Vampires have been a staple of Western pop culture since Bram Stoker published his best-selling novel “Dracula” in 1897. The hit “Twilight” series of films (2008-12) made the monsters hot again as millions of teens swooned to the romance of Bella (Kristen Stewart) and ageless vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson). Naturally, ...
A newly compiled DVD features a dramatic re-enactment of how police coerced a man during interrogation in 1963 to confess ...
There comes a moment of truth in every episode of reality-dating series “The Bachelor” when the handsome and wealthy bachelor ...
In the first episode of Japan’s latest contribution to original Netflix programming, “Samurai Gourmet,” Takeshi Kasumi enters a small teishoku (set meal) joint and grapples over whether to have a beer with lunch. Inspired by an imaginary samurai, he gets one. That’s it. For ...
As consumers move away from regular terrestrial TV toward online video content, it appears that the domestic TV industry itself needs to undergo its own paradigm shift.
What does it actually mean to be connected? To be unique and young in the country’s biggest city? A new, self-proclaimed “neo documentary” on Amazon Prime Japan titled “Invisible Tokyo” has taken up the task to answer these ever-evolving questions. “Tokyo has a unique ...
Now that school is out summer is officially here, and NHK celebrates with a dramatization of Mitsuyo Tsunoda’s novel, “Kidnap Tour” (NHK-G, Tues., 7:30 p.m.). Fifth-grader Haru (Hana Toyoshima) is about to enjoy her summer vacation when her father, Takashi (Satoshi Tsumabuki), shows up ...
Thanks mainly to a first-person “biography” written by former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, there is renewed interest in disgraced former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. NHK is presenting a series of special programs, some of which are dramatizations, about the scandal that brought Tanaka down: ...
Ultraman has been defending humanity against monsters and aliens for half a century. We examine the superhero's enduring legacy.
Based on a true story, the new drama series “Aogeba Totoshi” (“Graduation Song”; TBS, Sun., 9 p.m.) takes place at a high school in Kanagawa Prefecture in the 1980s. Akira Terao plays Hikuma, a saxophone player who has lost his zest for life after ...
Love vs. career is the theme of the new drama series “Seisei Suru Hodo Aishite Iru” (“I Absolutely Love You”; TBS, Tues., 10 p.m.), which is based on a popular manga. Saki Takei plays Mia, who is employed in the public-relations department of a ...
Ryoko Yonekura returns as the genius freelance surgeon Dr. Michiko Daimon in a special two-hour installment of “Doctor X” (TV Asahi, Sun., 9 p.m.). Michiko happens to be in Kanazawa when national politician Aiko Ichinose (Kayako Kishimoto) collapses on the street after an intimate ...
Actress Kasumi Arimura on Thursday was selected for the lead role in an NHK drama titled “Hiyokko” that will be aired from April 2017. Arimura was chosen without an audition, with producer Hiroshi Kashi describing her as “an actress with the ability to play ...
You may wonder what former New York Yankee slugger Hideki Matsui has been up to since he retired several years ago. Well, one thing he’s been doing is appearing on the sports variety show “Tunnels no Sports O wa Ore da” (“Tunnels’ I Am ...
Some people think entrepreneurship is dead in Japan. They may change their tune if they watched the variety show “Medekin” (Fuji TV, Sun., 4:05 p.m.). The title is a play on the Japanese word “demekin,” which refers to a bug-eyed goldfish, but the operative ...
