Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

September 14, 2024

Today's print edition

Subscribe for more access

Meta

Mark Schilling

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...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 4, 2004

Crooked path pays off

Yudan Daiteki Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Izuru Narushima Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Cops and crooks aren't supposed to be pals, but in any society they often become . . . acquaintances, if not quite allies....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 28, 2004

On a not-so-sentimental journey to 1947

Born in Osaka in 1958, Junji Sakamoto has set many of his 13 feature films, including his award-winning 1989 debut "Dotsuitarunen," in his native Kansai. He arrived for our interview at the Takanawa Prince Hotel looking dapper in a retro-style suit that he later told me had been worn by an actor friend...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 28, 2004

Play democracy for me

Kono yo no Soto E Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Junji Sakamoto Running time: 123 minutes Language: Japanese Opens Feb. 7 [See Japan Times movie listings] Movies, producer Naoya Narita once told me, are news. The problem is, real world news moves fast -- and films often have a hard...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 21, 2004

Memories of war from a distance

Utsukushi Natsu Kirishima Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Kazuo Kuroki Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Why has the flow of Japanese movies about Japan at the end of World War II never stopped, more than 50 years after...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 14, 2004

The sound of the crowd leads to an indie gem

Josee, The Tiger and The Fish Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Isshin Inudo Running time: 116 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Why does one small indie film pack theaters week after week, while others with similar themes play to no one...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 23, 2003

Comic culture is serious business

Can anyone be in this country a week and not notice manga -- Japan's unique contribution to comics?

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Mar 16, 2003

A director since 1961, with 77 films to his credit, Yoji Yamada, 71, is a Japanese film industry icon. His "Tora-san" series, about a wandering peddler who is forever falling in love, but never gets the girl, generated 48 hit installments -- and made Yamada the most successful Japanese director of his...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Dec 15, 2002

Screen dreams of the good old samura days

With the stock market heading south and the political situation taking an uncanny resemblance to the last sclerotic days of the Soviet Union, no wonder Japanese moviegoers want to be anywhere but here and now. Even so, the number of new and recent Japanese films set in the past is extraordinary, given...

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Nov 22, 2002

Japanese movies eyed for makeover

With "The Ring," the horror film based on the 1998 Hideo Nakata hit "Ringu," sailing past the $100 million mark in the United States, remakes of Japanese and other Asian films are suddenly hot in Hollywood.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 21, 2002

The busiest bad guy around

Show Aikawa is the hardest-working man in Japanese movies, but one that Japanese cinemagoers have rarely, if ever, seen. Unless, that is, they happen to be fans of straight-to-video films. They would know Aikawa as the gangster glaring down from the boxes of dozens of action films with titles like "Shuraba...

Japan Times

COMMUNITY

Jul 7, 2002

Love will tear them apart

Lovers who say goodbye in the last reel exist in Hollywood films -- remember Rick and Ilsa in "Casablanca"? -- but far more common are variations of Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard's happy stroll into the sunset in "Modern Times."

CULTURE / Film

Dec 26, 2001

My heart will go on . . . for 1,000 years

Sennen no Koi Hikaru Genji Monogatari Rating: * * * Director: Tonko Horikawa Running time: 143 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing

CULTURE / Film

Dec 19, 2001

The revolution will be cinematized

Hikari no Ame Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Banmei Takahashi Running time: 130 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing

CULTURE / Film

Dec 12, 2001

The school of hard knocks

Mabudachi Rating: * * * * Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya Running time: 99 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing

CULTURE / Film

Dec 5, 2001

Face to face with Imperial evil

Japanese Devils Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Minoru Matsui Running time:160 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing

CULTURE / Film

Dec 5, 2001

Ka-chan Rating: * * * Director: Kon Ichikawa Running time: 96 minutes Language: Japaneese

CULTURE / Film

Nov 28, 2001

Hunters on the mean streets

Pain Rating: * * * * Director: Masato Ishioka Running time: 114 minutes Language: Japanese Showing until Dec. 7th at Box Higashi Nakano

CULTURE / Film

Nov 21, 2001

All under the sun

The Japanese, my barber once told me, "don't really think of Hawaii as America -- for us, it's more like part of Japan." But after Sept. 11, many Japanese who might have otherwise booked a wedding in Honolulu or a golf holiday in Maui suddenly realized that Hawaii really was part of the United States...

CULTURE / Film

Nov 21, 2001

When marketing hits the target, that's amore

Reisei to Jonetsu no Aida Rating: * * Director: Isamu Nakae Running time: 124 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

mission sustainability vol.12 : Kose Corp.Kose takes pride in creating beauty in the world

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

international-reports