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James Hadfield
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2021
‘Moonlight Shadow’: Dream-like mood piece depicts grief with aching clarity
Nana Komatsu's performance as a woman mourning a lost love anchors Edmund Yeo's seductive adaptation of a Banana Yoshimoto short story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 26, 2021
‘A Girl on the Shore’: A risque teen drama comes up empty
Atsushi Ueda's film adaptation of Inio Asano's manga stays true to its source material, but doesn't quite capture the messy emotions of adolescence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2021
‘Drive My Car’: Slow-burn drama does best when taking new routes
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story, which won the award for best screenplay at this year's Cannes film festival, is a meta-drama on loss and breaking down barriers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2021
‘It’s a Flickering Life’: A heartfelt ode to golden oldies spread thin
Veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada's tribute to the film industry and the audiences who are keeping it alive is well-meaning but doesn't quite hit its mark.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 15, 2021
‘Tokyo Kurds’: A sobering look at lives in limbo
Fumiari Hyuga's documentary about asylum seekers in Japan is an intimate portrait of life with freedom hanging in the balance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 8, 2021
‘The Asian Angel’: A road movie with a touch of the divine
Two dysfunctional families from Japan and South Korea take a cross-country road trip in Yuya Ishii's “The Asian Angel.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jul 1, 2021
‘The Naked Director Season 2’: Netflix’s porn industry saga is skin deep
The second season of the streaming giant's fictionalized biopic of Japan's notorious adult-video director and entrepreneur offers another round of cheap thrills.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 24, 2021
‘The Door into Summer’: Some doors are best left closed
An orphaned genius travels to the future and back in Takahiro Miki's treacly sci-fi, “The Door Into Summer,” based on the 1957 novel of the same name by Robert A. Heinlein.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2021
‘Mari and Mari’: A perfect couple comes undone
Tatsuya Yamanishi's intriguing debut feature takes a cynical view of relationships, with a premise that's like something out of an early Haruki Murakami story.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2021
‘Brothers in Brothel’: Come for the sex, stay for the family drama
Sex is a dirty family business in actor-turned-director Jiro Sato's vivid drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 26, 2021
'Tomorrow's Dinner Table': Three women are served an overwhelming helping of struggle
Mitsuki Takahata is a standout in Takahisa Zeze's uneven multinarrative drama about the struggles of modern mothers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2021
'A Madder Red': Yuya Ishii's pandemic drama is scattershot but soulful
Social realism rubs up against melodrama in the film 'A Madder Red,' which focuses on a single mother dealing with economic challenges during the pandemic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2021
Pioneering composer Terry Riley finds himself comfortably marooned in Japan
Performer-composer Terry Riley's 1964 piece 'In C' has been compared to Igor Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring.'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2021
‘Headless Girl’: A lighter approach to the act of historical interpretation
A planned peace memorial triggers open conflict in Ken Kawai's “Headless Girl,” a scattershot satire about who gets to write history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 30, 2021
Flying Lotus gets into the samurai mindset for 'Yasuke' soundtrack
Electronic musician Flying Lotus draws inspiration from the likes of Vangelis, Isao Tomita and Jean-Michel Jarre in creating the music for the Netflix anime about Japan's only Black samurai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2021
‘Blue’: Not your typical underdog story
Kenichi Matsuyama plays a fighter on a losing streak in Keisuke Yoshida's “Blue,” a boxing drama that finds nobility in failure.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2021
Sex, murder and a getaway car: ‘Ride or Die’ stars go on the trip of a lifetime
Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato discuss the challenges of bringing Ching Nakamura's harrowing, sexually explicit manga to the screen in a provocative new Netflix movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 7, 2021
‘Homunculus’: You need to see this like you need a hole in the head
Takashi Shimizu's adaptation of a manga series about a man who gains psychic powers after having a hole drilled in his head manages to be tasteless and timid at once.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2021
'Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction' shows the gory details of modern-day publishing
Director Daihachi Yoshida brings a sympathetic lens to an industry in trouble in his film “Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2021
‘Junk Head’: One man’s imaginatively twisted labor of love
Takahide Hori's stop-motion animation feature, which took seven years to complete, has finally arrived in Japanese theaters after receiving a warm reception overseas.

Longform

People in cities across Japan will pop into their local convenience store for any number of products they believe will help them with a night of drinking.
Hangover cures are everywhere in Japan — but do they work?