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November 15, 2025
 

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CULTURE

Film

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While Fan Bingbing brings emotional energy to the lead role in Chong Keat Aun’s “Mother Bhumi,” the film’s narrative layers don’t coalesce in a satisfying way and ultimately leave the viewer adrift.
CULTURE / Film
At TIFF, East Asia’s veteran stars tread new territory with mixed results
Fan Bingbing, Zhang Ziyi and Takeshi Kaneshiro stepped into their darkest roles yet — but the stories didn’t rise to meet them.
CULTURE / Film
Predictability weighs down ‘A Light in the Harbor’
Michihito Fujii’s yakuza drama is determinedly old-fashioned — and not in a good way.
CULTURE / Film
‘Tokyo Taxi’: A simple fare becomes a voyage through time
With heart and humor, veteran director Yoji Yamada’s 91st film may be his most moving yet.
Tatsuya Nakadai had the look of a leading man in his youth, but his large and searching eyes suggested the pain and loneliness of an old soul.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2025
Tatsuya Nakadai: A masterful leading man and postwar icon
By Mark Schilling
Tatsuya Nakadai worked with nearly every major Japanese director of the postwar era, but it was his collaborations with Akira Kurosawa that cemented his legacy.
Pen-ek Ratanaruang's "Morte Cucina," starring Bella Boonsang, is a food film par excellence.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
Asian auteurs stole the show at this year's TIFF
By Mike Fu
Zhang Lu and Pen-ek Ratanaruang delivered standout entries at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Made at a time when Japan was still grappling with Yukio Mishima’s legacy, Paul Schrader’s biopic “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” was blocked from screening in the country for decades.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
A 40-year wait for ‘Mishima’ ends at TIFF
By James Hadfield
Paul Schrader’s 1985 biopic of the radical author Yukio Mishima finds its Japanese audience at last.
A happy-go-lucky guy with many obsessions (voiced by Masaya Sano) becomes intensely interested in a young woman named Pechka (Moka Kamishiraishi) in “The Obsessed.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
‘The Obsessed’: Charming anime dances to its own tune
By Matt Schley
"Crayon Shin-chan" director turns a 2001 novel into a quirky, rough-edged musical anime.
A scriptwriter imagines an encounter between a teenage boy (Mansaku Takada, left) and a young woman (Yuumi Kawai) at a beach in “Two Seasons, Two Strangers.”
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
‘Two Seasons, Two Strangers’ captures the subtle sadness of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga
By Mark Schilling
Director Sho Miyake transforms two of the cult manga artist’s stories into a poetic film that’s hard to forget.
“Mother Bhumi” takes place in a multiethnic rice-farming community where Chinese, Thai and Malay lineages intertwine.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 6, 2025
Across borders and screens, Tokyo film festival finds humanity in migration
By Erik Augustin Palm
Five films screened at this year’s TIFF put migration and its human impact front and center.
After its July release, “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle,” an animated feature adapted directly from a TV arc, became the highest-grossing Japanese film ever.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2025
Anime isn’t competing with Hollywood — it’s beating it
By Alicia Haddick
Once a niche passion, anime has become a global obsession. “Demon Slayer” lit the fuse. “Chainsaw Man” just proved it’s unstoppable.

From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
Descendants in Philippines denied Japanese citizenship
China warns of military response if Japan intervenes in Taiwan contingency
Representatives from the Japan Innovation Party hand over a proposal to designate Xue Jian, the Chinese consul-general in Osaka, as persona no grata, to a staff of the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Wednesday.
As attacks surge, who can cull bears in Japan?
Police cars leave the Akita Prefectural Police headquarters to cull bears, in the city of Akita on Thursday.
Japan may triple departure tax to tackle overtourism
A plane takes off from Haneda Airport.
Japan fully enters sports streaming era as fans face new dilemmas
Sports fan Tadashi Yokoyama streams basketball and fencing on three screens.
Stablecoins: Boring goes big, and now in Japan
Noritaka Okabe, CEO of JPYC, acknowledges a number of potential risks related to stablecoins.
Shohei Ohtani collects fourth MVP Award with 2025 NL honor
The Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani was named National League MVP for the second straight season on Thursday.
As Japan’s female leader rises, can she cross sumo’s sacred line?
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (front center) delivers a speech on the first day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center on Sunday. Centuries of belief and tradition still underpin the all-male association's stance of excluding women.
Tatsuya Nakadai: A masterful leading man and postwar icon
Tatsuya Nakadai had the look of a leading man in his youth, but his large and searching eyes suggested the pain and loneliness of an old soul.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

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