James Hadfield - The Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 9, 2015

Japanese winemaker reflects on life and disaster in this succinct New Zealand documentary

Today's documentarians may dream of making epic Frederick Wiseman-style films, but online audiences aren't usually so patient. Three hours? You'll be lucky to hold someone's attention for three minutes.

CULTURE / Film

Jul 8, 2015

The avalanche of cringe in 'Force Majeur'

When a crisis hits, it's hard to say how any of us will react. Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke), a handsome alpha-male type, has managed to drag himself away from work to join his family on a skiing trip in the French Alps. The first day of the holiday passes without incident, but on the second, their lunch...

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS

Jul 3, 2015

Subtly subversive coffee in Tokyo's book district

There's a spirit of openness in the Tokyo coffee scene at the moment that's really quite refreshing. Rather than jealously guarding their secrets, the current crop of baristas and specialty roasters are talking, sharing and egging each other on.

CULTURE / Film

Jul 1, 2015

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' didn't need a director

How many superheroes does it take to make a movie? At this point, Marvel Studio's cinematic empire is getting so overpopulated that you'd need a spreadsheet to keep track of who everyone is. There are over a dozen comic-book characters vying for attention in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," — some who have...

CULTURE / Film

Jun 24, 2015

Turkey's master of slow-boil cinema keeps his characters simmering with tension in 'Winter Sleep'

This may seem an odd form of praise, but Nuri Bilge Ceylan does boredom awfully well. The Turkish director's last film, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" (2011), was a police procedural that had been denuded of the drama you'd normally expect from the genre. Yet as its protagonists trudged fruitlessly from...

CULTURE / Film

Jun 24, 2015

'Through a Lens Darkly' documents the immense power that images have in the African-American community

After the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, news media briefly circulated a photo of the 18-year-old flashing a "gang sign," transforming him into a menace to society. Twitter users, many of them also young, black males, responded by posting side-by-side photos...

CULTURE / Books

Jun 20, 2015

Cult manga artist Tadao Tsuge's 'Trash Market' is filled with dark tales of misfits and lowlifes

"Too dark, won't sell, no commissions" — such was Tadao Tsuge's verdict on his oeuvre back in 1994. Though he was a noted contributor to alternative manga magazine "Garo" in its heyday during the late 1960s and early '70s, Tsuge remains a cult figure even in Japan, overshadowed by the reputation of...

CULTURE / Film

Jun 17, 2015

'Mad Max: Fury Road' is so good at spectacular violence that it injures itself

If you want a vision of the future, at least from George Miller's perspective, picture a boot stamping on a human face for about two hours. Those in search of a bludgeoning good time will find it in his new scorched-earth action extravaganza, "Mad Max: Fury Road" — it's hard to remember the last time...

CULTURE / Film

Jun 10, 2015

Life inside a Nepalese cable car in 'Manakamana'

One summer in Tokyo, as I was unemployed and without any better ideas about how to occupy myself, I spent an entire day riding the Yamanote Line. It takes roughly one hour to complete a loop of the line and, in the course of the day, I managed 19 laps before having to stop and catch the last train home....

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS

Jun 5, 2015

Zen and the delicate art of demitasse coffee

Shingo Naganuma isn't exaggerating when he compares the atmosphere of his coffee shop, Nejimakigumo, to a temple. Open the menu here and you'll find a list of rules, ranging from prohibitions (no smoking, no pets) to a requirement that laptop users buy extra drinks if they plan on occupying one of the...

CULTURE / Books

May 23, 2015

The 'Daughters of the Samurai' who changed the face of Meiji Era Japan

Tsuda College, occupying a leafy campus in the western suburbs of Tokyo, is a private college where female students are educated in languages and the liberal arts. In one corner of the site, overshadowed by the stately trees that surround it, lies the final resting place of Umeko Tsuda, an early pioneer...

CULTURE / Books

May 9, 2015

The 'dwarf' architect of Japan's literary boom

With a chuckle, translator and literary critic Motoyuki Shibata recalls the way author Steven Millhauser once described him.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS

May 1, 2015

Arise Coffee Roasters claims a corner in Tokyo's caffeine epicenter

The much-ballyhooed Tokyo debut of Oakland's Blue Bottle Coffee Co. in February galvanized Kiyosumi-shirakawa's reputation as the city's coffee epicenter, turning the area into a magnet for caffeine-addled day-trippers. Taiju Hayashi certainly isn't going to complain about the extra business he's been...

CULTURE / Music

Apr 12, 2015

Cuushe dreams of perfect pop on 'Night Lines'

Where Japanese musicians used to move to Tokyo for a shot at the big time, these days it feels like increasing numbers of them are heading to Berlin instead. Mayuko Hitotsuyanagi, better known by her dream-pop alias Cuushe, was one of them. In 2012, the Kyoto native embarked on a yearlong working holiday...

CULTURE / Music

Apr 12, 2015

British filmmaker sounds out Japan

In 1996, the Environment Ministry unveiled a list of designated places and traditions around the country that demanded appreciation not for how they looked, but how they sounded.

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS

Apr 3, 2015

Barista champ puts Fukuoka on the map

Yoshikazu Iwase has a tough act to top. As he heads to the World Barista Championship (WBC) in Seattle this month, he'll be following in the wake of Maruyama Coffee's Hidenori Izaki, the barista prodigy who last year became the first Japanese — and, indeed, Asian — competitor to win the title.

LIFE / Lifestyle

Mar 13, 2015

Is virtual art as nourishing as a set meal?

You have to admit, it's all awfully clever. At "L'art de Rosanjin," which runs at Nihonbashi Mitsui Hall until March 24, visitors can sit in a virtual tempura restaurant, and gawp as images of the chef's hands at work are projected on the counter in front of them, accompanied by the sounds of sizzling...

LIFE / Food & Drink / THE HIGH GROUNDS

Mar 3, 2015

Switch Coffee keeps the neighbors happy

"Sometimes people say you shouldn't make your hobby into your job," says Masahiro Onishi, the 28-year-old owner of Meguro roastery and coffee stand Switch Coffee. "I was concerned about that."

CULTURE / Music

Feb 24, 2015

Nujabes’ friends to pay tribute to the soulful hip-hop producer on the fifth anniversary of his death

When a traffic accident on Feb. 26, 2010, claimed the life of independent hip-hop auteur Jun Seba, who recorded and DJed under the name Nujabes, even some of his closest collaborators didn't find out until a few weeks later. The Japanese rapper Shingo Annen, better known by his professional name Shing02,...

CULTURE / Music

Feb 10, 2015

Egyptology asks Japan: Can you spare a synth?

For many visiting musicians, a Japanese tour consists of a brief, meticulously coordinated onslaught of gigs, interviews and in-store appearances, possibly capped by a karaoke session with the record label's PR team. Few get to spend six weeks schlepping around the country on an old city bus, as Egyptology's...

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