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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2014
Ecotherapy Getaway Holiday: Finding feminism on the way to a waterfall
Doesn't every kid imagine being lost in the woods?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2014
Daijobu 3 Kumi (Nobody's Perfect)
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2014
Parasyte: Gory invasion of the cannibal body snatchers
The closing film of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, Takashi Yamazaki's "Kiseiju: Part 1 (Parasyte: Part 1)," arrives in theaters with a lot of hype. Based on Hitoshi Iwaaki's best-selling manga about the stealth invasion of Earth by alien parasites, the film is the first of a two-part...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2014
Eien no 0 (The Eternal Zero)
Director: Takashi Yamazaki Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2014
Pale Moon: Bored bank teller embraces the root of all evil
American bank robber Willie Sutton, who allegedly made more than $2 million over a 40-year criminal career, once told a reporter that he robbed banks because "that's where the money is." In the usual heist movie, however — with Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956) serving as a template — the stolen...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2014
Hayao Miyazaki Collection
Director: Hayao Miyazaki Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 25, 2014
Spooky tales from beyond the grave
Ghost stories are universal, but Japanese ghost stories, argues Zack Davisson in "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost," are unique. So much so that Davisson, a translator and essayist who is something of a specialist in the supernatural, uses yūrei, the Japanese word for spook, throughout the text. He also makes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014
Vision of anime's future at Tokyo International Film Festival
The Tokyo International Film Festival, running through Oct. 31, is no longer Asia's biggest or most important festival — that honor is now claimed by the recently held rival Busan film festival. But its 27th edition — the first to reflect the full influence of TIFF's current director-general, Yasushi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014
TIFF Critic's Picks: Japanese directors to watch
Despite TIFF's anime focus this year, its lineup of live-action Japanese films is as wide ranging as ever, with one glaring exception: Classic Japanese movies are almost nowhere on the program, and only one Japanese film, Daisuke Yoshida's "Kami no Tsuki (Pale Moon)," is being shown in the competition....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2014
Kiyosu Kaigi (The Kiyosu Conference)
Director: Koki Mitani Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 18, 2014
Hideaki Anno: emotional deconstructionist
With dozens of the renowned filmmaker's works scheduled to be screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival over the next two weeks, we speak to the man behind the 'Evangelion' sci-fi franchise about his apocalyptic influences and prod him on the question that is on every fan's lips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2014
Two men and a tot make a half-decent film
When indie directors take a more commercial turn, the usual explanation is the bigger paycheck, but it's not always so simple. Yuya Ishii's shift from the raucous films of his early career to the more genteel, mainstream 2013 film "Fune wo Amu (The Great Passage)" raised not only his standard of living...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2014
Chisaii Ouchi (The Little House)
Director: Yoji Yamada Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2014
Harmonic slips in time, identity and language
World War II-themed films by elderly Japanese directors with direct experience of the war are not only becoming scarcer, but are also distinctly different from those of younger filmmakers trying to appeal to a mass audience. Kazuo Kuroki's 2006 film "Kamiya Etsuko no Seishun (The Blossoming of Kamiya...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2014
Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service)
Director: Takashi Shimizu Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014
Death-row samurai spills ink, not blood
Why have samurai movies become so middle-aged and sedate? Starting in the silent days and continuing through their 1950s peak, period films with top-knotted heroes typically featured a big one-against-many finale with flashing swords and the occasional firearm. Especially in the early days, both actors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014
Kokaku Kidotai (Ghost in the Shell: 25th Anniversary Edition)
Director: Mamoru Oshii Language: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2014
Fatal Frame: Mari Asato's uncanny, ghostly dopplegangers
Japanese horror movies have various ways of making you squirm, shiver or watch the screen through your fingers. But sooner or later most scares of the spook-house variety become annoying. How many more times do I want to see a ghostly hand surging from a tub of bloody water to grab an unsuspecting wrist?...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2014
Stray Cat Rock: The Collection
Directors: Yasuharu Hasebe, Toshiya FujitaLanguage: Japanese (subtitled in English)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014
'My Fair Lady' wrapped in a geisha's kimono
The musical used to be among the rarest of Japanese film genres. Plenty of films here — going back to the early talkies — featured singing and dancing, but Broadway-style musicals, which integrate the songs into the story, never really caught on.

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.