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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 12, 2021

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia delivers more than A-list talent

Since its start in 1999, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & Asia) has become the largest festival of its kind in Asia. This year, it is presenting a hybrid edition, with online venues showing films beginning on April 27 and the festival proper held June 11-21 at venues across Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Apr 3, 2021

Is change sweeping the sclerotic Japanese film industry?

The Japan Academy awarded top honors to the LGBTQ-themed drama “Midnight Swan” and its star, and Tokyo International Film Festival announced that its 34th edition would see more diversity.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 27, 2021

Corporate selloffs reflect tough times in Japan amid pandemic

Leading Japanese companies are considering selling off prestigious headquarters in central Tokyo as COVID-19 continues to reshape business operations.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2021

Asia’s movie rebound is good news for everyone

In the absence of Hollywood fare, 'The Eight Hundred,” a Chinese war epic, became the world's top-grossing movie with a $460 million take.
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 / Society
Oct 24, 2020

Minamata disease victims struggle to find closure

More than 60 years after first raising awareness about a neurological disease caused by industrial mercury poisoning, photojournalist Aileen M. Smith still wants answers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2020

Veteran Koji Yakusho brings his movie star clout to the Tokyo International Film Festival

This year's TIFF ambassador discusses the festival experience, the effects of COVID-19 on the film industry, and discovering his inner Marie Kondo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2020

‘The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese’: Looking for love in the wrong places

Isao Yukisada's gay romance offers refreshing scenes of domestic intimacy, but can't resolve the underlying problems of its manga source material.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 20, 2020

Never forget the struggles of conflict with these Japanese World War II films

Filmmakers are able to record the feelings of history in ways that you can't get from textbooks at school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2020

Torel-produced films show just why Japanese indies need support

With theu00a0closures of small theaters threatening the survival of the indie scene, many in the industry have looked to online streaming to stay afloat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 14, 2020

Asia-themed film festivals migrate online amid COVID-19

Overseas film festivals that specialize in Japanese and other Asian fare are taking their programs online to survive the coronavirus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 23, 2020

'Zero': Practicing kindness in life and in love

In Japan, people with mental illnesses have long been stigmatized, marginalized and isolated from broader society. In 2009, documentary filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda released “Mental,” a film about Masatomo Yamamoto, an elderly psychiatrist in Okayama Prefecture who respected his patients as individuals...
CULTURE / Film
Apr 16, 2020

The race to save Japan's independent cinemas

As Japan's film industry feels the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, campaigners take to crowdfunding to help save smaller cinemas.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 13, 2020

How the Japanese film industry is coping with the COVID-19 crisis

From cinema closures to business as usual, the film industry in Japan is employing its own methods to keep people safe and still watching films across the country.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 24, 2020

Remembering Satoshi Kon, one of anime's best-loved creators

The Annie Awards bestows a posthumous honor on anime director Satoshi Kon, who died in 2010 at the age of 46.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2019

Holiday event welcomes athletes, actors

Philanthropist Haruhisa Handa served up a colorful Christmas fair this month featuring special guests from the worlds of sports and cinema: an Olympic medalist, a champion golfer, a two-time Oscar-winning legend and a screen action star with strong ties to Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2019

'i: Documentary of the Journalist': Japanese press freedom laid bare

Tatsuya Mori follows Tokyo Shimbun journalist Isoko Mochizuki as she attempts to get answers from government officials in this bleak look at press freedom and integrity in Japan
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 8, 2019

'Dr. Hoffmann's Sanatorium': Delving deep into the weird world of Kafka

Playwright Kazumi Kobayashi, better known as Keralino Sandorovich, unveils his latest play, in which a fictional discovery of a lost Franz Kafka novel is made
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 3, 2019

Tokyo International Film Festival to celebrate homegrown talent

The 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival kicks off on Oct. 28, and promises a celebration of local talent alongside its program of interntional films
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2019

Tokyo International Film Festival to hold pre-festival special screening of 2018 World Focus feature

The 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival gets underway on Oct. 28, and is set to open with the 50th installment of the long-running, record-setting Japanese institution Tora-san and his latest outing, "Welcome Back, Tora-san."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 26, 2019

Social satire 'Parasite' by South Korea's Bong Joon-ho wins Palme d'Or at Cannes

"Parasite," a wickedly humorous suspense movie about class struggles directed by South Korea's Bong Joon-ho, won the top Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, on a big night for newcomer filmmakers too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2019

Short Shorts 2019: Short on time, but never short on creativity

Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, whose 21st edition takes place from May 29 to June 16 at venues around Tokyo, is one of the largest festivals of its type in Asia. And, starting this year, four winners of its competitions will be eligible for an Academy Award in the short film category, up from just...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
May 20, 2019

Alain Delon, set for Cannes honor, says that at least as an actor, he is 'irreproachable'

France's Alain Delon, set on Sunday to receive an honorary prize at Cannes that has sparked scrutiny of his views on women and same-sex couples, said in a newspaper interview that as an actor at least, he was beyond reproach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 7, 2019

Seeking out Japanese movies at a film festival in Bangalore

Going to Bangalore, a city of more than 10 million people in India's south, to spend five days watching movies is not the sort of thing I usually do. Which is exactly why I agreed to serve on a jury for the Network for Promotion of Asia Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) at the 11th Bengaluru International Film...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 7, 2019

Actress Junko Abe breaks into the world of international films

Following her breakthrough role in Naomi Kawase's 2014 Palme d'Or nominated film "Futatsume no Mado" ("Still the Water"), Junko Abe looked as though she was destined to go on to become a big star in Japan. Back then she was known by her stage name Jun Yoshinaga and was viewed as one of the brightest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 14, 2019

Netflix row overshadows Berlin premiere of film about Spanish lesbians 'Elisa & Marcela'

A row over whether films produced for streaming platform Netflix should be shown at the Berlin Film Festival has overshadowed the premiere of "Elisa & Marcela," Isabel Coixet's tale of two Spanish lesbians.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2018

Tasuku Emoto talks about directing, acting in English and sounding like Tom Cruise

This has been a busy year for Tasuku Emoto. Long accustomed to appearing in colorful supporting roles, the 31-year-old actor has found himself starring in three films in 2018.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2018

French film 'Amanda' takes top prize at Tokyo International Film Festival

French director Mikhael Hers' family drama, "Amanda," was awarded the Grand Prix at the 31st Tokyo International Film Festival on Friday.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan