Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 3, 2016

Momoi is on fire in her new indie film 'Hee'

In her four-decade acting career Kaori Momoi has always been a free-spirited stand-out, indifferent to convention. But beneath her easygoing attitude and signature drawling delivery (which used to make me wonder what she had been ingesting before the cameras started rolling) was a thorough professionalism...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 3, 2016

'Shin Godzilla': The metaphorical monster returns

Watching "Shin Godzilla," Toho's reboot of its signature monster series, I couldn't help feeling sorry for the non-Japanese fans forced to read a blizzard of subtitles for this extremely talky and densely populated film, with a break every 10 minutes or so for Godzilla rampages — the real reason they...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 28, 2016

Our favorite monster returns to terrorize Japan in 'Shin Godzilla'

After 12 years in storage (or on Monster Island) a Japanese Godzilla is roaring again. Toho film studios has revived the world's favorite atomic-breathed monster in "Shin Godzilla," which is set for nationwide release today.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 27, 2016

Crowdfunding offers freedom to filmmakers

It's not easy making indie movies in Japan. The big studios only want commercial projects with proven fan appeal, usually based on hit manga, novels or TV dramas. Given the need, government funding schemes are paltry, with much of the money going to films about safe, uncontroversial subjects.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 27, 2016

'The Dork, the Girl and the Douchebag': The hard-hitting brutality of gang life

Some filmmakers will go to any end for their art. Werner Herzog notoriously put cast and crew through hell in the making of "Fitzcarraldo" (1982) in the Peruvian jungle, with hundreds of indigenous people hired to drag a 320-ton steamship over a hill with real ropes and real injuries.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 20, 2016

'Ken and Kazu': The yakuza isn't all guns and glamour

Most films about the yakuza depict its members as fully formed and distinctly different from the general run of humanity, somewhat like action figures just out of the box. The reality, as Hiroshi Shoji's "Ken and Kazu" shows us with a gritty directness and power, is more quotidian. For Shoji's title...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Jul 20, 2016

Tai Kato: The too-often neglected samurai- and ganster-movie master

Tai Kato (1916-85) has long ranked high on critics' lists as a neglected director, and the neglect continues, especially overseas.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 13, 2016

'Ishibumi': Tragic history set in stone

An annual ritual on Japanese television on or around Aug. 6 is a number of special programs about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Truth be told, after many years in this country I tune out more than I tune in. Just as the bombings were political acts, so are the many memorial programs...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 6, 2016

'Moriyamachu Driving School': Two teens behind the wheel of life

Learning to drive is a rite of passage that more Japanese men appear to be avoiding: The number of male drivers has been falling every year since 2009. The number of women drivers, by contrast, has been rising. Reasons for the drop include the decline of the car as a male status symbol. Back in the day,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle

Jul 6, 2016

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival is not just for film buffs

Launched 13 years ago in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture to present movies in the then-emerging digital format, the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival has since become a leading domestic showcase of feature, short and animated films by up-and-coming filmmakers from Japan and around the world.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 29, 2016

'Desperate Sunflowers': Women on the verge of friendship

Movies about female friendship are no longer rare: In the 25 years since the seminal "Thelma and Louise," even the Japanese film industry has figured out that two or more women bonding on screen can be good for the box office. But what about feuding female cousins?

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 22, 2016

Keeping it real: Naomi Kawase on filmmaking

Naomi Kawase has always been an outlier in the Japanese film world, if a very successful one. Born and raised in Nara Prefecture, the site of Japan's ancient capital, she started making documentaries while a student at the Osaka School of Photography in the late 1980s, taking as subjects her natural...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 22, 2016

'Kako: My Sullen Past': Mikiko, the prodigal bomb maker

Would anyone in Hollywood now green-light a film with a quirky middle-aged heroine whose passion is making and detonating bombs? Especially one with no apologies for her explosive past, human collateral included? I can imagine the tremors at the pitch meeting when someone says the dreaded word "terrorist."...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 15, 2016

'Creepy': It doesn't get much eerier than this

The title of "Creepy," the new shocker by horror maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa, sounds like an in-jokey self-parody. It's like titling a new Adam Sandler comedy "Goofy" (or if you're not feeling charitable, "Crappy"). But "Creepy," which premiered at this year's Berlin Film Festival, is also the title of...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 8, 2016

'The Kodai Family': A daydream believer and her mind-reading prince

Doesn't everybody want somebody who understands their true inner self? For some, it's a spouse, for others, a friend; for others still, it's Mom. Some, however — and not all under the age of 5 — have this meeting of minds and hearts with a figment of their imaginations.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jun 1, 2016

'Danchi': The extraordinary everywoman

"Danchi" doesn't translate easily into English. "Apartment complex" or "housing estate" are only rough equivalents for the thousands of public-housing units thrown up in the postwar boom years to cope with Tokyo's exploding population. Equipped with running water, flush toilets and other amenities, with...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 26, 2016

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia casts Tokyo in a special role

Now in its 18th edition, the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, which will unspool from June 2 to 26 at six venues in Tokyo and Yokohama, has grown into a world-class showcase for short-form cinema.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 25, 2016

'Himeanole': The hairline between good and evil

The moral universe of most commercial films is simple: The good guys prevail, the bad guys are punished — and we are seldom in doubt as to who is who. But what if the bad guys deserve sympathy, even the ones who commit horrific crimes? Is that, in a movie world that prefers black and white to gray,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 18, 2016

Koreeda discusses before and 'After the Storm'

I've interviewed the director Hirokazu Koreeda several times over the years since we first met at a preview screening of his otherworldly drama "After Life" ("Wonderful Life," 1999). Then and now his answers to even often-asked questions are always thoughtful and considered.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

May 18, 2016

'Wolf Girl and Black Prince': The dogged persistence of teen love

Girls go for bad, abusive guys, while relegating nice, decent ones to the dreaded "friend zone": A misogynistic lie or the cold, hard truth? Ryuichi Hiroki's "Wolf Girl and Black Prince" seems to say the latter, starting with its premise. A naive, socially inept high school girl agrees to become the...

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By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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