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CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2001

Fun and family bonding

Spy KidsRating: * * * 1/2 Director: Robert Rodriguez Running time: 88 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2001

Not fade away

Ka-chan Rating: * * * Director: Kon Ichikawa Running time: 96 minutes Language: Japaneese
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 25, 2001

When film told it like it was

THE BENSHI -- Japanese Silent Film Narrators, edited by the Friends of Silent Films Association, with essays by Tadao Sato and Larry Greenberg, and an interview with Midori Sawato. Tokyo: Urban Connections, 2001, 172 pp. with photographs, 1,500 yen (paper) Despite its name, no silent film was, of course,...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2001

All under the sun

The Japanese, my barber once told me, "don't really think of Hawaii as America -- for us, it's more like part of Japan." But after Sept. 11, many Japanese who might have otherwise booked a wedding in Honolulu or a golf holiday in Maui suddenly realized that Hawaii really was part of the United States...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2001

No remembrance of things past

Memento Rating: * * * * * Director: Christopher Nolan Running time: 113 minutes Language: English Now showing
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 21, 2001

Like father, like son

My elder son sits across from me during supper and clubs me with the following questions: "Why can't Japanese die, Dad? How come it's so hard for them?" Not your usual dinnertime poser, perhaps, but we dads have to be ready for anything. I pause only briefly before delivering what I consider to be a...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2001

And, now, a return to the classics

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Joel Coen Running time: 107 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2001

Failure on a grandiose scale

DOGS AND DEMONS: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan, by Alex Kerr. Hill and Wang, New York, 2001, 432 pp., $27.00 (cloth) Staff writer What has happened to Japan? Coming on the heels of the "lost decade," the January government reshuffle and a series of reforms that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2001

What's age got to do with it?

27 Missing Kisses Rating: * * * 1/2 Japanese title: Sybill no Itazura Director: Nana Djordjadze Running time: 96 minutes Language: Georgian Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001

I've got to have you under my skin

The Isle Rating: * * * Japanese title: Sakana to Neru Onna Director: Kim Ki Deok Running time: 90 minutes Language: Korean Now showing Looking at the alluring and mysterious poster for "The Isle," it's hard not to think David Lynch. A nude young woman stands gazing straight ahead with an intensity...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001

Just please don't ask 'why?'

The first questions John Williams is always asked about "Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)" are the "whys": Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don't come easy, "because I never imagined I would end up making a film here."
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2001

A love affair with languor

a la verticale de l'ete Japanese title: Geshi Rating: * * * * Director: Tran Anh Hung Running time: 112 minutes Language: VietnameseNow showing Tran Anh Hung is a director who effortlessly defies categorization. While his films -- "The Scent of Green Papaya" and "Cyclo" -- are invariably described...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001

Playing close to home

As in so many other films, Zhu Xu's role in "Shower" is that of a devoted father. He laughs that directors tend to see him in this light and though he would like to "branch out" sometimes, he feels quite comfortable with this role. "Shower" turned out to be one of his favorite projects -- he himself...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2001

Now you see her, but know you don't

Malena Rating: * * * * Director: Giuseppe Tornatore Running time: 92 minutes Language: Italian/EnglishOpens June 9 These days, we've become used to women in cinema meeting certain standards. They should be visually stunning, but they must also be brave, self-assertive, sometimes violent, smart and...
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
May 27, 2001

Late shift at the Factory

Tokyo's art-party scene is alive and well and sometimes converges in Shibuya. One focal point is Uplink Factory, and one of the more interesting banners under which it rallies is an event known as "Ubique." Uplink Factory is an offshoot of Uplink Co., which, since 1987, has produced and distributed the...
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2001

Generation X

While this month may mark artcore's high tide on Tokyo screens, the wave has been building over the past few years. Here's a quick review of some of the more controversial and boundary-pushing films to have opened here within the past six months alone:
CULTURE / Art
Mar 10, 2001

Graphic design's hammer and sickle revolution

The Art Deco architectural style of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum is one usually associatedwith the plutocrats and movie moguls of the 1930s. It may therefore seem a tad ironic to hold an exhibition of posters from Communist Russia at such a venue. But the rivalry between the Soviet Union and...
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 3, 2001

Wake us for the next dance

The abundance of new dance and theater available in Tokyo during the months of February and March is a sure indicator of just how profoundly new work in this city depends on grants and other handouts from funding bodies. These budgets, such as they are, must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2001

He ain't heavy, he's Beat Takeshi. And he likes real handguns.

Turning out to promote "Brother" were director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, stars Omar Epps and Claude Maki, and producers Masayuki Mori (of Office Kitano) and Jeremy Thomas, who has worked in the past with Nagisa Oshima and Bernardo Bertolucci. Filmed on two continents, "Brother" is easily Kitano's most ambitious...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 15, 2000

Timeless tales reflect the times

SANSHO DAYU, by Dudley Andrew & Carole Cavanaugh. BFI Film Classic Series. London: British Film Institute, 2000, 80 pp., with b/w illustrations, $20. Kenji Mizoguchi's 1954 film, "Sansho Dayu" (Sansho the Bailiff), is based upon the well-known 1915 Ogai Mori narrative, which was in turn taken from...
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 1999

The end of a movie era

In this multimedia age, when new electronic entertainment devices for use in the privacy of one's home -- or anywhere -- proliferate endlessly, it can seem hopelessly old-fashioned to trendsetters to sit in a darkened movie theater watching stars emote in heart-tugging dramas, daredevil adventure stories...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 11, 1999

Cartoon eroticism, for real

EROTIC ANIME MOVIE GUIDE, by Helen McCarthy and Jonathan Clements. London: Titan Books, 1998, 192 pp., b/w photos, 12.99 British pounds. Japanese animated films, familiarly called "anime," have become well-known worldwide. With the success of the 1988 "Akira," the genre became a sound commercial export...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 1999

Fukuoka's megamall to let you shop till you drop

Combining a huge cinema complex, a membership wholesale warehouse and a number of specialty shops and restaurants, an American-style megamall -- the largest in Japan -- will open Friday in a suburb of Fukuoka.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2023

Seoul theater chain swaps screens for climbing walls to lure young Koreans

South Korea's largest multiplex movie chain operator started installing climbing walls in 2021 in one of its multiplexes, demolishing two movie screens to make way for the walls.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2023

‘In Her Room’: An unsettling journey of self-discovery

Director Chihiro Ito's captivating dreamscapes are eerie and mysterious in her slow-burning relationship drama.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Feb 26, 2023

French documentary and Spanish girl clinch top prizes at Berlinale

The top prize went to a documentary and the best acting award to an 8-year-old actress at a Berlinale awards ceremony full of surprises.
CULTURE / Film
Jul 14, 2023

New Ghibli film draws early morning crowds despite little promotion

“Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru Ka?” is Hayao Miyazaki’s first film in a decade and one that brought him out of retirement once more.
A theater-goer takes a photo of the promotional poster for Hayao Miyazaki’s new film, “The Boy and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2023

‘The Boy and the Heron’: It’s so good to be back in Hayao Miyazaki’s world

Studio Ghibli’s latest film takes viewers on one last journey to the familiar world of a master animator who has captivated audiences worldwide for decades.
Director Christopher Nolan (right) poses with "Oppenheimer" cast members (from left) Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt at the film's premiere in Paris earlier this month.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 27, 2023

Summer film releases in Japan and the 'Oppenheimer' problem

Moviegoers may not get their "Barbenheimer" moment, as Japan likes to keep things family friendly in summer.
A woman takes a picture of the poster for the new Hayao Miyazaki film, “The Boy and the Heron.”
PODCAST / deep dive
Aug 2, 2023

Hayao Miyazaki’s confusing new masterpiece

Our critics Thu-Huong Ha and Matt Schley discuss what they thought of the new Hayao Miyazaki film, “The Boy and the Heron.”

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