Tag - shinya-tsukamoto

 
 

SHINYA TSUKAMOTO

A young boy (Tsukao Oga) struggles to survive in a war-ravaged city in “Shadow of Fire.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2023
The human costs of war linger in ‘Shadow of Fire’
While the film’s message about the lasting traumas of war is at times overt, newcomer Tsukao Oga centers the drama with an unsentimental performance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2018
'Killing': A modern take on a samurai staple
Screening in competition at this year's Venice Film Festival, "Killing" is veteran provocateur Shinya Tsukamoto's first venture into the samurai genre. Made, like most of Tsukamoto's films, on a tiny budget and tight schedule, it does not attempt the scale of classics like "Seven Samurai" (1954) or "Yojimbo"...
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...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2017
'Silence': A test of faith — and of patience
After spending nearly 30 years shepherding his adaptation of Shusaku Endo's "Silence" to the screen, Martin Scorsese may be starting to feel as forsaken as the book's Jesuit protagonist, abandoned by an uncommunicative and apparently uncaring God. The movie has been roundly ignored by Hollywood awards...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 7, 2016
'Crazy Thunder Road' is still a mad, but great film
Sogo Ishii — or Gakuryu Ishii, as he now prefers to be known — was just 23 when he released "Crazy Thunder Road," perhaps one of the greatest films to emerge from Japan's punk era (an honor it shares with the director's 1982 follow-up, "Burst City"). A nihilistic tale of warring biker gangs and ultra-nationalist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2015
A militaristic turn for the Japanese film industry
Why have Japanese filmmakers recently been turning out so many films about World War II and its aftermath? The obvious answer is that they're commemorating the 70th anniversary of that war's end, which was marked on Aug. 15. But there are far fewer new films about WWII in most of the countries that fought...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015
War in the jungle and war in Japan
Actor and director Shinya Tsukamoto often takes violence to strange extremes. In his first film, the 1989 horror "Tetsuo" ("Tetsuo: The Iron Man"), a businessman accidentally kills a crazed metal fetishist (played by Tsukamoto himself) with his car and, becoming "infected" by his victim, horrifically...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2015
A second look at bloody WWII novel 'Fires on the Plain'
Japanese war films typically frame themselves as anti-war, even when they glorify the sacrifices made by brave Japanese boys in defense of the homeland, as in the 2013 hit "Eien no Zero" ("The Eternal Zero").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 3, 2014
Violent Japanese anti-war film 'Nobi' remake is a contender at Venice festival
One of the most powerful and violent films to be shown at the Venice Film Festival this year, Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto's "Nobi" ("Fires on the Plain"), delivers a stinging anti-war message bathed in blood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2014
The long, bone-chilling gaze of new director Ayumi Sakamoto
Directors have various ways of communicating in interviews — beyond the usual talking points, that is. Koji Fukada drew me geometrical diagrams to explain the intertwining relationships in his coming-of-age drama "Hotori no Sakuko (Au Revoir l'Ete)." Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki sketched me...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2014
Female anxiety shot from every angle
The Japanese film industry used to be like much of the rest of Japanese society: male-centered and male-run. It made plenty of movies about women and for women, but their directors were all men. That began to change when Naomi Kawase won a Cannes Camera d'Or prize in 1997 for her first feature, "Moe...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
'Electric Dragon 80000V'

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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?