazard," Chinese warlords in "Dynasty Warriors" and police officers in "Grand Theft Auto." For many of us, the aim-fire-reload mechanics of games have become second nature....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2005

New Delhi gets serious about cigarettes

MADRAS, India -- A recent study in the United States revealed that films have a powerful effect on viewers' behavior. When actors smoke on screen, they serve as a link between big tobacco companies and impressionable young people.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2005

Osaka 'curfew' plan rife with problems

OSAKA — It's a Saturday evening in early 2006, and four Osaka-area 15-year-old friends, Kenji, Taro, Yoko and Yuka, show up at a theater to see the latest movie. The time is 6:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the movie starts.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 5, 2005

Yo La Tengo: the band next door

Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley are a nice, mellow couple in their mid-40s from Hobokken, N.J. They like homemade peach pie, watching TV and going to the occasional baseball game. Oh, and they also founded one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the last decade, Yo La Tengo.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 29, 2005

In the spirit of humanism

THE CINEMA OF GOSHO HEINOSUKE, by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, 243 pp., with photographs, $27.95 (paper). Though Heinosuke Gosho (1902-1981) is remembered in Japan where his films are still occasionally shown, he is all but unknown abroad. This neglect is not due...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 22, 2005

Rambo comes marching home

"I broke down on the flight back from Vietnam, went crazy, shouting, screaming. It took several men to restrain me. . . . For years it was all I could think about, going home. Then when it finally happened, I snapped."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 30, 2005

The influence of a literary titan lasts for 200 years

Renowned as a poet, novelist, dramatist and critic, Victor Hugo was a figure of legendary proportions whose funeral procession through Paris in 1885 attracted more than 2 million devotees.
Features
Mar 27, 2005

Mrs. Matsui

It was an open secret in my husband's course on modern Japanese literature at Radcliffe in the 1960s that his inspiration came not directly from the prose and poetry of Japan but from his absolute devotion to me.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 10, 2005

Glimpsing the 'big picture' at the heart of gray matter

It is a commonly held belief that we don't tap into the full power of our brains. Self-help gurus make millions by exploiting this belief, separating people from their money by making them think there is a secret to tapping mysterious, unused reserves of brain power.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 24, 2004

Minato Mirai: Loading bay to pleasure haven

Originally home to a huge shipbuilding dock, Yokohama's Minato Mirai 21 area is today a great attraction for day and nighttime visitors alike. The "21" of Minato Mirai's name stands for the 21st century, but plans to redevelop the coastal area were underway by 1965, just as Japan's economy started soaring...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Dec 19, 2004

A tourist jaunt to horrors past

Kanchanaburi (pop. 58,000) could be just another semi-rural town in Thailand. There are touts with strong ideas about where you might like to stay. There's the smell of someone flash-frying beef somewhere -- chilies, garlic and basil; a few feckless chickens are pecking at bits and pieces in the middle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2004

Fun with a gentleman

Kevin Kline is every inch the professional. Unlike many other Hollywood notables he arrived on the dot for the press conference to promote "De-Lovely." He answered each question with succinct sincerity and was dressed in an immaculate suit very much like the ones he wore as Cole Porter (designed by Giorgio...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2004

The freaks that made good

End of the Century Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Michael Gramaglia Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] My first introduction to The Ramones came, fittingly enough for a film critic, in a cinema . . . but, hey, they were...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2004

Four Hollywood studios back Toshiba's HD DVD

In what could be a major coup in a fierce format war, Toshiba Corp. and its partners said Monday they have won support from four major Hollywood movie studios for their next-generation DVD.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Nov 26, 2004

Where creative juices flow in Tokyo

Time Magazine recently proclaimed SuperDeluxe, a gallery and lounge space near Roppongi, as one of the best 100 spots in Asia. When it comes to Tokyo venues, I'd put it in my top three. But SuperDeluxe is no overnight sensation. It is a rare flower that has been skillfully nurtured since its seeds were...
CULTURE / Art
Nov 19, 2004

Enter the cinema dragon

A retrospective series of screenings to commemorate the work of Tadashi Nishimoto (1921-97), a cameraman who left his own distinctive mark on Japanese and Hong Kong film, will be held at the Japan Foundation Forum in Tokyo on Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 4-5.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 3, 2004

Sublime angst in a dolce vita

David Leveaux, the English director of "Nine," is not only one of the world's leading dramatists -- constantly in demand on Broadway and in the West End -- but he is also well-known for the theatrical panache with which he endows his work, most recently this year's Broadway hit "Jumpers."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 8, 2004

What are you trying to do? Scare us?

The Village Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: M. Night Shyamalan Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 11 [See Japan Times movie listings] Van Helsing Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: Stephen Sommers Running time: 133 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Lovers' bites

Promoting "House of Flying Daggers," director Zhang Yimou was in Tokyo for the fourth time in as many years recently, after visiting with "The Road Home," "Happy Times" and "Hero."
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2004

'Fahrenheit 9/11' opens to big, enthusiastic crowds

OSAKA -- "Fahrenheit 9/11," American film director Michael Moore's savage attack on the policies of President George W. Bush, opened nationwide Saturday to long lines and enthusiastic crowds.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 11, 2004

This charming man hits wrong note

Kikansha Sensei Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Ryuichi Hiroki Running time: 123 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When I taught at a boys high school in the early 1980s, I would, without fail, catch a bad chest cold in the winter and...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 8, 2004

All of Japan between two covers

JAPAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Louis Frederic, translated by Kathe Roth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002, 1102 pp., 48 illus., 14 maps, $59.95 (cloth). This large, beautiful and indispensable volume is a translation of "Le Japan: Dictionnaire et Civilisation," published in 1996, the year of the author's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 14, 2004

Slices of life don't quite hit the spot

At Five in the Afternoon Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Samira Makhmalbaf Running time: 105 minutes Language: Persian Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Take Care of My Cat Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Jeong Jae Eun Running time: 112 minutes Language:...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 23, 2004

Secrets lodged underneath the skin

The Human Stain Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Japanese title: Shiroi Karasu Director: Robert Benton Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] When David Howard, a white aide to the black mayor of Washington, D.C., spoke of a "niggardly"...

Longform

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?