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April 27, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2020
'Cenote': A hypnotic dive into a wellspring of stories, ancient and new
Kaori Oda's documentary delves into the allure of natural sinkholes and the people who live around them in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2020
‘A Beloved Wife’: Marital woes deliver laughs and pull at the heartstrings
Director Shin Adachi's comedy about sparring spouses is based on his 2016 semi-autobiographical novel, “Chibusa ni Ka” (“Mosquito on the Breast”).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2020
‘Reiwa Uprising’: Political passions make for a compelling watch
Kazuo Hara's documentary about the Reiwa Shinsengumi political party's 2019 campaign is worth sitting through even though it's just over four hours long.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2020
‘Stigmatized Properties’: The otherworldly entities are spooky but unconvincing
Hideo Nakata's latest film is based on the real-life experiences of a comic who has made a career of living in apartments where terrible things have occurred.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2020
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia lineup delivers despite COVID-19
Other than delaying the festival from its usual June starting date, things are on track for the event, which will screen more than 200 films at venues around Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2020
Never forget the struggles of conflict with these Japanese World War II films
Filmmakers are able to record the feelings of history in ways that you can't get from textbooks at school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2020
‘The Girl I Like’: Navigating love with pathos and humor
Shinya Tamada's relationship drama about a man who struggles to admit his feelings for a friend is based on an essay by comedian Naoki Matayoshi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2020
‘Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams’: This underdog story is hard to beat
Ema Ryan Yamazaki's gripping documentary about an annual high school baseball tournament shows the highs and lows of working toward hard-won victories.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 13, 2020
‘Zero as You Are’: An intimate look at a journey of self-discovery
Director Miyuki Tokoi documented Takamasa “Sky” Kobayashi's life as a transgender teenager and adult over the course of nine years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 30, 2020
‘Labyrinth of Cinema’: Nobuhiko Obayashi’s final film is a colorful antiwar fantasy
“Labyrinth of Cinema” bursts with energy, passion and dreamlike invention that immerses the audience in a world that is uniquely Obayashi's.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 22, 2020
‘#Handball Strive’: The team may be fake, but the film is a winner
Daigo Matsui's comedy about a sham high school handball team feels more like the real deal thanks to a younger cast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 17, 2020
'#Handball Strive' digs into the pitfalls of performing for the 'likes'
Daigo Matsui's comedy is about a fake handball team that chases Instagram fame and falls victim to online perils.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 16, 2020
‘Just the Two of Us’: It’s two against the world in this downbeat drama
In “Just the Two of Us,” Shiori Doi holds her own as a sympathetic blind caretaker for Masatoshi Nagase's bitter and injured painter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 9, 2020
‘A Tale of the Riverside’: Inn love, with water sprites
Masaki Tsujino's “A Tale of the Riverside” may at times be more twee than charming, but water sprites are also a welcome addition.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 2, 2020
‘Mother’: When parental bonds turn toxic
Director Tatsushi Ohmori takes a cue from Alfred Hitchcock in “Mother,” a drama about an abusive mother-child relationship that takes a psychological toll on the son.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2020
Skip the trip to Italy and binge Asian cinema online
As we head into summer, now is the time to crank up the air-conditioning, get comfortable and delve into Japanese cinema with these recommendations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2020
‘The Modern Lovers’: Tread lightly on this trip down memory lane
In “The Modern Lovers,” Nanami Kawakami lights up the screen as the former flame of a 30-year-old salaryman trying to relive his glory days in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 18, 2020
‘His Bad Blood’: Bad behavior bends but can’t break family bonds
Koichiro Oyama's film dabbles in Christian ideas of sin and forgiveness to explore a parent-child relationship strained by the father's tainted legacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 11, 2020
‘The 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8’: Little beasts battle COVID-19 online
Film production in Japan shut down in early April as part of the response to the outbreak of COVID-19, and as weeks passed with no signs of an immediate revival, filmmakers began to adapt to the situation by making “isolation” films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2020
‘Forgiven Children’: No clear-cut truths to a child’s crimes
Bullying is an evergreen theme of Japanese films centered on teens, with the focus typically on the victims.
Japan unveils new overtourism countermeasures
The majority of tourists in Japan tend to stay in Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto, resulting in overcrowding in popular tourist spots and a strain on transportation systems.
South Korea couple beat same-sex barriers to parenthood
South Korean lesbian couple Kim Kyu-jin (left) and her wife, Kim Sae-yeon, pose with a "pregnant woman" badge during an interview in Seoul last month.
Toyoko Kids: The lonely street children of Tokyo
Many young people who feel neglected at home flock to the Toyoko area to find a community where they can fit in.
Opportunities await the bold in the Year of the Wood Dragon
2024 marks the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, with the year predicted to be a good time for fresh starts.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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