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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 11, 2009

And the best Japanese films of 2009 were . . .

1. "Fish Story":

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Dec 4, 2009

'Yomigaeri no Chi'

Drugs can finish you off in Japanese show business. One bust for possession spells the end to offers of every kind, from ad deals to drama-series roles to Christmas tree lightings. Theaters pull your latest film, your agency fires you and nobody wants to know you but your dog. In Hollywood, celebrity...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 27, 2009

'Black Gaisha ni Tsutometerundaga mo Ore wa Genkai Kamo Shirenai'

Films about Japanese organization men, from bureaucrats to salarymen, have long broadly divided into two categories — the serious ones, that portray work life as a sort of holy war, fought by loyal, self-sacrificing blue-suited soldiers, and the comic, whose characters range from pompous idiots to...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 20, 2009

'Tsumuji Kaze Shokudo no Yoru'

Take a quaint European-looking restaurant in a quiet Hokkaido town in the dead of winter. Add quirky regulars who are treated to nightly disquisitions, philosophical and otherwise, by the avuncular owner of a local hat shop. Toss in scrumptious- looking "set menus" of steaks, croquettes and other Western-...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 13, 2009

'Zero no Shoten'

Mystery writer Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992) was long to the Japanese entertainment industry what Stephen King has been to Hollywood — a one-man fiction factory who supplied material for dozens of films and TV dramas.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 6, 2009

Hollywood has long been an enthusiastic remaker of foreign films, including ones from Japan. Kurosawa was an early favorite since his samurai could easily be repurposed as cowboys, beginning with "The Magnificent Seven," the 1960 remake of "The Seven Samurai," (1954).

JAPAN / Media

Nov 1, 2009

It's big or bust in eyes of Japanese cinema

Now in its sixth year, the Japanese Eyes section of the Tokyo International Film Festival, has evolved from its beginnings as a showcase for the middle range of Japanese films — that is, ones not readily classifiable as hardcore indie or commercial mainstream, though made, in some cases, by well-known...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 30, 2009

'Watashi Dasuwa'

"A fool and his money are soon parted" and all its many variations is a common theme in films, from the heist-of-a-lifetime that ruins so many lives in "Goodfellas" to Gary Cooper handing out his inherited fortune to total strangers in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and then coming to regret it.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 23, 2009

'Shizumanu Taiyo'

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small," Gloria Swanson declaimed in "Sunset Boulevard." In the Japan film industry, though, the pictures are getting bigger — gargantuan, in fact. Examples include the "Death Note" duology, the "20-seiki Shonen" ("20th Century Boys") trilogy, and "Ai no Mukidashi"...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 16, 2009

'Senritsu Meikyu 3-D'

3-D,we've been hearing for decades, is the future of movies. Finally, the future is here, with 7,000 3-D screens expected to be up and running worldwide by the end of the year and Hollywood frantically ramping up production of 3-D films, both animated and live-action.

CULTURE / Film

Oct 9, 2009

Osamu Dazai: genius, but no saint

Major Japanese cultural figures often become subjects of films when big birth or death anniversaries roll around. The hero (far more rarely, the heroine) is usually portrayed as a sainted genius, tragic or otherwise. Osamu Dazai, however, was one such figure who didn't fit the saint template.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 9, 2009

'Villon no Tsuma'/'Pandora no Hako'

Kichitaro Negishi's "Villon no Tsuma" ("Villon's Wife") is based on an Osamu Dazai short story with autobiographical overtones: An alcoholic writer steals a large sum of money from a small drinking establishment and, when he does a disappearing act, his wife offers to pay it back by working for the owners...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 9, 2009

A twisted path to true love

Born in Tokyo in 1950, Kichitaro Negishi got his start in the film industry making soft-porn movies for the Nikkatsu studio. He directed his first film, "Orion no Satsui yori: Joji no Hoteishiki" ("From Orion's Testimony: Formula for Murder") in 1978 and in 1981 made his straight-feature debut with "Enrai"...

CULTURE / Film

Oct 2, 2009

'Akumu no Elevator'

Movies are confidence tricks played on willing victims. The bullets are blanks and the sex is faked, but we usually want to believe, as long as the lights are down, that it's all real. Creating that belief — or rather, that suspension of disbelief — has long been Hollywood's goal.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 25, 2009

Hirokazu Kore'eda is the most internationally acclaimed Japanese director of his generation, whose films are regularly invited to major world festivals and receive the sort of respectful attention from foreign scholars and critics usually accorded only to dead Golden Age masters.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 18, 2009

'Kamui Gaiden '

Producers, both here and abroad, have been busy scouting film properties among the anime and manga of the 1960s and 1970s, from kiddie cartoon fluff such as "Yattaman" to the apocalyptic thriller "MW," created by manga maestro Osamu Tezuka.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 11, 2009

Every once in a while, a distributor will ask audiences not to reveal anything about a film's ending — a gimmick that became popular with "The Crying Game" (1992).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 4, 2009

'Killer Virgin Road'

Are most single women obsessed with marriage despite their protests to the contrary? Disappointed in love, do they fall to insecure pieces, taking solace in late-night cartons of ice cream?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 28, 2009

'Ballad: Namonaki Koi no Uta'

Takashi Yamazaki was known primarily as a computer-graphics whiz when he directed the ensemble drama "Always Sanchome no Yuhi" ("Always: Sunset on Third Street," 2005). True to form, the recreation of 1950s Tokyo by Yamazaki's team at the Shirogumi effects house was hyper-realistically detailed, while...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 21, 2009

'20-Seiki Shonen'

Yukihiko Tsutsumi's hit "20-Seiki Shonen" ("20th Century Boys") trilogy is based on one of those "what if" premises that may look almost childishly obvious, but, from a commercial standpoint, is simply brilliant.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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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