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Mark Schilling
For Mark Schilling's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus One,” which won an Academy Award for best visual effects earlier this week, was made for a reported $15 million — a small fraction of the budgets used by its Hollywood competitors.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2024
'Godzilla Minus One' fought the odds and won big at the Oscars
Once mocked, the long-running monster franchise took on Hollywood's behemoths — and won.
A young boy (Shion Matsufuji, left) who travels a lot with his father’s theater troupe stays in one place long enough to make a new friend (Jun Saito) in “Confetti.”
CULTURE / Film
Mar 14, 2024
‘Confetti’ spotlights the transformative power of theater
Naoya Fujita’s feature debut is a sweet coming-of-age drama and a celebration of "taishū engeki," an art form that doesn’t get a lot of critical respect.
New series "Shogun" focuses on power struggles during Japan's samurai era, with warlord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) finding himself in danger of being bested — and perhaps beheaded — by rival Lord Ishido and his allies.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Mar 9, 2024
New ‘Shogun’ series is a cut above the original
From the 1980 original to ‘Last Samurai’ to now, Hollywood is getting better at depicting Japan.
In “Matched,” a dating app makes a wedding planner’s (Tao Tsuchiya, center) love life all the more difficult when it turns up a string of murders and a stalker.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2024
‘Matched’: Contrived thriller tries to make dating scarier
Clueless characters and a strained plot are hardly a perfect match in Eiji Uchida’s suspense film about murder and dating apps.
A young woman (Atsuko Maeda, right) reveals a traumatic event from her past to a one-night stand (Ryota Bando) in “Voice.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 29, 2024
‘Voice’: Raw performances knit together moving omnibus
Yukiko Mishima’s film consisting of three standalone segments powerfully speaks to the emotional wounds of trauma.
A man who struggles with a panic disorder (Hokuto Matsumura, left) and his colleague (Mone Kamishiraishi) who suffers from severe premenstrual syndrome learn to support each other in “All the Long Nights.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2024
‘All the Long Nights’: Leads’ chemistry delivers in heartwarming drama
Sho Miyake’s observant film, which explores the healing powers of a heartfelt friendship, is enhanced by evocative visual and aural beauty.
Even after getting married, Sanae (Ai Hashimoto, right) is unable to get over an ex-boyfriend whom she attempted to murder years earlier in “After the Fever.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2024
‘After the Fever’: Tortured ex-lovers’ drama descends into theatrics
Yasutaka Watanabe’s cinematography elevates Akira Yamamoto’s otherwise exhausting film about a woman’s intense obsession with a former boyfriend.
Haru (Kengo Kora) and two childhood friends are haunted by a murder that occurred during their youth and its aftereffects in "Sin and Evil."
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024
‘Sin and Evil’: Small town idyll masks decay in ambitious film
Yuki Saito’s debut feature about the lingering effects of past transgressions is overplotted but draws sharp performances from its adult leads.
Straight-to-video films, locally called “V-Cinema,” were popular in the 1990s and into the 2000s, becoming a training ground and launchpad for Japanese directors and actors.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2024
Threatened with extinction, V-Cinema hopes for new saviors
Physical deterioration and copyright issues mar the influential film genre that once served as a launchpad for directors and actors in Japan.
Harboring feelings for her one-time film director, a woman (Adela Sou, left) sets out to find him after he mysteriously disappears in “Everything, Everywhere.”
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2024
‘Everything, Everywhere’: Contemplative drama speaks to lonely drifters
Kah Wai Lim captures the beauty of the Balkans in his film about an adrift filmmaker and his muse who searches for him.
An aspiring pianist who was blinded in a traffic accident (Minami Hamabe, right) finds a devoted protector in a mute custodian (Ryosuke Yamada) at her music college in “Silent Love.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2024
‘Silent Love’: Formulaic romance strains credulity
Unlike “Midnight Swan,” Eiji Uchida’s previous film that raked in awards, the director’s new melodramatic romance lacks depth and nuance.
Rising directorial star Sho Miyake's new relationship drama, "All the Long Nights," centers on two colleagues (Hokuto Matsumura, left, and Mone Kamishiraishi) who form a bond when they discover they both struggle with health issues.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2024
Familiar faces return to the big screen in 2024
Amid a roster of hits such as "Demon Slayer," “Doraemon” and “Detective Conan," Japanese cinema gets a little more inclusive in the year ahead.
A nursing student (Kotone Furukawa, right) is terrified by the bizarre goings-on in her hometown in “Best Wishes to All.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2024
‘Best Wishes to All’: Home is where the horror is
Yuta Shimotsu’s first feature about a small town gone mad delivers shocking frights but its message fails to surprise.
A yakuza member (Go Ayano, right) enlists a teenage choir leader (Jun Saito) to teach him how to sing in "Let's Go Karaoke!"
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2024
‘Let's Go Karaoke!’: Unlikely duo's friendship hits a comic sweet spot
The chemistry between Go Ayano as a gangster and newcomer Jun Saito as a young choir leader makes their characters’ relationship shine.
A Tokyo toilet cleaner (Koji Yakusho, left) bonds with his teenage niece (Arisa Nakano) in “Perfect Days.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2024
Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’ finds beauty in small pleasures
Koji Yakusho gives an evocative, multilayered performance as a Tokyo toilet cleaner with a passion for simple joys in this poetic drama.
A young woman (Hana Sugisaki) slips through the cracks of Japan’s family register system in “Ichiko.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2023
‘Ichiko’: Hana Sugisaki transfixes with career-high performance
Akihiro Toda’s impressive drama shows different sides of its slippery protagonist without passing judgment.
A 24-year-old convenience store worker (Erika Karata) is drawn out of her shell thanks to a renewed friendship in “When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2023
‘When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty’: Hidden strengths emerge despite daily grind
With an unhurried pace, Yuho Ishibashi’s drama quietly portrays the pressures of modern work culture and the importance of friendships.
While Hayao Miyazaki’s return to filmmaking, “The Boy and the Heron,” did not attain the ¥10 billion milestone that the beloved animator’s movies had once routinely surpassed, it debuted at the top of the North American box office and became the first original anime film to lead the box office in the United States and Canada.
CULTURE / Film / 2023 in Review
Dec 15, 2023
Japan’s auteurs and anime triumphed in 2023
From Hayao Miyazaki's “The Boy and the Heron” to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster,” the box-office hits kept coming.
Cinema at Sea film festival entry “God Is a Woman,” directed by Andres Peyrot, examines the complex feelings the Kuna, indigenous people living on Panama’s San Blas Islands, have about an unreleased documentary made about them in 1975.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 9, 2023
Cinema at Sea festival highlights diversity and unheard voices
The inaugural event for the film festival in Naha, Okinawa, boasted a strong lineup of features from places and peoples underrepresented in world cinema.
Filmmaker Kah Wai Lim (left) interviews the owners of 22 independent cinemas across Japan about the difficulties and joys of running a “mini-theater” in “This Magic Moment.”
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2023
‘This Magic Moment’: Mini-theaters keep indie cinema love alive
Kah Wai Lim highlights the resilient determination of small theater owners across the country who keep their businesses afloat against the odds.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world