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

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Jan 21, 2013

Men shouldn't fear seductive snake women this year

Did you have a hatsuyume (u521du5922, first dream of the new year) and did it involve hebi (u86c7, snakes)? If the answer is yes to both, omedetu014d gozaimasu, you've hit the jackpot.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 17, 2013

'Cesare Deve Morire'

Roberto Rossellini once said that a good movie has the power to change the world, and here's a film made by his compatriots (octogenarian Italian brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani) that may prove him right. It certainly alters the way one looks at the world, at history and how art can lock people in...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 11, 2013

'The Expatriate'

There's an irresistable temptation to describe "The Expatriate" as a discount version of the Jason Bourne series. Pretty much the whole package indicates it's the same product in a different wrapper: You get the handsome CIA agent; the exotic European location; the order issued from Langley to rub out...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 4, 2013

To everything there is a season, even for Hollywood superstars such as Robert De Niro. Having starred in some of the best and most memorable American films of the 20th century, De Niro has remained enthroned in the Hollywood kingdom — but the time when he can walk into any scene and take immediate...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 2, 2013

'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'

Mr. Antonini, who lived in the house next to ours in Brooklyn, had a rejoinder for all life's ailments. "You think you got problems?" he'd say with a querulous edge to his voice. "Wait till you get to my age, and I'll show you some problems!" At this point Mr. Antonini's son Denny would make his standard...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / BEST OF 2012

Dec 28, 2012

In the name of sincerity and love, this list is for you

I've been thinking about you. About what you want from life, from relationships, from the movies. This list isn't about me, it's about you. Your needs, your dreams, all that jazz. This may seem like a hodgepodge selection of titles with no connecting thread, but believe me, these films reflect the way...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Dec 24, 2012

Switching to mama mode is not easy for today's gals

Bad news on the kekkon sensen (結婚戦線, marriage front) — hardly anyone's doing it. According to a government survey, more than 60 percent of single men and close to 50 percent of single women are not in relationships, nor are they particularly interested in dating. At this rate, Japan's already...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 21, 2012

'Les Miserables' / 'Anonymous'

At this time of year, it feels good to unplug the computer, stash your electronic devices away and crack open something heavy and dense. While this could be a mega-size box of chocolate (or bottle of bourbon), it's just possible our senses crave something more demanding, more literary and Old World....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 7, 2012

Holiday gift ideas for the film buff you love best

As the end of the year approaches and the air is filled with the kerching of winter bonuses and brazen consumerist excess, thoughts turn to our loved ones, and the trinkets that will best pacify them at gift-swapping time. For the cinephile in your life, the JT's film critics suggest the following fine...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 7, 2012

'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen'

What with the recent misery in Gaza and Israel, it's hard to wrap your mind around a feel-good story coming out of the Middle East, but here it is, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen," opening at Japanese theaters over a year after its premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 30, 2012

The gentleman in the tux and what he did for Japan

In 1967, James Bond made his official Japan debut in "You Only Live Twice": The gentleman spy came to Tokyo and Fukuoka, saw some sumo, consorted with ninja and got intimate with two homegrown Bond girls. Directed by Lewis Gilbert, "You Only Live Twice" goes down in Japan's collective memory as the one...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 30, 2012

'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'

Have you noticed that it's a lot easier to find older men in the movies than older women — in front of the camera and behind it?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 23, 2012

'Trouble With the Curve' / 'Dream House'

The season of family gatherings is upon us, and here are two movies featuring The Dad in a big way. Though not as familiar as The Mom, The Dad is a cozy Hollywood institution, often deployed to prod at adult male shortcomings — from cold, distant workaholic to warm-hearted slob around the house. There's...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Nov 19, 2012

Plan A: Live long and inconspicuously

Among other things, being Japanese means embracing a distinct and particular weirdness. The Japanese are well aware of this fact, and generations of Nipponjin (日本人, Japanese) have pondered on how hen (変, strange) we are since the country opened its doors to outsiders some 150 years ago. Encountering...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 16, 2012

Luc Besson is turning out to be this hefty boardroom type who likes to kick back in his private office (no doubt equipped with a bar, high-tech treadmill, elliptical machine and shower) while getting a young, newbie filmmaker (in this case two of them) to sweat through the process of making an action...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 9, 2012

'388 Arletta Avenue'

Stalker movies are a subgenre in themselves — a good chunk of horror movies feature stalkers and stalkees and the really watchable ones (see 2005's "Dark Water") are heavily psychological, delving into the minds of certain people who get their kicks out of watching and harassing certain other people,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 2, 2012

Love her or not, one admirable factor about Madonna is that she has never stopped being the Material Girl. She's doing this at 54 and she'll likely keep it up at 84.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 26, 2012

'A Room With a View' / 'Another Country'

Note to self: Do not travel back in time to the 20th century. Or to be more accurate, to early 20th-century England. We've been conditioned to think it was all hot scones and tennis on the lawn, but after a closer viewing of historical facts I have learned that only a certain segment of the populace...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 19, 2012

'The Conspirator'

When it comes to American presidents, Abraham Lincoln stands atop a lofty pedestal all by himself — beyond reproach and certainly beyond scandal. It's hard to conjure a mental picture other than that of the marble Lincoln Memorial statue, seated in Washington, D.C., as the words of the Gettysburg Address...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 19, 2012

Tokyo International Film Festival hits 25

This year, Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) celebrates its 25th edition and will hold commemorative programs, including a three-day screening of six Japanese films from the Showa Era (1926-89) in the very Showa-esque district of Nihonbashi.

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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