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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 16, 2022
‘Soup and Ideology’: A touching family portrait that feeds the soul
Director Yang Yonghi comes to terms with her mother's past trauma and animosity toward South Korea in the moving final chapter of her documentary trilogy on familial ties.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2022
'Tokyo Side A': Making sense of the 'pandemic Olympics'
Official Olympics documentaries can be as triumphant as a gold-medal performance or they can end up in infamy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2022
'Inu-Oh’: A rock musical that won't be headlining anytime soon
While 'Inu-Oh' contains good insights into how folk traditions are born, the visuals and music could've benefited from more variety.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 12, 2022
‘Drive Into Night’: Middle age doldrums take a turn toward the bizarre
Dai Sako's offbeat drama involving a corpse in a car trunk is a wild ride to remember, even if its characters' memories and morals are suspect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 6, 2022
Emma Kawawada's humane portrayal of the Kurdish diaspora
'My Small Land,' which centers on young girl and her family seeking asylum in Japan, is based on extensive interviews that the director conducted over the space of nearly two years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 28, 2022
‘Bubble’: A thin plot brings down exciting visuals
Tetsuro Araki's film about teenage parkour practitioners living in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo has some exhilarating action sequences, but its jumble of genre elements falls flat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2022
‘Tsuyukusa’: A charming second shot at love and life
Satomi Kobayashi gives an endearing performance as a single woman whose life takes an unexpected turn after a close call with a meteorite.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2022
‘Tombi: Father and Son’: Showa nostalgia misses the mark
Takahisa Zeze's decades-spanning family drama is sentimental and unintentionally silly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Apr 8, 2022
'Tokyo Vice' steps into the capital's criminal underworld
Ken Watanabe and Hideaki Ito star alongside Ansel Elgort in the cross-cultural series that brings to life an American reporter's memoir about investigating Japan's yakuza in the 1990s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2022
‘One Day, You Will Reach the Sea’: A haunting ode to those who couldn’t say goodbye
Yukino Kishii gives a controlled performance as a woman struggling to deal with the disappearance of a former friend in Ryutaro Nakagawa's drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2022
How well do you know Japan's Oscar history?
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's “Drive My Car” is nominated in four categories at the 94th Academy Awards, but win or lose, the film joins an exclusive club for cinematic greats.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2022
Eiko Ishibashi’s score sets the scene in Oscar-contender ‘Drive My Car’
The composer and musician's body of work spans from abstract art pop to experimental electronics, with her love for cinema serving as a major source of inspiration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2022
‘Kappei’: The end can’t come soon enough
Even a perfectly cast Hideaki Ito can't save this limp, low-calorie comedy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 10, 2022
‘Tamaran Hill’: A playful literary journey to get lost in
In Tadasuke Kotani's heartfelt adaptation of Senji Kuroi's short story, a young woman's exploration of Tokyo's hidden memories leads her down a path of self-discovery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2022
‘The Last 10 Years’: Keep a hanky handy for this weepy romance
Michihito Fujii's splashy terminal illness drama can't help succumbing to the usual genre tropes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2022
‘Chronicle in the Ruins’: An intimate look at a family’s rise from the ashes
Masato and Maori Hara's documentary poignantly captures the weight of memory and loss by incorporating footage recovered in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed their family home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2022
‘The Takatsu River’: A homey hometown drama
Yoshinari Nishikori offers a relatively upbeat take on a well-worn story of a rural Japanese community in decline.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2022
Oscars nod launches director Ryusuke Hamaguchi into the global spotlight
Ryusuke Hamaguchi landed four major Oscar nominations this week, a phenomenal achievement for a filmmaker who is still really just hitting his stride.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2022
‘What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?’: Satoshi Miki’s inverted monster movie bites off more than it can chew
Satoshi Miki's disaster film about what happens after a monster attack sounds good on paper, but it's an almighty mess.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 27, 2022
‘Pure Japanese’: Dean Fujioka’s passion project is a fascinating muddle
A typical genre-movie premise gets complicated in director Daishi Matsunaga's film about a stuntman living out his fantasies of old-school heroism.

Longform

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