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April 27, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 16, 2019
'The Promised Land': Zeze's latest is far from heaven-sent
Takahisa Zeze unveils his latest feature, an ambitious film based on two short stories by best-selling author Shuichi Yoshida
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 10, 2019
Quality high at Short Shorts autumn screening event
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia holds its autumn screening event in Tokyo from Oct. 17 to 20, with 25 films being shown across a number of programs
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 9, 2019
'The Truth': Kore-eda effortlessly crosses borders
The director's latest film sees him embrace the French culture and language as he tells the story of a dysfunctional mother and daughter played by Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche
CULTURE / Film
Oct 6, 2019
Film director Hirokazu Kore-eda steps out of his comfort zone
Award-winning director makes rare move overseas with latest release in a bid to experience various types of filmmaking.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2019
'Minori, on the Brink': An unusual take on confrontation
Minori Hagiwara stars in Ryutaro Ninomiya's feature about a young women who refuses to bow down to sexism and male chauvinism
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2019
'The Flowers of Evil': Overacted, overblown and odd
Noboru Iguchi takes a manga-like approach to his latest film, which tells the story of a teenage boy's relationships with a handful of very different girls
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2019
Telling the story of Japanese rugby's miracle match
As the 2019 Rugby World Cup kicks off in Japan, 'The Brighton Miracle' takes a look at the Brave Blossoms' 34-32 defeat of South Africa in the 2015 competition, a game which signified Japan had become a force to be reckoned with.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2019
'No Longer Human': A biopic with no decent biography
Mika Ninagawa's 'No Longer Human' tells the story of celebrated Japanese author Osamu Dazai, with a particular focus on his turbulent love life
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 12, 2019
With 'The Naked Director,' Japan scores a global Netflix hit
Netflix series 'The Naked Director' has been a runaway hit, with a second series announced shortly after the first began streaming. But not everyone is a fan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 11, 2019
'Hit Me Anyone One More Time': A return to form for comedy stalwart
Koki Mitani's latest comedy feature follows the life of a Japanese prime minister trying to make good as he deals with memory loss
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2019
'Stormy Family': Dysfunctional family, dysfunctional film
Masahide Ichii delivers a drama about family members dealing with their own long-standing resentments while facing an impending typhoon
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2019
Haruhiko Arai: Still pushing boundaries after 40 years in film
In a four-decade career, Haruhiko Arai has become an acclaimed scriptwriter with credits that include "Vibrator" (2003), "It's Only Talk" (2005) and "Kabukicho Love Hotel" (2014), three of the best films by his frequent collaborator, the director Ryuichi Hiroki.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 28, 2019
'Mugen Foundation': When adolescence becomes too much
The seishun eiga (youth film) is not exclusive to Japan — plenty of films from elsewhere deal with the joys and agonies of adolescence — but this popular genre has acquired certain only-in-Japan quirks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2019
'Dance With Me': A homegrown Japanese musical has landed
Genres never really die, but they often mutate into something different on foreign soil. John Ford's cowboys became Akira Kurosawa's samurai, and Kurosawa's samurai became Sergio Leone's serape-clad, cigarillo-chewing "The Man With No Name." And the list goes on.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 21, 2019
'Dance With Me': Short on laughs, but big on energy
The Japanese film industry has made many musical films, but almost no Hollywood-style musicals. One reason why is Eizo Sugawa's "You Can Succeed, Too" (1964), a singing, dancing salaryman musical inspired by the Broadway hit "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." Billed by the Toho studio...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 15, 2019
How to sell your film abroad
As a reviewer, reporter and programmer, I go to six or seven film festivals a year. This is nothing compared to some colleagues, who trudge the festival circuit in a never-ending loop, but it's enough to give me a heap of festival badges.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2019
'Aesop's Game': Ueda follow-up is neither tortoise nor hare
Last year, Shinichiro Ueda made Japanese film history with "One Cut of the Dead," a zombie comedy he scripted and directed. Opening in just two Tokyo theaters in June, 2018, the film ended up earning ¥3.21 billion — or more than 1,000 times its ¥3 million budget.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Aug 8, 2019
Marking 30 years since Takeshi Kitano's debut feature, 'Violent Cop'
On Aug. 12, 1989, "Beat" Takeshi Kitano's debut as a director, "Violent Cop," was released in Japan. Kitano was already famous here as a TV comic and emcee, and was known abroad for his role as a brutal POW camp guard in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 World War II drama "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence."
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Aug 7, 2019
'The Naked Director': A story of naked ambition and dubious morals
Since it launched here in September 2015, Netflix has built a long list of Japanese programming, from the hit reality series "Terrace House" to the manzai (comic duo) drama "Hibana: Spark." Mostly, though, it's the sort of fare you can find on network TV or in your local multiplex.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 7, 2019
'Paradise Next': When the music is better than the story
The lone, wandering gangster is as standard a figure in Japanese cinema as the lone, wandering samurai. Traditionally, both fought out of a self-imposed sense of duty and obligation.
Tokyo court fines Amazon Japan ¥35 million over counterfeit products
Takahiro Fujii (center), the president of Try and E, and his lawyers speak during a news conference on Friday in Tokyo after a ruling was handed down in a case against Amazon Japan.
Naked man’s rampage in Saitama linked to one fatality and 10 injured
Police believe Daisuke Nishimura may have been involved in roughly 20 incidents in the 90 minutes leading up to his arrest, including a fatal hit-and-run and multiple assaults.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Japan brings forward deadline for electronic travel authorization system
Japan is planning to implement by March 2029 a new online screening system in which foreign visitors who don’t need a visa apply for a certification before entering the country.
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.
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

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