Tag - ryuhei-matsuda

 
 

RYUHEI MATSUDA

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2020
'Beneath the Shadow': Too obscure for its own good
Keishi Otomo's latest film looks at two colleagues whose blossoming bromance threatens to turn into something more mysterious.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2018
'The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan': It's never too late to make your move
Chess pops up in a surprising number of feature films. Just look at all the documentaries and dramas about the outrageously gifted Bobby Fischer. Shogi, or Japanese chess, is a different and smaller story, though "Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow," a 2016 film about prodigy Satoshi Murayama, garnered awards...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 7, 2018
'The Scythian Lamb': A plan to repopulate the countryside starts out funny and descends into tense drama
Seeing Daihachi Yoshida's "The Scythian Lamb" for the second time at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, I was reminded of "Black Mirror," the British series with provocative "what if" scenarios set in an alternative present or near future. Yes, I am a binge-watcher.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 13, 2017
'Before We Vanish': Tension builds steadily during an alien attack
How do you imagine the coming alien invasion? Movies have been all over the map with this question, though in recent Japanese films such as Takashi Yamazaki's "Parasyte" duology (2013-14) and Daihachi Yoshida's "A Beautiful Star" (2017), extraterrestrial visitors take a human form.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2016
A new wave of Japanese filmmakers matches the old
Nearly two decades after the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s, the directors who led it, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase, are still the local industry's most prominent faces abroad. But this year a new generation of filmmakers has finally started to make itself heard, with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2016
'My Uncle': Time to wake up and smell the coffee
Some movies are like a relaxing soak in a bubble bath with your favorite rubber duck. Your soul may not soar, but when you finally emerge you feel lighter on your feet and at peace with the world. What's wrong with that? That was my feeling as I exited "My Uncle," Nobuhiro Yamashita's new comedy starring...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 2016
Okita keeps every hair in place
Millions of Japanese have come from the countryside to find their fortunes in Tokyo, with most arriving in the postwar boom when jobs were everywhere and the future looked bright. But many, like the punk rocker hero of Shuichi Okita's offbeat, warm-hearted family comedy "The Mohican Comes Home" ("Mohikan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2015
How do you cure an allergy to money?
When is a "multitalented" person too "multi"? Where is the line between extending your creative energies in new directions and spreading yourself thin?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2014
Two men and a tot make a half-decent film
When indie directors take a more commercial turn, the usual explanation is the bigger paycheck, but it's not always so simple. Yuya Ishii's shift from the raucous films of his early career to the more genteel, mainstream 2013 film "Fune wo Amu (The Great Passage)" raised not only his standard of living...

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'