author

 
Menu
Search
 
October 22, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

Meta

Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2016
'Japanese Girls Never Die': They want to have more than just fun
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to build a society in which "all women can shine." But as Daigo Matsui graphically shows in his new film "Japanese Girls Never Die," women in Japan are still living in a male-dominated society that, in everything from unequal pay to blatant sexual harassment,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2016
'The Rondo of the Squall': More damp squib than thrilling storm
The film's formulas cover lead actor Hiroshi Abe's best efforts in a white blanket of mediocrity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2016
Mifune: The making of Japan's 'Last Samurai'
Toshiro Mifune was the first Japanese — or, for that matter, Asian — actor to become an international action star.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2016
'In This Corner of the World': Katabuchi's war film has a human heart
Going into "In This Corner of the World" ("Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni"), Sunao Katabuchi's animation about a girl's coming of age in prewar Hiroshima and wartime Kure, I was vaguely expecting an anti-war film like Isao Takahata's classic "Grave of the Fireflies" ("Hotaru no Haka," 1988), with its heart-rending...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2016
Japanese films dive deep at TIFF, but surface without major awards
The Japanese films at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival were a varied lot, from the multiplex fare in the Special Screenings and Japan Now sections to the indies in the Japanese Cinema Splash, Competition and Asian Future sections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2016
'At the Terrace' offers witty, coarse fun
"I know that many film fans have an allergy to films based on plays," writes Kenji Yamauchi on the website for his new film, "At the Terrace" ("At the Terrace: Terasu Nite"). "The never-changing setting and the long conversations bore them."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 9, 2016
Tokyo Filmex sharpens its focus
Is Tokyo Filmex losing its raison d'etre? Opening less than a month after the Tokyo International Film Festival ends, Tokyo Filmex was once the hard-core indie antithesis of the larger, more mainstream TIFF, but the latter is now more welcoming to the kind of young, up-and-coming Japanese and Asian directors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2016
'Memories': Remembering the Battle of Peleliu
Japanese films about the war, both fiction and nonfiction, rarely focus on the fighting between Japanese and American forces in the Pacific, though Clint Eastwood's 2006 hit "Letters from Iwo Jima" proved the subject can make for critically acclaimed and commercially successful drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 2, 2016
Tokyo Station Gallery celebrates Ken Takakura's traditional virtues
Ken Takakura (1931-2014) was a major film star for nearly five decades. He also became a national icon for embodying traditional virtues, especially in his dozens of gang films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2016
'My Uncle': Time to wake up and smell the coffee
Some movies are like a relaxing soak in a bubble bath with your favorite rubber duck. Your soul may not soar, but when you finally emerge you feel lighter on your feet and at peace with the world. What's wrong with that? That was my feeling as I exited "My Uncle," Nobuhiro Yamashita's new comedy starring...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2016
Tokyo International Film Festival welcomes audiences to the animated world of Mamoru Hosoda
The Tokyo International Film Festival, whose 29th edition unspools from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3, offers something for everyone — from golden oldies in the Japanese Classics section to films for kids in the new Youth section. However, as Japan's biggest film festival, as well as one of the most important...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2016
Japan's eclectic collection of choice
The Tokyo International Film Festival offers a great once-in-a-year opportunity to see new and classic Japanese films with English subtitles. The sheer quantity on offer — more than 50 titles in the main sections alone — can be overwhelming, though. Here are samples from my own must-see list.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 19, 2016
Kyoto International Film Festival wraps up in style
Kyoto is a great destination for a variety of reasons — and the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival (KIFF) wants to be one of them. Its third edition, which just wrapped up on Oct. 16, offered everything from the arts and crafts for which Kyoto is famous to screenings of 108 short and feature...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2016
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's cinematic apparitions
Directors who become known as horror specialists often end up making little else, whether by choice or not. Labeled a "horrormeister" for such supremely creepy films as "Cure" (1997) and "Pulse" (Kairo, 2001), Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one director who has successfully expanded beyond the genre with his dark...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2016
'The Long Excuse': Can a jerk find redemption?
Miwa Nishikawa has made films about various sorts of scapegraces and con artists, but her latest, "The Long Excuse," may be her first about a certifiable jerk.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2016
My Dad and Mr. Ito: No one can be daddy's girl forever
The opening of Yuki Tanada's new film "My Dad and Mr. Ito" promises a comedy of the quirky family variety.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2016
'Harmonium': Dangerously good family drama
The films of Koji Fukada have long wrapped ambitious themes in deceptively unassuming genre packages. His 2011 international breakout "Hospitalite" ("Kantai") begins as a quirky comedy but becomes a sharp-edged drama of deceptions and secrets. Last year's "Sayonara" starts as an offbeat essay in apocalyptic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2016
'Scoop!': Read all about it here
Japanese weekly scandal magazines are pond scum, are they not? Dishing up grainy paparazzi photos of the famous and powerful, accompanied by wink-wink stories about improprieties and crimes — alleged or exposed — they appeal to the lowest common denominator, with their only raison d'etre being sales...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2016
Yuki Tanada's new film sees the humor in societal changes
The Japanese women directors who have been gaining attention in the past two decades, beginning with frequent Cannes invitee Naomi Kawase, tend to be serious types, understandably. Their struggle for respect and recognition in a male-dominated industry is difficult enough — and goofy comedies are usually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2016
'Someone's Xylophone': Yoichi Higashi hits an unusual tone
Yoichi Higashi has made everything from commercial hits to festival favorites in his five-plus decades as a director, while taking up politically sensitive subjects and unpopular issues. His 1992 smash "The Bridge with No River" ("Hashi no Nai Kawa") depicted the raw prejudice endured by burakumin outcasts...
Takaichi makes history as Japan’s first female prime minister
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi reacts to applauding lawmakers after being elected prime minister at the Lower House on Tuesday.
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.
Rare female yakuza walks path to redemption in Japan
Retired yakuza Mako Nishimura sorts fallen leaves during a clean-up activity at the Gifu Gokoku shrine in Gifu Prefecture on Sept. 28.
Takaichi government will likely spend less than expected
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi at the National Diet Building in Tokyo on Monday
Nakatsu keeps its cool as gentrification looms
Shunsuke Takahashi, owner of the cafe Hood by Vargas, says the Osaka neighborhood of Nakatsu feels brighter and calmer with the influx of new businesses.
How Japan’s greatest psychological horror game came home
Series composer Akira Yamaoka and writer Ryukishi07 were integral figures in helping one of Japan's greatest horror gaming franchises land a Japanese setting.
Japan leads in in-depth AI awareness, new global study finds
In Japan, 55% were “equally concerned and excited” about the rise of AI in daily life, while 28% were “more concerned than excited.”
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"

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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER