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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Dancing with two strangers

House of Flying Daggers Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Japanese title: Lovers Director: Zhang Yimou Running time: 120 minutes Language: Mandarin Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] There's a scene right at the beginning of Zhang Yimou's latest, "House of Flying Daggers," where...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Flickers in the dead of night

Kaidan Shinmimibukuro Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: See review Running time: 92 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] The older I get, the harder I am to scare -- with horror movies at least. After a certain age, real life, including medical...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Teenager kicks against family

Igby Goes Down Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Burr Steers Running time: 98 minutes Language: English Opens Sept. 11 [See Japan Times movie listings] Watching "Igby Goes Down," I couldn't help thinking how I had wasted my youth on petty things like college and waitressing when I...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 1, 2004

Toothless SESC rues failure to protect investors

Teruko Noda, a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission, has a cabinet full of letters, mostly telling the same story: brokers who allegedly lied and individual investors who lost their life savings.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 1, 2004

Kaleidoscope of colorful fashion

Viktor & Rolf are internationally renowned as the Gilbert and George of the fashion world for presenting conceptual work as sophisticated art performances in haute couture and pret-a-porter shows. Take their installation of their Spring/Summer 1996 collection in a contemporary art gallery in Paris October...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 1, 2004

Lovers' bites

Promoting "House of Flying Daggers," director Zhang Yimou was in Tokyo for the fourth time in as many years recently, after visiting with "The Road Home," "Happy Times" and "Hero."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 31, 2004

'I want to clear my name and the name of my country'

One morning Islam Mohamed Himu woke up to find the Japanese media camped outside his home, and plainclothes police officers banging on his front door.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2004

Jenkins hopes to seek dishonorable discharge

Accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins hopes to get a dishonorable discharge in a plea bargain with the U.S. military to avoid imprisonment, diplomatic sources said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Aug 30, 2004

Fear of cultural decline: the next chapter

NEW YORK -- Every August my wife Nancy and I leave New York to go south to spend two weeks at a friend's summer house at Sunset Beach, North Carolina. Driving leisurely, mainly so we can ride ferries on Delaware Bay and on Pamlico Sound, we stop for two nights on the way, usually lodging in Onley, Virginia,...
COMMENTARY
Aug 30, 2004

They came, they saw, they pillaged Asia

LOS ANGELES -- Financial authorities are aghast over the latest near-death international financial collision. It involved a lightening-fast dumping earlier this month of nearly $14 billion in securities. The perpetrator was Citigroup, operating out of London.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 27, 2004

Japan's big Little Italy

Local sobriquets are not hard to come by. A place that is home to a few dingy canals on which some dodgy craft manage to stay afloat gets tagged the "Venice of Somewhere." A town in Japan that manages to keep some old houses out of the predatory clutches of developers becomes the "Little Kyoto of Somewhere...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2004

Apathy sustains hunger toll

ROME -- Imagine for a moment the thousands of proud athletes from around the world that paraded through the Olympic Stadium in Athens during the spectacular opening ceremony last week. Now, imagine this: In the next 12 hours, hunger and malnutrition will take the lives of more men, women and children...
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2004

Voice actors win damages for video and DVD products

The Tokyo High Court ordered an animation company and its subsidiary Wednesday to pay approximately 88 million yen in damages to 361 voice actors for converting cartoons they performed on into videos and DVDs without their consent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004

No easy answers from Kore-eda

Directors who have been on the PR circuit long enough often have their answers ready before the interviewer's questions are halfway out of his mouth. Not Hirokazu Kore-eda. Despite the dozens of interviews he's given since "Nobody Knows (Daremo Shiranai)" screened in competition at this year's Cannes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 25, 2004

While Mom was away

Nobody Knows Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda Running time: 141 minutes Language: Japanese Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings]
Features
Aug 22, 2004

Keeping it in the club

On Oct. 16 last year, Hans van der Lugt, a correspondent for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, telephoned the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry with a simple inquiry.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 22, 2004

NHK's "Project X" on the first word processor and more

The word processor can be described as either the savior of the Japanese language or its curse. It's a savior in that it simplifies the process of making documents in written Japanese, which incorporates two separate syllabaries of 48 letters each and up to 50,000 Chinese characters. It's a curse because...
Japan Times
Features
Aug 22, 2004

'Stray dogs' dig the dirt

"Bluebottle fly" was what he says he was called by the police. But freelance journalist Shunsuke Yamaoka is now getting a buzz from watching the law deal with wrongdoers he exposed.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2004

Withdrawal of U.S. forces a good start

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has proposed bringing home upwards of 70,000 U.S. troops stationed in Asia and Europe. It's a good start, but remains only a start. Washington should withdraw all 230,000 service personnel guarding against phantom enemies in Europe and protecting well-heeled friends...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2004

Secondhand personal computer market expanding

The secondhand personal computer market is rapidly expanding as sharp growth in demand for new PCs sends relatively new ones to the used market.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 21, 2004

Beat the heat -- get out to the islands

It has been one of the hottest years on record in Japan, especially in Tokyo. Something about too much pavement and too many high-rise buildings blocking the breeze. It makes you wonder, why don't those people in the high-rises just open their windows to let the breeze through?
BUSINESS
Aug 21, 2004

Scandal-wracked Mitsubishi Motors struggling to survive

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is struggling to overcome its severe financial and management troubles as its rivals speed ahead.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji