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October 21, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 29, 2019
'A Long Goodbye': Taking a lighter look at Alzheimer's
Japanese films about dementia are by now many and, given demographic trends here, interest in the subject is both natural and necessary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
May 23, 2019
Japan takes a backseat at Cannes
The Cannes Film Festival, the world's premier film event, has long been a holy grail for Japanese filmmakers. Selection for the main competition is the ultimate goal for many, though screenings in other sections convey prestige at home that other festivals, in Japan and elsewhere, can't match.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2019
Short Shorts 2019: Short on time, but never short on creativity
Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, whose 21st edition takes place from May 29 to June 16 at venues around Tokyo, is one of the largest festivals of its type in Asia. And, starting this year, four winners of its competitions will be eligible for an Academy Award in the short film category, up from just...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2019
'Jesus': Our father, who art in the Japanese mountains
Christianity has never really taken hold in Japan, despite hundreds of years of proselytizing (with a long Edo Period interruption for persecution). In his novel, "Silence," Catholic author Shusaku Endo famously described the country as a "swamp" where the sapling of the Christian faith is doomed to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2019
'Only The Cat Knows': The dying days of a 50-year marriage
The husband who gets home late and says nothing to his wife but "furo" ("bath"), "meshi" ("food") and "neru" ("sleep") is a cliche about Japanese married life that is often not far from the truth. The macho ideal has traditionally been the quiet type and Japanese women have traditionally been expected...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2019
'Kakegurui': A high-stakes high school battle
Japanese films set in high schools are now about as common as cherry trees in Tokyo. This makes box-office sense: Japanese teens read a lot of manga about kids their own age and the more popular become fodder for films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2019
'Jeux de plage': A romantic roundelay by the beach
Japanese film companies mostly make local films for the local market. Often the films may as well have "not for export" written in the credits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Apr 25, 2019
Okinawa rolls out the red carpet for its annual film festival
The Okinawa International Movie Festival has never been just about movies — or even Okinawa. Held from April 18 to 22, the 11th edition was a showcase for the talents of sponsor Yoshimoto Kogyo — an Osaka-based agency that supplies Japanese TV with many of its comedians and emcees.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2019
'Lust in a Karaoke Box': Celebrating the joys of student life
When I taught at colleges here in the 1980s, I marveled at my students' freedom, including freedom from study. They could spend most of their waking hours at part-time jobs or club activities and still, somehow, graduate.
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...
Why I chose Japanese citizenship over permanent residency
Jon Heese (second left) takes part in a 2024 New Year's nihonshu barrel opening ceremony.
Path clears for Takaichi to become PM as LDP and JIP agree to form coalition
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi (right) reaches out to shake hands with Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura after signing a coalition deal Monday evening in Tokyo.
EV battery race heats up among Japanese automakers
Japanese EV production is focusing on batteries as automakers compete for the lightest, most durable models and the longest driving range.
LDP and Nippon Ishin no Kai to form coalition government, report says
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai have agreed to form a coalition, paving the way for the country's first female prime minister, Kyodo reports.
Suntory and Sapporo to halt gift beer sales after cyberattack against Asahi
Suntory will gradually suspend the sale of 13 beer sets for winter gifts, including a set of Chinese zodiac-themed cans of The Premium Malt's.
What does Jimbocho think of its unexpected ‘cool’ status?
Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood is a haven for book lovers, its rows of secondhand bookstores spilling over with printed materials.
What you need to see at this year's Tokyo film festival
Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet"
New film explores how Japan and the U.S. found common ground through baseball
Masanori Murakami became the first MLB player from Japan when he made his debut with the Giants on Sept 1, 1964.
As they wrestle for power, Japan’s political parties must remember their base
Rengo's head Tomoko Yoshino speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Oct. 8.
Sumo is about to hit London and the West with a force previously unseen
Preparations advance on Monday for the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Podcast

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

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

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