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.

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Apr 8, 2008

Fasting is Hefty's secret way of escaping metabo

I t's not often I get to watch my brother seethe and fume and look thoroughly uncomfortable — and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 4, 2008

An old gripe of Woody Allen was that America hated New York ("The rest of the country looks upon New York like we're leftwing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers!" he rails in "Annie Hall"). For most of his life he had stuck staunchly by his city, showing the rest of America just what "leftwing...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 28, 2008

Saying that you enjoy watching the film "Hitman" is like admitting to an affinity for consuming spicy chicken wings while chain smoking. Or dating acne-ridden criminals on parole. To say that "Hitman" is bad is way off the mark; it's worthier of adjectives like "god-awful" and "puke-provoking." The truth...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 21, 2008

War and its implications are the first things one tends to associate with Israeli cinema, perhaps because those kind of films are the ones that make it to the film festivals and get international releases (most notable are the works of director Amos Gitai).

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Mar 18, 2008

Hey grandma, thanks for all your genmai grub

'Shoku wa inochi! (Food is life itself)' was one of my grandmother's maxims, which when I was growing up, I was never able to fathom.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 14, 2008

'The Darjeeling Limited'

As an American filmmaker with no particular pedigree (like the Coppolas or Hustons), Wes Anderson's penchant for exclusiveness could have put him in a precarious position in the aggressively democratized world of Hollywood cinema. As it turns out, he occupies a not unenviable niche, probably because...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 7, 2008

'4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days'

A young woman is about to get an abortion. On the morning of the crucial day, what's on her mind and how does she deal with it?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 29, 2008

'The Golden Compass'

The moral to "The Golden Compass" — a coming-of-age tale that takes place in a parallel, rockin' kind of universe where there is no God and people's souls are embodied by animals that frolic at their side and accompany them wherever they go and the general wardrobe scheme is too cool for words —...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 22, 2008

Lest we forget what it is to be a woman, there's always the chick flick to remind us exactly what this may imply. In the case of "Evening," the implying rather has the effect of a tidal wave. There they are, all the usual suspects: love (unrequited and otherwise), weddings, marriages, careers, motherhood,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 15, 2008

"Sisters," the remake of the 1973 cult movie by Brian de Palma, is living proof of the culinary adage that fresh is always better. There's so much here that's just been scooped out of the can and nuked in a microwave — most of what had made the original "Sisters" compelling and scary has been reheated...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 8, 2008

Harmony (in his head)

An eight year hiatus is a long time for a filmmaker, especially for someone as iconic in indie film as Harmony Korine.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 8, 2008

'Mister Lonely'

Intentionally or not, Harmony Korine built his reputation on being the enfant terrible of American art-house cinema, the impish prankster whose art seemed to draw on charm rather than hardened professionalism. This put him in a different league to that other film-buff-turned-indies wunderkind, Quentin...

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Feb 5, 2008

Choose the right 'bite' for Valentine's manhunt

Has anyone noticed in recent years how the whole concept of Valentine's Day in Japan isn't what it used to be?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 1, 2008

Amalric's mind's-eye view

Mathieu Amalric is best known outside France for his role in Steven Spielberg's "Munich," but in his own country he has been one of the best-loved actors since the mid 1990s.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 1, 2008

'Le scaphandre et le papillon'

Jean-Dominique Bauby (Jean-Do to his friends) could hardly complain. He enjoyed a successful career (editor of Elle France magazine), had three cute kids, his relationship with his separated wife was amiable, and his mistress had recently moved in to live with him.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 25, 2008

'American Gangster'

According to gangster-cinema logic, a gang boss wallows in crime and murder largely because he feels obligated (often willingly so) to look after the people on his turf: to keep the streets safe, his family well-fed and his business thriving. The contradiction is, of course, that by doing so a gang boss...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 18, 2008

'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'

On many other actors Victorian period costumes would look like, well, costumes, but on Johnny Depp, they cover his physique like a second skin — merging with his persona as if he had a spent his life wearing lace cuffs and with his feet, encased in heavy boots, treading on nothing but mud and cobblestones....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 18, 2008

Depp: "If you ate me I would taste of deep-fried frog's legs"

Despite the gore depicted in trailers aired on screens, the atmosphere was nothing short of festive as director Tim Burton, actor Johnny Depp and producer Richard Zanuck entered the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo's Roppongi district last week to promote "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 11, 2008

'Le Faute a Fidel!'

Children are often much more conservative than adults give them credit for. Many prefer orderliness over chaos, predictability over confusion, and custom over trends that come and go.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 11, 2008

Passing politics from generation to generation

'La Faute a Fidel!" is, in a sense, a project engineered by daughters. Director Julie Gavras' father is the famed prorevoltionary director Costa Gavras, its lead actress Julie Depardieu is the daughter of Gerard, France's most treasured actor. And Nina Kervel, who was age 9 when the film was made, comes...

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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