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September 18, 2025
 

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Mark Schilling
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2004
A sea monkey and a gentleman
Umizaru Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Eiichiro Hazumi Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese studios used to grind out contemporary action movies by the dozen, with one company, Nikkatsu, specializing in them from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 9, 2004
Honey, honey, ah, sugar, sugar
Cutie Honey Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Hideaki Anno Running time: 93 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Doesn't everybody need a break once in a while? The answer is evidently yes for Hideaki Anno, best known abroad for his meditative...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004
Just a tinkle on the keys to heaven
Tengoku no Honya - koibi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Tetsuo Shinohara Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Opens June 5 [See Japan Times movie listings] Ever since "Ghost" -- that 1990 Jerry Zucker weeper better known now as the sexiest ceramics-instructional film ever...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2004
Self-improvement in the sugar cane
Shinkokyu no Hitsuyo Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Tetsuo Shinohara Running time: 123 minutes Language: Japanese Opens May 29 [See Japan Times movie listings] Getting away from it all means different things to different people, doesn't it? Your dream vacation may be a hammock...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 19, 2004
Spirited away to a romance from the past
Sekai no Chushin De Ai o Sakebu Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 138 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What does the audience want? What does it really want? The easy answer for producers has always been "more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 12, 2004
Where everybody can be a jury member
Who are film festivals for, really? The biggest of all, Cannes, is strictly for industry professionals (or rather, anyone with enough connections to wangle accreditation). But many other festivals have turned in a more populist direction, as indicated by the ubiquity of audience awards, which make anyone...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2004
One sure way to the enjoy the twilight years
Shinibana Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Isshin Inudo Running time: 120 minutes Language: Japanese Opens May 7 [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese society is rapidly graying, as journalists never tire of telling us. What the journos seldom mention -- though the cannier film...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2004
It's back to the future in style
Casshern Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kazuaki Kiriya Running time: 141 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The great age of the megalomaniac director, who dreamt of making big, visionary, no-expenses-spared movies, ended with the silents....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2004
A universe far beyond manga as we know it
Realism no Yado Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita Running time: 83 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Foreign manga fans are always praising manga's scope as compared with that of American comics stuck in a narrow superhero...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004
Drawn to the future
Born in 1964, Fumihiko Sori joined Tokyo Broadcasting System, one of Japan's Big Four TV networks, in 1988. In 1996 he entered the film department of the University of Southern California and later assisted James Cameron with the VFX work for "Titanic." After returning to Japan he worked as a VFX supervisor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2004
Sowing the seeds of a new genre
Appleseed Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Shinji Aramaki Running time: 103 minutes Language: Japanese Opens April 17 [See Japan Times movie listings] Japanese animation is edging into the mainstream internationally, while insinuating itself into everything from "Kill Bill Vol....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2004
Guests of a grand hotel
The Hotel Venus Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Hirota Takahasi Running time: 125 minutes Language: Korean Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kyo no Dekigoto Rating: * * (out of 5) Director: isao Yukisada Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Currently...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2004
It's a wonderful dog's life
Quill Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Yoichi Sai Running time: 100 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Now Yoichi Sai directs a dog movie for kids? This is the guy who made "Tsuki wa Docchi ni Deteiru (All Under the Moon)," a picaresque...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 24, 2004
He loves me, he loves me not
Hana to Alice Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Shunji Iwai Running time: 135 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "Shunji Iwai has a shojo manga (girls' comic) sensibility," producer Takenori Sento once explained to me.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
Ghosts in the machines
Japanese science-fiction animation, from Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal "Akira" (1988) on, often points toward a post-apocalyptic, post-human future. For all the blasts 'n' babes, the curvy heroines in Spandex pouring thousands of rounds into clanking foes, the essential vision is dark -- more "Blade Runner"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
The boy who lost everything
Kamachi Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Rokuro Mochizuki Running time: 115 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] "Live fast and leave a beautiful corpse" James Dean used to say -- and he famously followed his own advice by dying in a car crash...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2004
Oshii talks softly, but carries a big script
Before I interviewed Mamoru Oshii, his publicist asked if I would need an interpreter. "He tends to mumble," she explained. No, I didn't need an interpreter, but I did turn the volume of my tape recorder on high, fortunately. Looking a decade younger than his 52 years, with a mane of unruly black hair,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2004
Ishii still probing female mysteries
Moju vs lssunboshi Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Teruo Ishii Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Opens March 13 at Shibuya Cine La Sept [See Japan Times movie listings] Film critics don't usually issue disclaimers, but one is in order, I think, before I launch into a review...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2004
Girls just wanna kill men
Fukuro Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Kaneto Shindo Running time: 119 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] Kaneto Shindo thoroughly deserves the title of Grand Old Man of Japanese movies. Now 92, he has been a scriptwriter and director...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2004
Who will save us from the scourge?
Zebraman Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Takashi Miike Running time: 115 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] What genre conventions hasn't Takashi Miike bent, twisted or simply exploded? How about "Audition," whose tender dream of May-December...
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Japan dispatches five language education 'partners' to India
Five members of the Japan Foundation's Nihongo Partners program (front) gather at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Monday.
Struggling train firm in Chiba Prefecture turns to self-deprecating humor
"Laughter is important when you're in a difficult situation," said Katsunori Takemoto, president of Choshi Electric Railway, on Aug. 5 in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture.
Over 90% of low-income families in Japan struggling to feed children
Save the Children Japan domestic program chief Sonoko Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo in July. A survey conducted by the group in June has found that over 90% of low-income households with children face food insecurity.
Japan's elderly population down at around 36.2 million
The estimated number of people age 65 or older in Japan stands at 36.19 million as of Monday, accounting for record 29.4% of the country's total population, according to the internal affairs ministry.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Japanese athletes inspired by raucous home fans at World Athletics Championships
Fans cheer on the home favorites during the women's marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
Japan's major art events converge this fall
Shinji Ohmaki’s “Tokinokage” exhibited at Fuji Textile Week 2021 shows the use of fabric as art.
Tara Davis-Woodhall leaps to gold and finds redemption at world championships
Tara Davis-Woodhall celebrates after winning the women's long jump final at the World Athletics Championships at Tokyo's National Stadium on Sunday night.
An aesthetic escape to Hakone’s art-drenched hills
Between traditional examples of fine art and sleek, modern exhibitions that blend with nature, Hakone offers a unique escape from Tokyo's urban sprawl.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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