Tag - atsuko-maeda

 
 

ATSUKO MAEDA

A young woman (Atsuko Maeda, right) reveals a traumatic event from her past to a one-night stand (Ryota Bando) in “Voice.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 29, 2024
‘Voice’: Raw performances knit together moving omnibus
Yukiko Mishima’s film consisting of three standalone segments powerfully speaks to the emotional wounds of trauma.
Building off her own experiences, “Voice” director Yukiko Mishima considers the effects of sexual assault and how the survivors and those around them continue with their lives.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2024
‘Voice’ examines the reverberations of trauma
Yukiko Mishima’s film draws from the director's own experience to shed light on life after experiencing assault.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 6, 2022
‘To the Supreme!’: Clever rom-com keeps twists coming
Santa Yamagishi's rom-com about four women with lackluster love interests is cleverly plotted but takes a while to get to the drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2019
Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Filming and acting outside your comfort zone
When Japanese directors of a certain age and status film abroad, they usually head for developed countries, not developing ones. Although, to be fair, their choice of foreign locales often comes down to box-office calculations. Japanese audiences enjoy seeing famous European sites on the screen (and mentally planning their next vacation), so more Japanese films feature the Eiffel Tower than Angkor Wat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2019
'To the Ends of the Earth': Tough times for travel reporting
Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Atsuko Maeda make an odd couple: The former is best known abroad as a master of horror, starting with his 1997 international breakthrough "Cure," while the latter was a star of idol-pop group AKB48, but has since gone on to a thriving acting career.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Mar 4, 2019
Former AKB48 star Atsuko Maeda gives birth to baby boy
Atsuko Maeda, an original member of all-girl pop group AKB48, has given birth to a baby boy, her first child, her husband said Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jul 31, 2018
Former AKB48 star Atsuko Maeda marries actor Ryo Katsuji
Atsuko Maeda, 27, a pop cultural icon and original member of the all-girl group AKB48, has married actor Ryo Katsuji, 31, an official of his management company said on Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2017
Fuji TV's wishful thinking is food for thought
Since 1987, Fuji TV has owned Monday night, specifically the 9 to 10 p.m. time slot, when it broadcasts fluffy romantic drama series starring the season's hottest actress and often a prominent member of a boy band.
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 36-year-old Koji Fukada winning the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes for "Harmonium" ("Fuchi ni Tatsu") and 43-year-old Makoto Shinkai obliterating the box-office competition with his animation "Kimi no Na wa." ("Your Name."). Both generations found themselves on my best 10 list for 2016.
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 Kokyo ni Kaeru"), ended up making a U-turn, however permanent or temporary. This has been a theme of Japanese films for decades, as indicated by the title's reference to the 1951 Keisuke Kinoshita classic "Carmen Comes Home" ("Karumen Kokyo ni Kaeru").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2015
Sayonara Kabukicho: Life and love in Shinjuku's red-light district
Ryuichi Hiroki has become a victim of his own success, though his studio employers probably don't see it that way. This one-time maker of so-called pink films (i.e., soft pornography), who became internationally celebrated for intimate indie dramas like "Vibrator" from 2003 and "Yawarakai Seikatsu (It's Only Talk)" from 2005, has morphed into the local industry's go-to guy for weepy romantic dramas — a genre that has been a big money-maker here for decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013
Yamashita and Maeda reunite for slacker dramedy
Nobuhiro Yamashita has used a variety of sources for his films since his 1999 feature debut "Donten Seikatasu (Hazy Life)," including his own experiences as a struggling indie director. But the inspiration for his latest, "Moratorium Tamako (Tamako in Moratorium)," is out of the ordinary by any standard: 30-second ads for the Music On! TV cable station.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores