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July 05, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
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...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2016
'After the Storm': Koreeda's tempestuous family affairs
Hirokazu Koreeda has a reputation abroad as the one director of his generation carrying on the humanist tradition of Japanese cinema's 1950s and '60s Golden Age. This is not totally off the mark — he often returns to that favorite Golden Age theme, family dissolution, but his take on it is quite different...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2016
'Hero Mania': Japanese heroes are keeping it real
Why don't Japanese audiences turn up in big numbers for Hollywood superhero movies? The rare success in Japan of the Spider-Man series suggests one answer: Japanese like superheroes just fine, as long as they're flawed humans as well as heroic fighters for justice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2016
'Terraformars': Miike's life on Mars has its bugs
Now that voyages to Mars seem likely in the next generation or so, films about the red planet are moving beyond the "John Carter" (2012) space-opera stage. But for every reality-based "The Martian," there is still a "Terraformars," Takashi Miike's latest extreme entertainment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 20, 2016
'I Am a Hero': Japanese zombies pick up the pace
Horror films here have traditionally featured vengeful female ghosts, but Japanese filmmakers do also take cues from Hollywood, where zombies have long flourished since George Romero's seminal "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and "Dawn of the Dead" (1978). Even so, Japanese zombie films, such as Hiroshi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 2016
Okita keeps every hair in place
Millions of Japanese have come from the countryside to find their fortunes in Tokyo, with most arriving in the postwar boom when jobs were everywhere and the future looked bright. But many, like the punk rocker hero of Shuichi Okita's offbeat, warm-hearted family comedy "The Mohican Comes Home" ("Mohikan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016
'Lowlife Love': The shady love of the film industry
According to Eiren (Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan), 581 Japanese films were released domestically last year, many of which were low-budget productions shown in small numbers of theaters. Beneath these films "officially" recognized by Eiren is a substratum of straight-to-DVD fare. And...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016
Tokyo Talkies seeks to broaden exposure to Indian films
Indian cinema is prolific and diverse, with 1,969 feature titles released by 20 regional film industries in 2014, but movie fans in Japan have few chances to see this vast output. (Let's not count Bollywood musicals playing silently on monitors in Indian restaurants.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2016
'Bitter Honey': Fishing for the love of a writer
Films about elderly men falling for elusive young women (and utimately regretting it) go back to "The Blue Angel" (1930). One Japanese example is Kaneto Shindo's 1992 "Bokuto Kidan" ("The Strange Tale of Oyuki"), a biopic about writer Kafu Nagai and the prostitute he came to love. Unlike the deluded...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 23, 2016
Forever young: Riko Narumi gives up old roles
In 2000, Riko Narumi made her first appearance on TV at age 7. She has worked steadily in both television and film ever since, and has 24 entries in her filmography, ranging from the drama "Shindo"(2007), where she played a troubled teen piano prodigy, to quirky comedy "Seaside Motel" (2011), in which...
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after
Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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