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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004
Just a tinkle on the keys to heaven
Tengoku no Honya - koibi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Tetsuo Shinohara Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Opens June 5 [See Japan Times movie listings] Ever since "Ghost" -- that 1990 Jerry Zucker weeper better known now as the sexiest ceramics-instructional film ever...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2004
Self-improvement in the sugar cane
Shinkokyu no Hitsuyo Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Tetsuo Shinohara Running time: 123 minutes Language: Japanese Opens May 29 [See Japan Times movie listings] Getting away from it all means different things to different people, doesn't it? Your dream vacation may be a hammock...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2004
Spirited away to a romance from the past
Sekai no Chushin De Ai o Sakebu Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 138 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What does the audience want? What does it really want? The easy answer for producers has always been "more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 12, 2004
Where everybody can be a jury member
Who are film festivals for, really? The biggest of all, Cannes, is strictly for industry professionals (or rather, anyone with enough connections to wangle accreditation). But many other festivals have turned in a more populist direction, as indicated by the ubiquity of audience awards, which make anyone...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2004
One sure way to the enjoy the twilight years
Shinibana Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Isshin Inudo Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Opens May 7 [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese society is rapidly graying, as journalists never tire of telling us. What the journos seldom mention -- though the cannier film...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2004
It's back to the future in style
Casshern Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kazuaki Kiriya Running time: 141 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The great age of the megalomaniac director, who dreamt of making big, visionary, no-expenses-spared movies, ended with the silents....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2004
A universe far beyond manga as we know it
Realism no Yado Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita Running time: 83 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Foreign manga fans are always praising manga's scope as compared with that of American comics stuck in a narrow superhero...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004
Drawn to the future
Born in 1964, Fumihiko Sori joined Tokyo Broadcasting System, one of Japan's Big Four TV networks, in 1988. In 1996 he entered the film department of the University of Southern California and later assisted James Cameron with the VFX work for "Titanic." After returning to Japan he worked as a VFX supervisor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004
Sowing the seeds of a new genre
Appleseed Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Shinji Aramaki Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Opens April 17 [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese animation is edging into the mainstream internationally, while insinuating itself into everything from "Kill Bill Vol....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004
Guests of a grand hotel
The Hotel Venus Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hirota Takahasi Running time: 125 minutes Language: Korean Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kyo no Dekigoto Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: isao Yukisada Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2004
It's a wonderful dog's life
Quill Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Yoichi Sai Running time: 100 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Now Yoichi Sai directs a dog movie for kids? This is the guy who made "Tsuki wa Docchi ni Deteiru (All Under the Moon)," a picaresque...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 24, 2004
He loves me, he loves me not
Hana to Alice Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Shunji Iwai Running time: 135 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "Shunji Iwai has a shojo manga (girls' comic) sensibility," producer Takenori Sento once explained to me.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
Ghosts in the machines
Japanese science-fiction animation, from Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal "Akira" (1988) on, often points toward a post-apocalyptic, post-human future. For all the blasts 'n' babes, the curvy heroines in Spandex pouring thousands of rounds into clanking foes, the essential vision is dark -- more "Blade Runner"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
The boy who lost everything
Kamachi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Rokuro Mochizuki Running time: 115 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "Live fast and leave a beautiful corpse" James Dean used to say -- and he famously followed his own advice by dying in a car crash...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
Oshii talks softly, but carries a big script
Before I interviewed Mamoru Oshii, his publicist asked if I would need an interpreter. "He tends to mumble," she explained. No, I didn't need an interpreter, but I did turn the volume of my tape recorder on high, fortunately. Looking a decade younger than his 52 years, with a mane of unruly black hair,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2004
Ishii still probing female mysteries
Moju vs lssunboshi Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Teruo Ishii Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Opens March 13 at Shibuya Cine La Sept [See Japan Times movie listings] Film critics don't usually issue disclaimers, but one is in order, I think, before I launch into a review...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004
Girls just wanna kill men
Fukuro Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kaneto Shindo Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kaneto Shindo thoroughly deserves the title of Grand Old Man of Japanese movies. Now 92, he has been a scriptwriter and director...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2004
Who will save us from the scourge?
Zebraman Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Takashi Miike Running time: 115 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What genre conventions hasn't Takashi Miike bent, twisted or simply exploded? How about "Audition," whose tender dream of May-December...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2004
Going with the wind in Manchuria
Akai Tsuki Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Yasuo Furuhata Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Yasuo Furuhata is the most established of mainstream directors, consistently working with the Japanese film industry's biggest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2004
Got something for everyone
Hanochi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Itsumichi Isomura Running time: 122 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Gege Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Kiyoshi Sasabe Running time: 113 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See...
Small Hokkaido town ranked most comfortable place to live in Japan
Asahidake in Daisetsuzan is located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido, which ranked as the most comfortable municipality in 2024.
After U.S.-South Korea nuclear drills, North girds for ‘long-term’ faceoff
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits O Jin U Artillery Academy in the country on Friday.
Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s prayer for peace lives on in Hiroshima
Maestro Seiji Ozawa (center) lays flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in October 2005.
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
Panasonic ready to start making next-gen EV cells at Japan plant
Panasonic’s 4680 cylindrical lithium-ion cell
Unpacking Japan’s messy leadership election
The Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race is expected to have a record number of candidates.
Small Hokkaido town ranked most comfortable place to live in Japan
Asahidake in Daisetsuzan is located in the town of Higashikawa, Hokkaido, which ranked as the most comfortable municipality in 2024.
Updated Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan to keep more trees
Redevelopment of the Meiji Jingu Gaien district has trees in the area marked according to their status — trees marked in red were to be cut down in the original plan while those in blue were to be transplanted. In the updated plan, trees marked in red will no longer be felled, and those in blue will remain where they are.
U.K. envoy to Japan pushes back on Indo-Pacific disengagement concerns
U.K. Ambassador to Japan Julia Longbottom says the Indo-Pacific region offers a unique opportunity to not only tackle shared security concerns but also to generate new sources of economic growth.
‘When I die, I would like to come back as a rice ball’
Few in Japan may be more passionate about the 'onigiri' (rice ball) than Yumiko Ukon, owner of an onigiri specialty shop in Tokyo's Otsuka neighborhood.

Podcast

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

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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