Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

September 04, 2025

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 21, 2018

'Smokin' on the Moon': A stoner buddy flick takes a serious turn

Marijuana was a subject for comedy back when I was taking my first clumsy steps into stoner culture: The comedy routines of Cheech and Chong, the music of Commander Cody, the midnight screenings of the unintentionally hilarious 1936 film "Reefer Madness."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 14, 2018

'Sakura Guardian in the North': A melodrama 'Sayurists' can be proud of

Sayuri Yoshinaga is the last star of Japan's postwar studio era to still be a box-office force. Playing a pure-hearted teen in films for Nikkatsu in the 1960s, she attracted a huge, mainly male, following known as "Sayurists."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 8, 2018

'Legend of the Demon Cat' presents the multicolored beauty of Chen Kaige's China

The current decade has seen China's film market rise to heights exceeded only by Hollywood; in 2017, box-office earnings grew nearly 13.45 percent year-on-year to a splendiferous 55.9 billion yuan ($8.6 billion). This bonanza has spurred massive investment and fueled out-sized ambitions.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Mar 7, 2018

'Tremorings of Hope': The aftershocks linger in a town devastated by 2011 disaster

After the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011, dozens of documentary filmmakers headed north to the devastated Tohoku region, specifically the hard-hit coastal areas of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. One filmmaker, however, had already been filming there...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 28, 2018

Kazuo Hara returns to form as a documentary filmmaker with 'Sennan Asbestos Disaster'

Kazuo Hara became famous — some would say notorious — for the documentaries he made about individuals who defied Japanese social norms and laws.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 28, 2018

'Sunny/32': If idol-pop and 'Saw' were to have a baby, this may be it

Visitors to Japan are often surprised by the visual and aural clutter they encounter in what they might know as the land of Zen. Instead of minimalist rock gardens, Japanese cities assault the senses with bright lights, ads and loudspeaker noise. This overload extends to other areas: from stocked-to-the-rafters...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Feb 22, 2018

Awards season blows through Japan with a conspicuous lack of buzz

It's awards season. Many a film journalist, from those working at the trade papers to those at the major dailies, spend months speculating who'll get Oscar nods and, as we get closer to the March 4 ceremony, who'll win.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 21, 2018

'Going the Distance': A powerful take on the Japanese definition of family

Marriages in Japan were long between families, with the omiai (arranged marriage) process typically serving to both introduce prospective partners to each other and vet their respective family backgrounds. Have the wrong sort of ancestors? The wedding's off.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 15, 2018

'River's Edge': Strong characters make this teen drama more than just a nostalgia trip

Teenagers in seishun eiga (youth movies) tend to be pure-hearted types meant to inspire sighs of nostalgia from older audiences. But anyone who looks back at those years honestly will recall attitudes and actions not so naive — and some not so easy to forgive.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 15, 2018

Isao Yukisada swaps feel-good teen drama tropes for brutal honesty in 'River's Edge'

In a two-decade directing career that began with the 1997 relationship drama "Open House," Isao Yukisada has made everything from the critically acclaimed "Go" (2001), with its rebellious Zainichi Korean hero battling his way through a Japanese high school, to the smash hit "Crying Out Love in the Center...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 14, 2018

'Thicker Than Water': Family fights and a great comedic turn from Keiko Enoue

"Sibling rivalry" is a term often heard; "sibling harmony," not so much. Brothers and sisters can be like two crabs fighting in a bucket, going round and round with no end or escape — even when they heart-of-hearts love each other.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Feb 7, 2018

'The Scythian Lamb': A plan to repopulate the countryside starts out funny and descends into tense drama

Seeing Daihachi Yoshida's "The Scythian Lamb" for the second time at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, I was reminded of "Black Mirror," the British series with provocative "what if" scenarios set in an alternative present or near future. Yes, I am a binge-watcher.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 31, 2018

'Blank 13': Dark dysfunctional-family drama offers no easy answers

A father steps back into his family's lives, after a gap of 13 years, to tell them he is dying of cancer.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 24, 2018

'Bamy': Slightly barmy but spooky as hell

Expect to see plenty of umbrellas in Jun Tanaka's 'Bamy,' which is heavy on strangeness and the creep factor.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 17, 2018

'Our house': A deftly constructed work of mystery

What if the same dwelling was populated by two pairs of seemingly living humans, neither of whom is aware of the other? That is the conundrum posed by Yui Kiyohara's 'Our House.'

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 10, 2018

'We Make Antiques!': A caper flick that's the genuine artifact

One of my guilty pleasures is watching "Kaiun! Nandemo Kanteidan," which translates loosely as "Get Lucky! The 'Anything Goes' Appraisal Team" in English. It has been airing on TV Tokyo since 1994 and has encouraged countless folks to unearth family treasures for inspection by expert appraisers. Quite...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 3, 2018

'Tremble All You Want': Mayu Matsuoka gives a star-making turn in delightful romcom

Hopeless crushes are typically the stuff of teen comedies, not romcoms aimed at grownups. Yet in the corner of many an adult brain exists at least one excruciating memory of that special teenaged someone you never quite worked up the nerve to speak to.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 3, 2018

Koji Yakusho reveals what makes a good director and how it feels to play 'dirty'

With a career spanning four decades, Koji Yakusho has been both a star overseas ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Babel") and an award-winner at home, most notably for his 1996 breakthrough "Shall We Dance?" But through it all he has maintained a Tom Hanks-esque nice guy image.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 3, 2018

Diving into Southeat Asian cinema at the Singapore International Film Festival

Since its start in 1987, the Singapore International Film Festival has become a key regional film event, despite being held in a city state that produces only a handful of feature films annually.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jan 3, 2018

'Mr. Long': Chang Chen's charisma carries a stylish film

The cool, tight-lipped killer-for-cash that Clint Eastwood played in the Sergio Leone Westerns of the 1960s has become an icon and, in his many imitators, something of a cliche.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

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