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Silvio Berlusconi has failed in his attempt to topple the Italian government, leaving him weaker than ever and zapping the aura of invincibility that has surrounded him for two decades as he faces the possible loss of his Senate seat and a ban from ...
Hatsudai has a lot going for it. This quiet low-rise residential neighborhood just minutes west of Shinjuku boasts a friendly traditional shōtengai (shopping street) and a lively annual Awa Odori dance festival. Now add to that a really outstanding restaurant. Anis opened in early ...
International events undermine Japan's democracy. Shame on the International Olympic Committee for being a party to it.
In the glitzy and gossipy world of Japanese celebrity, hardly a week goes by without revelations being made about — or made by — Ichikawa Ebizo XI. For years, the charismatic young star of the kabuki world has never long been out of the ...
Reigning champion Kei Nishikori made quick work of Feliciano Lopez, walloping the Spaniard in a straight-sets victory Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Rakuten Japan Open. The world No. 13 Nishikori needed little over an hour to put away Lopez, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0 ...
The found-footage thing: It can be addictive. Though as a movie ploy, it always stumps me how the characters would actually go into a dark woods in the middle of the night (“The Blair Witch Project”) or move their family into a house where ...
The post-”Twilight” boom in all things vampire continues, but this latest undead flick comes from Irish director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”), whose 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” well preceded the current trend. Clara and Eleanor are “sucreants” — vampires ...
Two things stand out about 2010 animated comedy “Despicable Me”: The hero, Gru (Steve Carell), is a villain (a philosophical oxymoron in itself), and he’s not that despicable. Sure, he freeze-dries people in front of him in line at Starbucks and tries to grab ...
Director: Kathryn Bigelow Language: English Kathryn Bigelow’s study of the decadelong hunt for Osama bin Laden will either fascinate or infuriate. Shown through the eyes of an iron-willed intelligence analyst (played by Jessica Chastain), the film insists that it was one woman’s hunch — ...
Director: Nick Murphy Language: English Chilling British crime thriller “Blood” stars Paul Bettany and Stephen Graham as cop brothers investigating the murder of a 12-year-old girl in a coastal town. Under the glare of public outrage, Joe (Bettany) tries to nail the most likely ...
Director: Kazuaki Kiriya Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) On Sept. 24, Paramount Catalog will release an English-subbed Region 1 DVD of Kazuaki Kiriya’s “Casshern.” This 2004 sci-fi epic about a mutant revolt in a post-apocalyptic world has the crazed ambition, visionary reach and even ...
For all intents and purposes, “Hyde Park on Hudson” should have you on hello. Instead, it may leave you feeling the tiniest bit revolted. Focusing on the events of a weekend in the life of 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, arguably the best-loved ...
In 1971 the Nikkatsu studio, desperate to stave off bankruptcy, switched production to the then-burgeoning genre of softcore pornography. Made mostly by young directors promoted after their elders fled, the films were hardly intended as high art. Instead their main selling point was simulated ...
While it never seems to be as high-profile as the “Iron Man” or “Spider-Man” franchises, the “X-Men” series is actually the longest-running Marvel Comics series on the big screen, and it’s the one that opened the gates to Marvel’s current dominance. For my money, ...
Allison Anders started off as a scrappy indie filmmaker — cutting her no-budget first feature, “Border Radio,” after hours at the UCLA film school — and after a flirtation with mainstream success in the 1990s (the iconic “Gas Food Lodging” and “Grace of My ...
In France, female chefs rarely get to the top — and when they do, gender issues are rife. One way to deal with it is simply to ignore it, and in this story of chef Hortense Laborie (based on the real-life Daniele Delpeuch) it ...
What is a good death? For certain Japanese Buddhist priests it was sokushinbutsu — self-mummification. As practiced by members of the Shingon sect, it was a decade-long process that culminated with the priest’s descent into a stone tomb to meditate in darkness, without food ...