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July 05, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
Surefire formulas failed Japanese cinema in 2017
In a quarter-century of reporting on the Japanese film industry, I've yet to find one optimist about its future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
A courtroom drama, an alien takeover and the lives of sex workers all feature in the best Japanese films of 2017
This year was bad for Japanese films box office-wise, but not quality-wise. Here are my best 10:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 6, 2017
'Vigilante': Brotherly love takes a beating in an intense family drama
Saitama doesn't get a lot of respect. This prefecture has a reputation, especially among those who live in the posher precincts of Tokyo, as the land of boring bed towns, populated by the tragically unhip.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 6, 2017
'Hanagatami': Extravagance on the edge of war
Despite a lengthy filmography that began in the 1960s, Nobuhiko Obayashi is known in the West mainly for his 1977 feature debut "House." This horror-fantasy about a house that devours its inhabitants is a surreal riot of the imagination that tosses local filmmaking conventions out the window.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 29, 2017
'And Then There Was Light': Moments of beauty engulfed in miserabilism
Tatsushi Omori's films have been pushing boundaries since his 2005 debut "The Whispering of the Gods," with its story of a young murderer's return to a Christian community presided over by the priest who abused him as a child.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 23, 2017
Sun, sand and the silver screen
Launched in 1981 by Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) was the first film festival in the United States to focus on films from the Asia-Pacific region. Being a bridge between East and West is still its mission, but HIFF now has plenty of company around the world....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 22, 2017
'Spark': A fool and a straight man walk into a bar...
Stand-up — one comic in front of a microphone — is the default setting for live comedy in the United States. In Japan the equivalent has long been rakugo, a traditional form in which a single performer tells comic stories. Today, however, aspiring comics usually opt for manzai, a style of duo comedy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 22, 2017
'The Lowlife': A complicated look at the motivations of AV actresses
Poverty and debt are two traditional reasons for becoming a porn actress. But as Takahisa Zeze's new film "The Lowlife" nonjudgmentally shows, the women who work in Japan's giant AV (adult video) industry today may also have other, more personal motivations, though they are still social outsiders.
A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
Magnitude 5.5 earthquake jars Tokara Islands amid flurry of seismic activity
A strong quake struck off the Tokara Islands on Thursday afternoon, with the island chain having recorded around 1,000 earthquakes since a burst of seismic activity first began on June 21.
Japan to require flight passengers to keep power banks within sight
The transport ministry has announced new regulations requiring flight passengers to keep power banks within sight to mitigate fire risks while on board planes.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Residents of Tokara Islands begin evacuation as seismic swarm continues
Details about evacuations from Akuseki Island, located in the Tokara island chain in Kagoshima Prefecture, is seen written on a whiteboard in the city of Kagoshima on Thursday.
Ghibli’s Isao Takahata exhibit shows how beloved anime is made
“The man who planted Japanese animation” exhibition includes a variety of sketches, drawings and animation cels from Isao Takahata films such as color design for characters by Michiyo Yasuda from "Grave of the Fireflies."
Flag football facing challenges and opportunities ahead
Japan’s women’s flag football team at the 2025 International Bowl in Los Angeles in June. The sport is enjoying continued growth in the country.
From Hokusai’s Great Wave, shinkansen to One Piece: a cultural treasure box for Lego Japan
Michael Ebbesen, general manager of Lego Japan, says Lego bricks based on Japanese culture have a rich global appeal and are sellable around the world.
With farmed fish, RelationFish swims against the tide in fine dining
Chef Hideaki Matsuo (middle) and the staff of Oseto Suisan Fisheries prepare to check on their sustainably farmed fish.
As Southeast Asia heats up, a Japanese cooling giant sees a major opportunity
An employee of Daikin Cambodia explains the use of different tools during an air conditioner installation training session in Phnom Penh. Daikin is one of Japan’s oldest air conditioning companies, but as Japan’s population falls, the firm is keying in on overseas growth.

Podcast

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

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji
By Alex K.T. Martin

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