Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 17, 2019

Peaks, troughs and international awards: Japanese films in the Heisei Era

The Heisei Era began in January 1989 and I started writing reviews of Japanese films for The Japan Times in July that year. In 1990, I became Japan correspondent for a British movie trade magazine, a job description that, with a change of publication, I have held ever since.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 17, 2019

'Kingdom': An admirable try at Chinese history

Why should Japanese kids care about a manga set in China's Warring States Period, (475-221 B.C.)? The players and power struggles are hard enough for professional historians (and this reviewer) to grasp, let alone 10-year-olds.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 10, 2019

'Love's Twisting Path': An old-school samurai swashbuckler

Now a spry 84, Sadao Nakajima is one of the few directors from Japan's studio era who is still active. After joining Toei in 1959 and making his directorial debut in 1964, Nakajima shot yakuza actioners and samurai swashbucklers (chanbara eiga) for more than three decades with Toei's Kyoto studio as...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 3, 2019

'Afternoon Breezes': Hitoshi Yazaki's pioneer of Japanese LGBTQ cinema is revisited

What was Japan's first LGBTQ-themed film? One often-mentioned candidate is Keisuke Kinoshita's 1959 melodrama "Farewell to Spring," though more for the emotional ties between its young male protagonists than anything explicitly erotic. More upfront in its treatment — and more critically acclaimed —...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Apr 3, 2019

'JK Rock': A rock 'n' roll battle of the sexes

There are many Japanese musical films about aspiring rock and pop stars (though not Hollywood-style musicals, which are seldom made here.) Among the best-loved is "Linda, Linda, Linda," Nobuhiro Yamashita's 2005 film about four teenage girls who hastily form a band and wow the kids at a school cultural...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 27, 2019

'Marriage Hunting Beauty': When dating dilemmas fail to excite

Last year veteran director Akiko Ohku had a breakthrough hit with "Tremble All You Want," a romantic com edy about a 24-year-old office clerk still obsessed with her girlhood crush but yet to have an actual boyfriend. Played with discombobulated verve by Mayu Matsuoka, this loser-at-love won audience...

CULTURE / Film

Mar 20, 2019

'Makuko': Love, life and that same old E.T. story

The "visitor from another planet" story is doable, even for an indie filmmaker with no budget. All you need are aliens who have assumed human forms, but don't quite get the whole humanity thing. Two recent examples are Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2017 films "Foreboding" and "Before We Vanish," in which aliens...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 19, 2019

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival offers a world of fascination

Held annually from 1990, save for 2007 when its host town was facing financial difficulties, the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival has become a little corner of Hokkaido where for four days in March the cinematically weird and wonderful can flourish.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 13, 2019

'Ramen Shop': Finding your family through food

Food is sustenance, food is pleasure and, as Eric Khoo's nostalgia-drenched "Ramen Shop" reminds us, food is memory.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Mar 7, 2019

Seeking out Japanese movies at a film festival in Bangalore

Going to Bangalore, a city of more than 10 million people in India's south, to spend five days watching movies is not the sort of thing I usually do. Which is exactly why I agreed to serve on a jury for the Network for Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) at the 11th Bengaluru International Film...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 6, 2019

'Running Again': Solving problems with a good run

Running scenes have been a staple since the start of the movies, but in the silent days the fleet-footed hero was usually trying to outrun the police. Now, competitive running in its various forms, from the ekiden relay to the marathon, has become a subset of the feel-good sports film in Japan, with...

CULTURE / Film / Heisei Icons,Heisei Icons

Mar 1, 2019

Takeshi Kitano: From manzai comic to giant of Japanese film

Many Japanese filmmakers try to promote their films and talents abroad but stumble more than they succeed: Either Cannes rejects their latest masterpiece or Hollywood turns down their J-horror script.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 27, 2019

'The Island of Cats': Stress-free living with furry friends

Japanese movies about cats and their human companions are by now an established local genre — or rather a feel-good-movie sub-genre since nearly all try to leave the audience with warm smiles and lowered blood pressures. This has proven to be a reliable box office strategy: The owners of Japan's nearly...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 20, 2019

Localization 101: How to release a Steven Soderbergh film in Japan

Hollywood sends its products all over the world but global audiences can have widely different experiences of the same Hollywood movie. In Italy, dubbing foreign films is standard; in Japan, subtitling is, though dubbing has become more common, especially for films targeted at younger audiences.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 20, 2019

'Fly Me to the Saitama': Tokyo takes on its revolting neighbors

Places considered cool and uncool sometimes exist in uneasy proximity, like New York City and New Jersey — or Tokyo and Saitama. The prefecture adjacent to the Japanese capital has the image of being a land of boring commuter towns with no cultural attractions beyond shopping malls and family restaurants....

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Feb 14, 2019

Could 'Shoplifters' or 'Mirai' pick up an Oscar? The chances are slim but real

The 2019 Oscar race is entering its final stretch, with prognosticators already unveiling their lists of winners. This year two Japanese films are up for Academy Awards — Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Shoplifters" (best foreign language film) and Mamoru Hosoda's "Mirai" (best animated feature film).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 13, 2019

'Born Bone Born': A family reunited by a skeletal bath

Having attended a few funerals here and seen dozens more on the screen, I thought I knew a bit about the ceremonies and rituals surrounding death in Japan. But "Born Bone Born" by comedian and director Toshiyuki Teruya (aka Gori) proved me wrong — at least about his native Okinawa.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 6, 2019

'Whistleblower': Corporate drama dialed up to 11

Japan is justly praised for its law-abiding citizenry. Drop your wallet on the street here and a kind local is likely to come running after you to return it. On the corporate level, though, scandal follows scandal. One of the most common sights on Japanese news shows is company bigwigs bowing in apology...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 30, 2019

'12 Suicidal Teens': Teen suicide film deeper than most

Youth suicides hit a 30-year high in Japan in fiscal 2017, with 250 kids of high school age and under taking their own lives. Ijime (bullying) was a factor in many of these deaths, but there were others, as well as many unanswered questions.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 29, 2019

Perennials aside, 2019 promises movie classics in Japan

As a program advisor for the Udine Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, I have spent the last few months scouting Japanese films for the next edition, which will be held April 26 to May 4. This doesn't mean I've seen all the upcoming releases — sales companies are often not ready to screen their...

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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