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 30, 2012

The Help" could be a lot more thorny than it is, but as a tale of bigotry and racial prejudice set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, its contours are surprisingly smooth. It doesn't have the high rage factor of, say, 1988's "Mississippi Burning," nor the intense, provocative drama of 1990's...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 23, 2012

"Globalization" has come to have several different connotations, and among them, I would like to suggest that it include a new trendy tendency for art-house European filmmakers to make Hollywood movies, and vice-versa. The mashup of styles and techniques has been noticeable a lot lately, what with Oscar...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 16, 2012

'The Iron Lady'

In 1990, Ian (my brother's friend from Sheffield, England) came over to the house and showed us a fax that had been sent by his family. There was only one sentence, and it said: "You can come home now, she's gone." And that was how we learned of the political demise of British Prime Minister Margaret...

LIFE / Language

Mar 12, 2012

Japanese men love their men more than their women

Did somebody use the word "bland" in describing the Japanese male temperament? Wrong. Misinformed. Arienāi! (ありえなーい, not possible!) Okay, maybe my countrymen are bland in some areas best not mentioned in polite conversation. But let me set the record straight: the Japanese male is a toritsukareta...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 9, 2012

Ridley Scott wants your home movies for crowd-sourced 3/11 tribute doc

Where will you be on March 11?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 9, 2012

'Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows'

If Arthur Conan Doyle were around today, would he have a blog? I'm willing to bet yes, and that it would boast record-breaking numbers of visits, especially from the gay community. The world of Sherlock Holmes feeds on repressed sexuality and elegant homosexual aesthetics — imagine what a good Web...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 2, 2012

'Hugo" is in 3-D, rated PG in the United States and features two 12-year-olds traipsing around a 1930s Parisian train station. All the ingredients for a cozy Disney picture, but in actual fact this is a Martin Scorsese movie, which picked up five Oscars at last weekend's Academy Awards.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 24, 2012

'Melancholia' / 'Young Adult'

Lars von Trier ("Manderlay," "Dancer in the Dark") is just as famed for his works as for his strange statements to the press (such as a recent expression of sympathy for Adolf Hitler). He's also frank about having been diagnosed with acute depression, disclosed in numerous interviews since 2006. Since...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Feb 20, 2012

Clean poverty, clean living and love on a shoestring

Okane wa doko ni itteshimattanoka (お金はどこに行ってしまったのか, Where has all the money gone?). Until a few years back, the tone among Japanese business pundits used to go like this — a little humorous and slightly hopeful, almost as if we were all playing kakurenbo (かくれんぼ,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 17, 2012

'Water for Elephants'

What is it about Robert Pattinson that makes him slightly annoying? Despite his 18-carat movie-star status built on his vampire role in the "Twilight" series, despite the rumor that he's slated as the next Brad Pitt (er, really?) and has the lanky, boyish charm to back it up, Pattinson remains several...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 10, 2012

The name Pina Bausch may not strike a chord with many, but even a perfunctory look at her work will lock you in a hold that's layered with emotions: enchantment, enthrallment, even perhaps total bewilderment.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 3, 2012

'Machine Gun Preacher'

'Machine Gun Preacher" is extraordinary on two levels: First, it's based on a true story about a man who went from a life of violent crime and drug addiction to building an orphanage in war-torn Sudan. And second, he did it all without looking at a computer screen, ever.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 27, 2012

'Late Bloomers'

Is it just me or are women much happier than they used to be, up there on the digital silver screen? Compared with, say, five years ago, female characters seem to be doing well financially, getting the most out of love relationships and firmly ensconced in loving family circles. They always seem to get...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 20, 2012

'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'

What a bummer. Last week it was Katie Holmes in "Jack and Jill" — this week it's Mrs. Cruise again, in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." The former is a comedy and the latter a remake of a horror film (actually a TV movie) from 1973. But whatever the emotional situation or physical location, Holmes remains...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Jan 16, 2012

Men can be sexy when talking about themselves

An often misunderstood perception about the Japanese language is that it's long-winded and excessively polite. True, there's an entire lexicon devoted to politeness, called keigo (敬語, the language of reverence) and in Kyoto, there's such a thing as kyūtei kotoba (宮廷言葉, palatial language)...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 13, 2012

'Jack and Jill'

Either Adam Sandler was hit by a falling meteor or he was abducted by particularly unpleasant aliens, or both. Whatever happened to him and his mental faculties, the man should not be allowed within a 5-km radius of a Hollywood studio.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 6, 2012

As far as movies about Nazi Germany go, "Good" belies its title and sits fidgeting on a terrain somewhere between so-so and inoffensive. But 15 years ago a story like "Good" would have been called daring — even revolutionary — for it ventures beyond caricatured depictions of monstrous Nazis and the...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 30, 2011

The year of tough guys worth swooning over

Cinematically speaking, 2011 was the Year of the Guy. By this I mean the genuine article, the "you can't kill 'em, you can't live without 'em" variety. Here are the 10 films of the year that feature the most distinctly provocative males in the most appropriate vehicles. All are handsome in suits or cargo...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 23, 2011

'I am Love" is an ode to Tilda Swinton: Once she appears before the camera, directors such as Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino want to keep gazing at her forever. According to the production notes, Guadagnino says the project had been in the works for 16 years, and during that time he had never once...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Dec 19, 2011

Drinking the blues away and how to do it properly

It's that time of year when opportunities to reach for a glass, tumbler or ochoko (おちょこ, sake cup) increase by the evening, while days continue to be crammed with duties, professional and otherwise.

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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