Tag - film

 
Menu
Search
 
April 01, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

FILM

A 45-year-old widow (Takako Matsu) repeatedly travels back in time to meet her future — and late — husband (Hokuto Matsumura) in “First Kiss.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2025
‘First Kiss’: Time-traveling romantic drama isn’t afraid of a few wrinkles
Ayuko Tsukahara’s high-concept love story has wit and wisdom to spare with an endearing screen couple at its center.
Bollywood faced a challenging year in 2024, with box-office collections dropping significantly, leading to concerns about a return to lawlessness in Mumbai.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
Bollywood’s dark past is threatening to return
When everything starts bombing for Bollywood, things take a sinister turn in Mumbai.
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2025
Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa has spent years filming the anime powerhouse to reveal the man beyond the myth.
Gensho Yasuda’s “Make a Girl” follows an inventor whose relationship with the robot girlfriend he builds becomes increasingly complicated as she develops an unexpected sense of independence.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
Indie animator Gensho Yasuda paves his own way with a DIY spirit
With “Make a Girl,” the young Japanese creator takes the leap from short videos to full-length films.
“The Rose of Versailles” centers on the real-life Marie Antoinette (voiced by Aya Hirano) and the fictional Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Miyuki Sawashiro) a few years before the French Revolution.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
‘The Rose of Versailles’ opts for empty opulence
Riyoko Ikeda’s seminal manga that tackled themes of political and sexual revolution gets a film adaptation that lacks the depth of its source material.
A young couple (Ryuya Wakaba and Mai Fukagawa) fulfill a lifelong dream of moving to the countryside, only to find their new community may have sinister intentions toward them in “Welcome to the Village.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
‘Welcome to the Village’: Tradition takes a twisted turn in the countryside
The ancient tradition of “murahachibu,” ostracizing community members as punishment, gets a contemporary twist in Hideo Jojo’s slow-burn thriller.
This year's Oscar nominations were unveiled on Thursday, with transgender cartel musical "Emilia Perez" earning 13 Oscar nods and breaking the record for most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 23, 2025
'Emilia Perez' tops Oscar nominations in fire-hit Hollywood
Jacques Audiard's Mexico-set musical shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie.
Strange things are afoot in Ryota Kondo’s “Missing Child Videotape” as Keita (Rairu Sugita) investigates the 13-year-old disappearance of his younger brother.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2025
‘Missing Child Videotape’: Subtle chiller may leave J-horror fans underwhelmed
Ryota Kondo’s eerie ghost story debut goes for ambient dread rather than jump scares.
Reality and dreams begin to blur for a former French literature professor (Kyozo Nagatsuka, front) after he receives a cryptic message in “Teki Cometh.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2025
‘Teki Cometh’ slides in and out of a hypnotic dreamworld
Kyozo Nagatsuka gives a finessed performance as an elderly gentleman who is not as gentle as he seems in Daihachi Yoshida’s drama.
A keen fisherman from Tokyo (Masaki Suda) moves to a tight-knit community in Miyagi Prefecture during the COVID-19 pandemic in “Sunset Sunrise.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2025
‘Sunset Sunrise’: Rom-com finds pathos in peak pandemic setting
Yoshiyuki Kishi’s film delivers a deliciously uplifting story with humor and heart in a tight-knit community impacted by disasters.
A masterless samurai in 15th-century Japan (Yo Oizumi) leads a popular uprising against the authorities in “Muromachi Outsiders.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2025
‘Muromachi Outsiders’: Yo Oizumi commands attention in rebellion tale
The actor convincingly breaks the mold of his comedy persona to inhabit the role of a sword-wielding folk hero in Yu Irie’s period epic.
The film version of “The Solitary Gourmet” is a directorial debut for Yutaka Matsushige, long known for his leading role as salaryman and gourmand Goro Inogashira.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2025
‘The Solitary Gourmet’: Palatable movie adaptation may leave you wanting more
Lead actor Yutaka Matsushige’s film directing debut offers ambient pleasure for fans of the long-running TV series.
Hisao Kurozumi (left) and Kazuki Nagaya (the film’s director) play brothers with a strained relationship in “Mending Cracks.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2025
‘Mending Cracks’: A muddled drama about brotherly discord
Kazuki Nagaya’s directorial debut has its charms, but doesn’t offer enough substance to engage the audience.
The cast of "The Brutalist" celebrate the show's best movie drama win at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, California.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 6, 2025
'The Brutalist,' 'Emilia Perez' take home Golden Globes' top film honors
The two films received the first major movie prizes of Hollywood's awards season on Sunday.
A Golden Globes statue is seen in the ballroom during preparations for the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards to be held at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 3, 2025
'Emilia Perez' heads into Golden Globes as strong favorite
Awards show organizers are hoping to capitalize on a ratings bump from last year, burnishing the gala's status as a predictor of Oscars success.
Tomoko Tabata brings verve and emotion as 11-year-old Renko in “Moving,” Shinji Somai’s forgotten classic from 1993.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2024
‘Moving’: A profound, poetic coming-of-age masterpiece restored in 4K
The 1993 film by Shinji Somai is rekindling interest in the late director as a generational talent.
Film festivals around the world are giving space to AI-generated cinematic experiences, with Venice and Cannes among the heavy hitters with sections dedicated to "immersive" works, including those made using virtual and augmented reality.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 23, 2024
Asia’s film industry should balance AI with human creativity
AI is revolutionizing cinema. Japan and Asia as a whole are well-positioned to harness technology to empower storytelling while retaining film's essentially human nature.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
CULTURE / Film / 2024 in Review
Dec 20, 2024
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
International collaborations and indie risk-takers steered the film industry in a fresh direction in 2024.
Kenichi Takito (left) and Non play literary nemeses working in close quarters in Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s lukewarm comedy, “The Hotel of My Dream.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2024
‘The Hotel of My Dream’: A literary comedy that never really gels
Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s adaptation of Asako Yuzuki’s novel promises a festive treat, but casting and cadence prevent it from realizing its full potential.
An entanglement between club hostess Rie (Sakurako Konishi, left) and TV writer Takuya (Kou Maehara) lies at the center of Takashi Watanabe’s “More Than Words.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2024
‘More Than Words’: A morally gray melodrama about sexual assault
Takashi Watanabe’s film concerns the plight of a bumbling TV writer whose entanglement with a club hostess leads to his downfall.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty
Yamagata’s Zao Onsen Ski Resort is a classic beauty

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER