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May 18, 2024
 

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James Hadfield
For James Hadfield's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
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.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2021
‘The Blue Danube’: Finding levity in the drudgery of war
Akira Ikeda's absurdist drama about two towns locked in an interminable war finds humor in tragedy and boredom.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2021
Pushing against the grain of Japan’s film industry
Industry gatekeepers have been resistant to the idea that an India-born director can make a Japanese film. With “Kontora,” Anshul Chauhan isn't trying to endear himself to any of them.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2021
‘The Sun Stands Still’: Race against time fails to pick up the pace
Eiichiro Hasumi's big-budget thriller about globe-trotting spies is not quite Japan's answer to the “Mission: Impossible” movies.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2021
Director Kentaro brings an auteur’s touch to a soulful road movie
The 'Under the Turquoise Sky' director mixes realism, fantasy and comedy in his visually stirring feature debut about a Japanese man who goes on a journey of self-discovery in Mongolia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2021
‘Heisei no Oto’: A sonic trip to the golden age of CDs
Osaka record store owners Eiji Taniguchi and Norio Sato have unearthed some musical treasures from 1989-96 for this bright and buoyant compilation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2021
‘The Murders of Oiso’: A whodunnit in search of a crime
Takuya Misawa's stylish and enigmatic murder mystery centers on a quartet of friends thrown into disarray after a sudden death in their town.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2021
‘In Those Days’: Say hello to the fanboy life of days gone by
Rikiya Imaizumi's bittersweet comedy-drama delves into the fan culture that flourished during the heyday of idol collective Hello! Project in the early 2000s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2021
‘The Cinderella Addiction’: Can stepmothers get their happily ever after?
Ryohei Watanabe's tragicomedy about the dark side of parenting is fitfully stylish, but gets a little too twisted for its own good.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 20, 2021
‘I Fell in Love Like a Flower Bouquet’: Millennial romance with a Gen X heart
Kasumi Arimura and Masaki Suda star in an entertaining but inauthentic portrait of 2010s romance, penned by veteran TV screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2021
‘Woman of the Photographs’: An existentialist fable for the Instagram age
Takeshi Kushida's debut feature playfully riffs on Kobo Abe's novel, “The Woman in the Dunes,” in a surrealist fable about the pitfalls of image retouching.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2020
‘Silent Tokyo’: All is not calm this Christmas Eve
In Takafumi Hatano's blockbuster action thriller, a peace-loving terrorist threatens to blow up Tokyo, throwing the capital's citizens into a panic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2020
‘Alice in Borderland’: Deadly journey through the looking glass leaves little impression
Netflix's sci-fi suspense series about a young man forced to go through a series of twisted challenges takes place in a cityscape that looks all too familiar in 2020.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Japan to review romanization system for first time in 70 years
An advisory panel to the education ministry will consider how the Japanese language should be transcribed into the Latin alphabet, including unifying different romanization styles currently in use.
Japanese billionaire sues Meta over investment scams using his image
Entrepreneurs Yusaku Maezawa (second from right) and Takafumi Horie (third from right) attend a study session on fake social media ads and investment scams at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on April 10.
Japan’s economy contracts as consumers and firms cut spending
Japan's gross domestic product shrank at an annualized pace of 2% in the three months through March.
Toshiba takes advantage of private status to chart new course
Toshiba announced on Thursday that it would cut up to 4,000 jobs as part of a restructuring plan.
U.S. envoy to Japan makes landmark visit to front-line island near Taiwan
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel meets with members of the Self-Defense Forces stationed on Yonaguni, Okinawa Prefecture, on Friday.
Xi and Putin mark ‘new era’ amid efforts to counter U.S. ‘containment’
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend an event in Beijing on Thursday. During Putin's visit, the leaders showed off their growing alignment amid efforts to push back against the U.S.-led world order.
Unraveling the Japanese prose of Yukio Mishima
Author Yukio Mishima accepts the Arts Festival Award in the drama category at the 20th Arts Festival Award Ceremony on Jan. 22, 1966.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.

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