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A sit-in by visa violators and their families entered its second day Tuesday in front of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau with protesters seeking government good will. The action at the bureau in Minato Ward is being organized by the Asian People’s Friendship Society, ...
Kazuhiro Shiraishi, 66, is a guest-house manager in the Izu-kogen Highlands, a famous resort area on the Izu Peninsula of Shizuoka Prefecture. Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean, and just 90 minutes by train from Tokyo, Izu has a warm climate all year round ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Takashi Miike's blood-soaked vengeance tale, one of two Japanese films being shown in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, draws the biggest boos so far, with critics savaging it as overacted and cliched.
Have you ever given your best effort while striving to achieve something but felt like what you were doing was futile? That’s the feeling I’m getting about Tokyo’s bid to host the 2020 Olympics. With just over three months to go until the IOC ...
Satoshi Miki is best known as a director of comedy, including episodes of the 2006-07 cult hit “Jiko Keisatsu (Time Limit Investigator)” series for TV Asahi and seven feature films. But when I programmed a special Miki section for the Udine Far East Film ...
When is a Coen Bros. film not a Coen Bros. film? I can imagine The Dude poring over this koan for hours, but the answer’s quite simple: when it’s “Gambit,” the neo-screwball comedy directed by Michael Hoffman, working off a script by Joel and ...
Susanne Bier, long known for her ability to probe into the darkest corners of the human heart and come out with some awful findings, has created a sunny, funny love story with minimal emphasis on the guilt/stress factor. “Love is All You Need” is ...
Bill Cunningham is one of the long-revered icons of The New York Times: If you are incredibly lucky, you may catch a glimpse of his blue-jacketed figure walking through the doors of the Times building on Eighth Avenue, camera bag slung around his shoulder, ...
If you wanted a textbook example of a three-star film, “Possession” would probably be it. There’s nothing particularly original about this “Exorcist”-styled tale of a young girl possessed by a demon, and yet it delivers its share of frights with a certain flair. The ...
Horror — like porn and Adam Sandler movies — is one of those divisive film genres that people tend to either obsess over or avoid completely. My own opinion lies somewhere in the middle: I rather like being scared witless, but don’t find too ...
Acclaimed as a comic genius in Japan, actor/scriptwriter/director Kankuro Kudo has been slower to find recognition abroad. His brand of hyperactive comedy, with its machine-gun dialogue and many references to local pop culture, is not the easiest for foreign audiences to understand, though his ...
The Why is missing from the How in “God Save My Shoes,” a documentary focusing on the female obsession for footwear. But the package is still a treat — if we can’t afford to buy 300 pairs of sculpted beauties, the next best thing ...
Produced by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey (there is no director credit), documentary “Eames: The Architect and the Painter” examines Charles and Ray Eames, one of the 20th century’s most enduring and influential couples in industrial design. They were eccentric, too: In the film, ...
Gangbangers quoting poetry, a man biting the face off a living severed head and hoodlum hoodies who are lizard-people straight out of 1970s “Dr. Who” … If “Heartless” isn’t the most ridiculous film I’ve seen this decade, I’ll bite my own face off. I ...
Director: Robert Redford Language: English Stephen Spielberg’s “Lincoln” has been getting all the attention, but here’s Robert Redford’s 2010 look at the same period. Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt, an innkeeper charged with abetting the Lincoln assassination plot; James McAvoy costars as the lawyer ...
Director: Takashi Miike Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) On June 10, Britain’s Third Window will release a double-disc DVD and Blu-ray of “Ai to Makoto (For Love’s Sake),” Takashi Miike’s one-of-a-strange-kind action musical about a goody-two-shoes girl (Emi Takei) who falls for a delinquent ...