Mark Schilling - The Japan Times

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Mark Schilling

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 18, 2011

Volunteer-led Tohoku cinema provides welcome escapism

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 in the Tohoku region, survivors received nearly every type of aid imaginable from thousands of volunteers, ranging from hot meals to haircuts. But they also faced long, soul-deadening hours in shelters and temporary housing, with little in the way...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 18, 2011

'Koi no Tsumi (Guilty of Romance)'

How can a film shock today's jaded audiences, for whom blood spurts and flying body parts prompt laughter instead of gasps? How can a filmmaker transgress when nearly everything is allowed? Taken far enough, this line of inquiry can lead to the attention of the police. It can also be the starting point...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 11, 2011

'Sarariman Neo Gekijoban (Warai) (Japanese Salaryman Neo)'

These are hard, uncertain times, especially for young Japanese who have failed to get the right degree from a prestigious university and the right job with a big-name company. If they can find work at all, it is often well below expectations for the rising generation of that onetime economic powerhouse,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 11, 2011

An audience with Kyoko Kagawa

Kyoko Kagawa is among the fast dwindling number of living witnesses to Japanese cinema's Golden Age of the 1950s and '60s.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 4, 2011

'Suteki na Kanashibari (Once In a Blue Moon/A Ghost of a Chance)'

Koki Mitani is Japan's most successful comedy writer and director, with a long string of hit plays, TV dramas and films to his credit, most recently "The Uchoten Hoteru (Suite Dreams)" and "The Magic Hour."

CULTURE / Film

Nov 4, 2011

Tokyo film fest shuns controversy

The 24th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival ended on Sunday, after nine days and 128 films, without any major mishaps or controversies. This was a disappointment to one journalist friend: "A good film festival invites controversy," she told me at the closing party. "TIFF hates it."

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 28, 2011

'Sumagura (Smuggler)'

Katsuhito Ishii was an early avatar of Japanese quirk, making films that celebrated the wilder, goofier side of the local pop culture while flouting the conventions of commercial cinema, including at least a veneer of sanity.

LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL

Oct 24, 2011

Foreign films' Japanese titles often read like riddles

Japanese distributors of foreign films usually follow the path of least resistance in titling their products for the local market, either rendering the title in katakana or translating it more or less directly. One recently released example is the shocker "The Last Exorcism," whose katakana-ized Japanese...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 21, 2011

Now's your chance to catch up on Japanese cinema

Non-Japanese residents in Tokyo who want to see new and classic Japanese films but are frustrated by the small number of subtitled screenings can catch up — and move ahead — at the Tokyo International Film Festival (Oct. 22-30).

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 14, 2011

'Ichimei (Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai)'

The samurai movie has a great and glorious tradition, but Japanese directors have long been of two minds about the samurai themselves. For every "Chushingura" remake that celebrates the samurai ethos of loyalty and self-sacrifice, there is a genre masterpiece that questions it.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 7, 2011

'Tsure ga Utsu ni Narimashite (My S.O. Has Depression)'

Here's a confession: I'm not a big reader of manga, including the many that have been made into Japanese films. Given the limited amount of reading time I have left on Earth, I'd rather spend it with Proust than "Gantz." So sue me.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 30, 2011

When Hayabusa, a Japanese satellite sent to collect soil samples from a distant asteroid, returned safely to Earth in June 2010, many Japanese felt an excitement and pride more akin to a World Cup win than an event that, abroad, was a one-day news story to all but space geeks.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 23, 2011

'Kazoku X (Household X)'

The recent spate of Japanese family dramas by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda, Shinya Tsukamoto, Yuya Ishii and other indie directors has produced much outstanding work, but the on-screen alienation can be depressing, to be honest. The housewives (almost never career women) in these films live especially...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 23, 2011

Actress Kaho Minami on speaking without words

Kaho Minami has had a busy and varied career as an actress since her 1985 debut in Kohei Oguri's "Kayako no Tameni" ("For Kayoko"). In addition to appearing in everything from commercial hits (Takashi Miike's "Yokai Daisenso [The Great Yokai War]," 2005) to films with leading indie directors (Jun Ichikawa,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 16, 2011

A decent fright flick, but shame about the 3-D

Once considered a fad consigned to the dustbin of Hollywood history, 3-D now looks about as likely to fade away as color and sound. It's waning with the box-office failure of crappy conversions from 2-D, yes, but the six 3-D films that have grossed $1 billion or more worldwide suggest that the mass audience...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 2, 2011

'Hanezu no Tsuki (Hanezu)'

Naomi Kawase is the most lyrical of Japanese directors now working. As both a documentarian and a feature filmmaker, she discovers in the common materials of everyday existence — sun, wind, water, trees, insects, people — a beauty and transcendence that is always present, seldom noticed. Set mostly...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 26, 2011

Young souls a sacrifice too far for fictional wartime officers

The conventional Japanese World War II movie is something of a paradox. Usually set in the war's closing days and after (I've heard Emperor Showa's surrender statement so many times now I could recite it in my sleep), with a pacifist message implicit or explicit, it nonetheless celebrates traditional...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 19, 2011

'Usagi Doroppu (Bunny Drop)'

Movies about single guys who become suddenly burdened with the responsibilities of parenthood, whether from Hollywood ("Three Men and a Baby") or Japan (the underrated "Yukai Rapusodi [Accidental Kidnapper]"), follow a pattern set in stone: After rising to various patience- and character-testing occasions,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 12, 2011

'Ichimai no Hagaki (Post Card)'

Kaneto Shindo is, at 99, the oldest film director in Japan and, after Portugal's centenarian Manoel de Oliveira, the world. As a scriptwriter active since the 1930s, he has worked on many commercial films, but as a director, starting in 1951 with "Aisai Monogatari (Story of a Beloved Wife)," he has taken...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 5, 2011

'Reikai no Tobira Sutorito Byu (Gate to Another World: Street View)' / '2channeru no Noroi Gekijoban (Curse of 2channel, The Movie)'

Every August, Japanese horror films appear in theaters here, cashing in on the traditional belief that chills from scary stories help beat the summer heat. And every August, critics lament that they don't match up to the products of J-horror's glory years — the late 1990s to early 2000s.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.

If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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