Tag - sunao-katabuchi

 
 

SUNAO KATABUCHI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 5, 2017
Two Japanese animated films in contention for top recognition at Annie Awards
Two Japanese animated films — one dealing with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the other about the fantastical adventures of a nap-loving high school girl — have been nominated in one of the main categories for the 45th annual Annie Awards.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / CULTURE SMASH
Jun 25, 2017
Director Sunao Katabuchi shares his corner of this world
Last summer saw the release of what would become the highest grossing Japanese animation film to date, Makoto Shinkai's "Your Name.," which was also the country's top box-office draw of 2016. The surprise hit's main characters are a pair of body-swapping teenagers. A survey conducted by the Fields Research Institute earlier this month revealed, unsurprisingly, that its commercial success was driven by the nation's teenagers — over 30 percent of whom said they bought tickets, compared to 4 percent of those 65 and older.
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
Nov 16, 2016
'In This Corner of the World': Katabuchi's war film has a human heart
Going into "In This Corner of the World" ("Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni"), Sunao Katabuchi's animation about a girl's coming of age in prewar Hiroshima and wartime Kure, I was vaguely expecting an anti-war film like Isao Takahata's classic "Grave of the Fireflies" ("Hotaru no Haka," 1988), with its heart-rending story of a boy struggling and failing to care for his younger sister in the midst of wartime chaos.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2016
Japan's eclectic collection of choice
The Tokyo International Film Festival offers a great once-in-a-year opportunity to see new and classic Japanese films with English subtitles. The sheer quantity on offer — more than 50 titles in the main sections alone — can be overwhelming, though. Here are samples from my own must-see list.

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