author

 
Menu
Search
 
October 12, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Mark Schilling
Two childhood friends (Hayato Kurihara, left, and Yukito Hidaka) living in a near-future Japan see a rise in student protests against oppressive surveillance in “Happyend.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2024
‘Happyend’ tests teen friendship with authoritarian dystopia
Neo Sora’s ambitious coming-of-age film follows a group of friends attempting to disrupt a surveillance society with something less than life-or-death urgency.
A talented photographer (Makoto Tanaka, left) can’t help outshining her tight-knit circle of art school friends in “See You Tomorrow.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2024
‘See You Tomorrow’: A pursuit of passion grounded in reality
Saki Michimoto's stylish and accomplished debut feature centers on a gifted photographer, her art school friends and their uncertainty about what comes next in life.
A small-time online hustler (Masaki Suda) moves to the countryside after a big score but soon finds his enemies closing in in “Cloud.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2024
‘Cloud’: Dangers of the internet deliver full-throttle action
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's masterful psychological thriller features the director's signature creepy vibe as well as blazing guns and falling bodies.
Marina Tsukada got the idea for her anthology “Mitsuki, Sekai” from her acquaintance with the two young lead actors, whom she first met at a video workshop she conducted in Nagano Prefecture.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2024
Marina Tsukada lets local lives shape her work
The director’s latest, “Mitsuki, Sekai,” is part of an ongoing project that traces the lives of Nagano Prefecture-based children for a decade until they reach adulthood.
Marina Tsukada’s “Mitsuki, Sekai” features young nonprofessional actors in the director’s native Nagano Prefecture as their characters mature from childhood to adulthood.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2024
Intimate and revelatory, ‘Mitsuki, Sekai’ explores the quiet trials of girlhood
Marina Tsukada’s anthology feature containing two unconnected short films lays bare the inner lives of young Japanese women in unexpected ways.
A young boy (Keitatsu Koshiyama, center) and his skating partner (Kiara Nakanishi, left) blossom under the dedicated guidance of their coach (Sosuke Ikematsu) in “My Sunshine.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2024
‘My Sunshine’ brings together realism and lyricism to a rare degree
Hiroshi Okuyama’s feature about teen skaters is a gentle masterwork that illustrates Japanese society’s deep conservatism with poignance and bite.
A cold and self-centered 21-year-old (Yuumi Kawai) drifts through life in Yoko Yamanaka's “Desert of Namibia.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2024
'Desert of Namibia' makes its difficult protagonist hard to hate
Yoko Yamanaka's enigmatically titled drama is true to the messy complexity of human beings and their relationships in its own quirky and sharply observant way.
Hiroshi Sunairi’s documentary “From Okinawa with Love” follows the unwavering Okinawan photographer Mao Ishikawa, who made her name documenting the relationships between Japanese bar girls and African American servicemen.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 30, 2024
‘From Okinawa with Love’: A revealing documentary about a true original
Hiroshi Sunairi takes a fly-on-the-wall approach to explore the life of Mao Ishikawa, who photographed Okinawans and the effects of the U.S. military.
A grandmother fights back when the angry ghost of a social recluse starts killing off family members in “House of Sayuri.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2024
'House of Sayuri': J-horror fights ghosts with pitch-black humor
Koji Shiraishi’s horror comedy matches the darkness of the deeds on display with a fiery grandma who takes on a wicked spirit with her tai chi skills.
A Tokyo man who scuttles around the city in a dirty cardboard box finds himself fighting off odd characters in Gakuryu Ishii’s “The Box Man.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2024
'The Box Man': Absurdist Kobo Abe adaptation speaks to the present
Director Gakuryu Ishii makes the novel’s philosophical musings and metaphorical conundrums more audience-friendly while saying something true about the modern day.
An unemployed man (Eita Okuno) whose community was decimated by the Great East Japan Earthquake grapples with rebuilding his life in “Shinpei.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2024
‘Shinpei’ takes on 3/11 disaster with a fresh angle
Tatsuro Yamashiro infuses his drama centered on a complex protagonist struggling with the Great East Japan Earthquake’s aftermath with humor and visual beauty.
Talented radio announcer Nobutaka Wada (Go Morita) becomes conscience-stricken about pushing the Japanese government’s propaganda during World War II in “The Voices at War.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2024
‘The Voices at War’ shines light on wartime radio announcers
The NHK film holds up a smudged mirror to the role its predecessor, Radio Japan, and its employees played in serving as government mouthpieces during World War II.
A substitute teacher (Nagisa Shibuya, center front) at a junior high school finds herself caught up in strange goings-on with violent outcomes in “Who’s That Girl?”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 26, 2024
‘Who’s That Girl?’: Junior high school antics just got scarier
J-horror master Takashi Shimizu’s latest offers familiar genre elements with a practiced hand and fresh twists.
Three sisters bicker over their resentments and frustrations during a weekend at a hot spring resort in Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s “To Mom, With Love.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2024
'To Mom, With Love': Family drama cuts deep with stellar cast
Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s heartfelt love letter to the "home drama" genre resembles a screwball comedy while also unleashing eruptions of real pain and anger.
Actor Kim Dae-gun won a Korean Fantastic Actor award for his performance in Yoon Eunkyoung’s “The Tenants,” which takes a dark satirical look at the scarcity of decent affordable housing in Seoul.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2024
Bucheon film festival contemplates a future with AI
Dark comedy and surreal fantasy stood out at the genre film event that focused on the advent of generative AI.
When the effects of dementia cause Yohji (left, Tatsuya Fuji) to spiral out of control, it becomes clear to his son (Mirai Moriyama) that he has been absent from his life in more ways than one in Kei Chikaura’s “Great Absence.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2024
‘Great Absence’: Poetic family drama follows downfall of dementia-plagued patriarch
A retired professor’s mind is slipping away from him, but there is more to unravel in Kei Chikaura’s dark family drama.
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which won an Academy Award for best visual effects, was made for a reported $15 million — a small fraction of the budgets used by its Hollywood competitors.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2024
Japanese cinema is having a stand-out year. Here are some films to watch.
The success of "Godzilla Minus One" gave Japan's film industry a confidence boost, but we haven't been short on must-see hits in 2024.
Leying (played by Jia Ling) hasn't been living up to her potential, but is pushed into a radical transformation by hitting rock bottom in the Chinese remake of a hit Japanese boxing drama in "YOLO."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2024
‘YOLO’: A classic zero-to-hero story with a real-life body transformation
Actor and comedian Jia Ling dropped 50 kilograms for her role in a Chinese remake of a hit Japanese boxing drama.
Izumi (Hana Sugisaki, left) tries to get to the bottom of a murder case that ends up going all the way to the top of Japan’s national intelligence agency.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2024
‘Sakura’: Secret agents, a murder mystery and one very determined young sleuth
Hana Sugisaki’s performance as a lowly employee in a prefectural police department stands out from typical portrayals in a domestic whodunit.
The experiences of our protagonist (Yukino Takahashi, right) and her fellow sex workers lead them to wonder if they still have some spark of humanity left in Shimpei Yamasaki’s “During the Rains.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2024
‘During the Rains’ captures a blunt, modern glimpse of Japan’s sex industry
Yukino Takahashi’s self-immolating performance makes her character hard to like but also forces the viewer to contend with the reality of her line of work.
Ban on dual nationality is constitutional, Fukuoka High Court rules
Yuri Kondo (center), who filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Japan's ban on dual nationality, speaks at a news conference in the city of Fukuoka in December 2023.
17-year-old girl found dead in Osaka hotel room was strangled
A security camera footage shows a 17-year-old girl and a man entering a hotel in the city of Osaka on Saturday. She was found dead in the hotel room several hours later.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Long-time 'Doraemon' voice actor Nobuyo Oyama dies at 90
Nobuyo Oyama
Ishiba keeps low profile as he makes diplomatic debut
Ishiba addresses the ASEAN-Japan Summit meeting in Laos on Thursday.
Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! takes its final bow
Annual festival Peter Barakan’s Live Magic! was born a decade ago when Barakan (left) decided to create a platform to share his love of roots music, which he attributes to growing up in 1960s England.
Spate of sumo tour dropouts highlights need to rethink wrestlers' health
Shonannoumi hits the dirt at the hands of Kotozakura during a bout in Tokyo in May. Shonannoumi is among the many top wrestlers who have dropped out of this month's regional tour due to injury.
Japan pushes fossil fuel tech in Asia carbon neutrality initiative
Coal-fired power plants in Bataan, the Philippines, in June 2023. A third of the 158 agreements signed under the Japan-led Asia Zero Emission Community are linked to fossil fuel technologies, a recent study by a climate research group has found.
The forgotten Japanese naturalist who created a U.S. national park
Without Japanese outdoorsman George Masa, America might not have the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — so why do so many people in Japan not know he existed?
Experts move to allay replicon COVID shot fears in Japan amid backlash
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Tokyo on Oct. 1. Experts say fears over the newly approved replicon vaccine are unwarranted.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free
By Anton L. Delgado

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy
Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER