Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Film Topics
Review Sep 5, 2013
'Le Magasin des Suicides'
by Giovanni Fazio
In the miserable satire-world of French animated comedy “Suicide Shop,” people are fined by the cops and billed for damages for failed suicide attempts. Of course in present-day Japan, this is the sad reality, where bereaved relatives get a bill for the disruption caused ...
Small Screen Sep 5, 2013
'Arrow'
by Kaori Shoji
Director: Various Language: English The Dark Knight isn’t the only DC Comics hero with abs to die for — get ready to swoon over the 2012 TV series “Arrow” starring smokin’ Hollywood stud Stephen Amell. He plays a billionaire who returns from five years ...
Small Screen Sep 5, 2013
'Kibo no Kuni (The Land of Hope)'
by Mark Schilling
Director: Sion Sono Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) On Aug. 26, Third Window Films of the U.K. released a DVD and Blu-ray of “Kibo no Kuni (The Land of Hope),” Sion Sono’s drama about two families caught up in a near-future nuclear catastrophe that ...
Small Screen Sep 5, 2013
'Dark Horse'
by Giovanni Fazio
Director: Todd Solondz Language: English Todd Solondz is known for bringing a host of uncomfortable characters and situations to the screen — first prize is probably Philip Seymour Hoffman’s obscene phone caller in “Happiness” — and “Dark Horse” is no exception, a twisted rom-com ...
Film Aug 29, 2013
Snyder ponders Superman's ultimate dilemma
by Kaori Shoji
Opening on the heels of that other summer blockbuster “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Man of Steel” is no smaller in scale but feels much more personal. That’s probably because director Zack Snyder (“300,” “Sucker Punch”) is a hands-on kind of filmmaker, who secretly feels ...
Review Aug 29, 2013
'Man of Steel'
by Kaori Shoji
Overwrought and overlong but thoroughly engrossing, “Man of Steel” is an experience akin to finding yourself standing next to an enormous turbo fan while trying to listen to a friend talk about his arduous Mount Everest expedition. On the one hand, you want to ...
Review Aug 29, 2013
'Soul Flower Train'
by Mark Schilling
Dads, in Japan and elsewhere, never quite believe that their daughters are grown up and gone, do they? On a corner of their desk or in a corner of their mind is a picture of their princess at the school play or the piano ...
Review Aug 29, 2013
'Ginger & Rosa'
Filmmaker Sally Potter’s observations of women and their relationships have almost always been tinged by the subtexts of women and how they deal with their political environment. Now her keen sense of what women want (hint: Love is never enough) is brilliantly deployed in ...
Review Aug 29, 2013
'On the Road'
by Giovanni Fazio
How do you make a movie version of “On the Road,” author Jack Kerouac’s near stream-of-consciousness ode to bumming back and forth across Eisenhower-era 1950s America and Mexico in hitched rides, purloined cars and hobo boxcars in a blur of jazz joints, poetry and ...
Small Screen Aug 29, 2013
'Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman'
by Mark Schilling
Director: Various Language: Japanese (subtitled in English) Criterion is releasing a Blu-ray/DVD box set of the first 25 films in the “Zatoichi” series. Starring the burly, charismatic Shintaro Katsu as the titular blind swordsman, this action-packed series, which ran from 1962 to 1989, was ...
Small Screen Aug 29, 2013
'The Addams Family'
by Kaori Shoji
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld Language: English The Addams Family really were a “scre-am,” and we can now relive the joy of seeing the happy/scary family assembled under one creaky roof: Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 classic starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd is out as ...