Kaori Shoji - The Japan Times

November 04, 2025

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Kaori Shoji

Kaori Shoji writes about movies and movie-makers for the Film Page, plus takes a turn at the Bilingual Column. Biggest mistake of her career: taking the very dignified Nagisa Oshima to McDonald's for an iced coffee.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 15, 2013

'Jack the Giant Slayer'

A fantastical (and technically stunning) spin on a classic bedtime story, "Jack the Giant Slayer" doesn't tell us anything new, but some moments may give nightmares to the under-12s. The fee-fi-fo-fum ambience is there, but director Bryan Singer (of "X-Men" franchise fame) instead mostly turns the dials...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 15, 2013

'Searching for Sugar Man'

Ever heard of a Detroit-based musician by the name of Sixto Rodriguez? If so, you're extraordinarily well informed, or perhaps you spent some time in South Africa during the late 1970s. But if you're unaware of the man or his music, "Searching for Sugar Man" is the best place to start, and the payoff...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 15, 2013

The Bourne Legacy

In this major overhaul of the lucrative "Bourne" franchise, Matt Damon is replaced by Jeremy Renner ("Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol") and Bourne himself is relegated to a mere mythic figure instead of appearing as a flesh-and-blood agent. Groan? Possibly. Renner as agent Aaron Cross is rough around...

Japan Times

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Mar 11, 2013

A personal invitation to the I-hate-cherry-blossoms club

It's that time of year when the Japanese turn their thoughts to what I call the 3-S's: sakura (桜, cherry blossoms), sakamori (酒盛り, drinking parties) and shuran (酒乱, getting raucously drunk).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 8, 2013

Directors: James Mather, Stephen St. Leger

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 8, 2013

If you thought the tsk-tsk antics of the French aristocracy ended when the peasants stormed the Bastille, "Bel Ami" is here to tell you that corruption and debauchery among the upper classes carried on for at least a century more.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 8, 2013

You're old, sick and bedridden. You've just suffered a stroke and lost most of your motor skills. Who will tend to your basic needs, brush your hair and see to it that you hold on to at least a semblance of personal dignity? Increasingly in the modern world, the answer to that is a professional caregiver....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 1, 2013

Be prepared for the most terrifying flying experience you're ever likely to encounter, expertly created by Robert Zemeckis ("Forrest Gump," "Back to the Future") and engineered on-screen by Denzel Washington. "Flight" may put you off air travel for a while, but on the other hand if the plane you're aboard...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 1, 2013

'Shadow Dancer'

If you'll excuse the pun, Andrea Riseborough is a star on the rise. In her home ground of Great Britain she's famed for her role in 2010's "Brighton Rock," and in the U.S. she turned heads last year with her performance in Madonna's "W.E." In her face you see a wealth of what many psychiatrists have...

CULTURE / Film

Mar 1, 2013

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT

Feb 26, 2013

Everything you wanted to know about Western women (but were afraid to ask): No-holds-barred guide targets Japanese men

Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 22, 2013

Silver Linings Playbook

Sometimes life falls off its dreary grid and takes on the texture and flavor of strawberry chiffon cake. That's kind of what happens when watching "Silver Linings Playbook": The more this romantic comedy-drama about an ex-teacher with mental-health problems and the people around him progresses, the more...

Japan Times

JAPAN / Media

Feb 17, 2013

Bringing the love of short films to a local audience

If there was a birthday cake for the Brillia Short Shorts Theater, it would probably be an elegant, minimalist affair — no excessive decorations, nothing too calorific and five slim candles giving off a modest orange glow. One of just four movie theaters in and around Tokyo dedicated to short films,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 15, 2013

'A Good Day to Die Hard'

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that if you had to see yet another 20th-century action star, alive and well and kicking ass for the benefit of the over-40s crowd — and that star is Bruce Willis, whom you can remember as having a full head of hair (brunette) and a terrible taste in suits...

Japan Times

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Feb 11, 2013

Providing for old age somehow connects to V-day blues

I was talking to a joshikōsei (女子高生, high school girl) friend of mine (yes, I'm fully aware of this exalted position) and she told me that these days in sociology class, Japanese teens are taught that by the time they start paying taxes, the ratio of college grad workers to nenkinzoku (年金族,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 8, 2013

How to cope when home is where the radiation is?

When she hears the phrase "a sense of home," filmmaker Michale Boganim always endures a wave of sadness. "Home can mean a whole lot of things, but to me it has connotations of displacement and loss," she tells The Japan Times. "I come from a family that was always moving around, and even as we were moving,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 8, 2013

'Land of Oblivion'

It's 1996. Anya (Olga Kurylenko) works as a guide on a tour bus that takes people through Pripyat, a town located just 3 km from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The tourists, all of varying ages and nationalities, listen somewhat bored to Anya's descriptions of April 26, 1986, a decade...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 1, 2013

Every time I witness the presence of Tom Cruise in Tokyo, I imagine the possibilities of him moving here as a permanent resident. He loves sushi (apparently a frequent customer at Sukiyabashi Jiro). He knows the streets of Ginza. He's clearly work addicted. Unlike in the U.S. no one here will ever direct...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 1, 2013

Dedication on a plate in 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

To be a shokunin (artisan) in Japan means, among other things, rising in the morning to do the exact same thing as yesterday and the day before and the day before.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 1, 2013

'Jiro Dreams of Sushi'

To describe "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" as a foodie film is akin to picking an English rose and calling it a flower. This documentary by New York-based David Gelb is at once a celebration of one of the world's most popular and coveted meals, and a firsthand observation of Japan's most famous sushi chef at...

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.

The second life of Japan's net cafes

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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