Tag - tv-drama

 
 

TV DRAMA

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2021
‘The Women’: A harrowing journey with a tidy end
Yukiko Shinohara's vulnerable character is put through the wringer, dealing with one disaster after another. But all is not lost in Nobuteru Uchida's latest drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2021
'A Madder Red': Yuya Ishii's pandemic drama is scattershot but soulful
Social realism rubs up against melodrama in the film 'A Madder Red,' which focuses on a single mother dealing with economic challenges during the pandemic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
May 22, 2020
Ayumi Hamasaki TV drama stays on the right side of absurdity
A new drama series highlighting the life of the J-pop star at her peak has fascinated viewers with its hammed-up acting and over-the-top antics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
May 1, 2020
Japanese taiga drama 'Idaten' goes global with tale of Olympic struggle
For the first time ever, Japan's national broadcaster, NHK, will show a condensed version of its famous year-long period drama in English.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Jan 25, 2020
Clive Davies: A peek behind the scenes of saigen dramas
Tokyo-based actor and writer Clive Davies on what, exactly, a saigen reenactment drama is, the hardest thing he's ever done for a shoot and his film reviews — all 7,000-plus of them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / Wide Angle
Jan 17, 2020
NHK's taiga drama hopes to shake off its curse
Amid celebrity scandals and low ratings, NHK launches the latest installment of its long-running Sunday evening drama series.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2019
'The Forest of Love': Netflix feature lets Sono be Sono
Sion Sono's return to filmmaking sees him blend all of his hallmarks into one gore-drenched epic
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2018
Junji Sakamoto points his camera at small-town Japan in 'Another World'
Born in Osaka in 1958, Junji Sakamoto belongs to a generation of Japanese directors who carved out independent paths in the industry, outside the then-defunct studio system. His feature debut, the 1989 boxing film "Knockout," won a shelf of domestic prizes, including the Blue Ribbon Award for best film. He became known for male-centered action flicks and thrillers, such as the 2000 gangster epic "Another Battle."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2018
'Passage of Life': A family drama that treats refugees with respect
Hollywood films about the immigrant experience are common enough (see "The Godfather" and other classic gangster movies for examples), while Japanese films on the same topic are rare, save for those about Zainichi (ethnic Koreans) in Japan. (Among the best is Zainichi director Yoichi Sai's "Blood and Bones" from 2004.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2018
'The Chaplain': Ren Osugi shines as a clergyman working on death row
The sudden death of Ren Osugi last February robbed Japanese cinema of one of its most dependable actors. That loss is rendered all the more acute by "The Chaplain," Osugi's final screen role, and his debut as producer. It's the kind of serious, intelligent drama that might struggle to get made without an established screen star to lend it clout, and it's hard not to wonder what might have come next.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2018
'My Dad is a Heel Wrestler': A body-slamming celebration of a spandex brotherhood
Movies about pro-wrestling seldom star actual pro wrestlers. Instead we get Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler") or Ryuta Sato ("Gachi Boy: Wrestling with a Memory"). But the ascent to Hollywood stardom of Dwayne Johnson, who wrestled professionally as "The Rock," has inspired New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Japan's biggest pro-wrestling organization, to do something similar for NJPW star Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2018
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Cannes submission tackles the difficulties of relationships
It has been more than two decades since Takeshi Kitano, Naomi Kawase, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda began collecting major festival invitations and prizes as the leaders of Japanese cinema's 1990s new wave. Since then younger directors have struggled to crack this "4K" establishment to gain international recognition as auteurs, not just cult favorites. (Hayao Miyazaki looms over the competition in a similar way in the world of anime.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2018
'Killing for the Prosecution': A complex crime drama stuffed with exposition
Once a maker of Hollywood-style sci-fi ("Gunhed," 1989) and noir ("Painted Desert," 1993), Masato Harada has become a director of films about fact-based, character-testing group missions, be it police routing radicals from a Karuizawa villa ("The Choice of Hercules," 2002) or samurai fighting the biggest battle in Japanese history ("Sekigahara," 2017).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2018
'Still Life of Memories': An erotic drama that perpetuates the male gaze
Hitoshi Yazaki goes slightly overboard with visual innuendo in an otherwise artistic film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2018
'Shino Can't Say Her Name': A teenage struggle that speaks to everyone
There's a point in many teenagers' lives where few things are more mortifying than the prospect of having to speak in public. High school freshman Shino (Sara Minami) has it worse than most. When she's by herself, she can talk perfectly fine, even play-acting the conversations she wishes she was having with her fellow students. But when she's called upon to introduce herself to the class at the start of term, she's felled by a speech impediment so severe that she can barely get a word out.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 7, 2018
Rose-tinted views of elderly workers' plight
The media has been conscientious in its coverage of the need for foreign workers in Japan. A May 20 NHK Special was particularly thorough in its portrayal of Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, which is encouraging Vietnamese laborers to move to the city. Several news outlets have covered Mimasaka's statue of former Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh, which was presented to the city by Hanoi last November at the request of Mimasaka's mayor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2018
'The Name': Ren Komai's performance raises a multilayered drama
What's in a name? On one level, it's how you identify yourself to yourself (as in dorky name, dorky self-image). On another, it's your social calling card, your link to family, going back generations (or not, if an ancestor decided to exchange one name for another).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2018
Juliette Binoche gets to see the 'real' Japan in 'Vision'
"It's so warm in here!" exclaims Juliette Binoche. "You know in (Michael) Haneke's film, I have a scene where I kind of suffocate and I think that I'm going to die? It feels like that! Do you think you can open the window?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2018
'Shoplifters': Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winner is an eloquent look at the human condition
When a Japanese director wins the Palme d'Or — the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, the film world's equivalent of soccer's World Cup — the response of the local media is to celebrate: Our side won.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2018
'Yamato (California)': Hanae Kan does well as an aspiring rapper that's straight outta Japan
The American military bases in Okinawa are often in the news, usually because of an accident, protest or crime. The bases elsewhere in Japan, not so much. These reminders of a postwar occupation now seven decades in the past have mostly faded from the public imagination.

Longform

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