Search - cinema

 
 
Apr 6, 2017

Kamen Raida × Supa Sentai: Cho Superhero Taisen / Namba Parks Cinema / 2017-04-08 to 2017-04-14

until April 13 10:10, 14:50 / April 14 10:10
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Apr 6, 2017

When the talent gets religious

"Ankoku Joshi" is a murder mystery involving six pretty JK (slang for joshi kosei, high school girls)" who all have something to hide. The film's title literally means "pitch black girls," which pretty much explains their characters' personalities in what soon becomes a grisly little tale directed by...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Mar 29, 2017

The psychological perils of a Japanese homestay

All the homestays I have done in my life — three of them — were psychologically traumatic in uniquely torturous ways.
Mar 16, 2017

Your Name. / Apollo Cinema 8 / 2017-03-18 to 2017-03-24

14:15
Mar 16, 2017

Collateral Beauty / Aeon Cinema Minatomirai / 2017-03-18 to 2017-03-24

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 15, 2017

'Slavemen': Men enslaved by juvenile fantasies

Noboru Iguchi would seem to be in the enviable position, at least to his mostly male fan base, of doing exactly what he likes and never having to grow up. A veteran director of low-budget exploitation films, Iguchi has an unabashedly adolescent obsession with short-skirted schoolgirls, spandex-clad superheroes,...
Mar 9, 2017

Moana (dubbed) / Namba Parks Cinema / 2017-03-11 to 2017-03-17

March 11, March 13 to March 16 9:00, 9:50, 11:25, 12:15, 14:00, 16:30, 17:30, 19:00, 20:00 / March 12 9:00, 9:50, 11:25, 12:15, 14:00, 17:30, 20:00 / March 17 9:30, 12:00, 14:30, 15:50, 17:00, 17:50, 20:15
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2017

India's democracy is strained by illiberalism

India continues to be robustly, even chaotically, democratic. But its freedom is under growing threat.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

A dystopian future set in the present aftermath

With "Homo Sapiens", director Nikolaus Geyrhalter paints a haunting dystopian vision of civilization minus its creators. This unique documentary consists of nothing but steady, perfectly framed wide-shots of abandoned structures and wastelands. Imagine Wes Anderson doing location shots for "The Walking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 8, 2017

'River': sink, swim or keep running

Up until about 10 years ago, being a white man in Southeast Asia meant you did pretty much what you pleased and damn the consequences, at least in the realm of fictional cinema. (See Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach.") Often, the characters are thrown into prison on drug trafficking charges and narrowly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 1, 2017

'The Handmaiden': A sinfully silly gothic psychodrama

Korean genre stylist Park Chan-wook is best known to Western audiences for his "Vengeance" trilogy: a trio of malevolent, blackly comic thrillers that included his 2003 breakout hit, "Oldboy." But his recent films have coalesced into an informal trilogy of their own, linked by a shared enthusiasm for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2017

Polish film director Andrzej Wajda represented the voice and conscience of a nation

"I stood here just after the end of the war," Polish film director Andrzej Wajda said. "I was only 19 years old. The entire area was flattened, just rubble. The Stare Miasto (Old Town) was one big gaping pit that I stared into."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2017

'La La Land': Sometimes we need a trip to la-la land

La-la land: the mental state of someone who is not aware of what is really happening, and a nickname for the American entertainment industry centered on Los Angeles. These two meanings bleed into each other in director Damien Chazelle's multi-Oscar-nominated musical, "La La Land," which is about a state...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 15, 2017

'Cell': Sometimes it's better to just hang up

After seeing "Cell" I wanted to call my grandmother who, with the emergence of the world's first iPhone in June of 2007, predicted the end of civilization as we know it. Five months later she passed away, and some of my cousins whispered that perhaps it was the curse of technology that did her in, or...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 15, 2017

It'll get released in Japan — come 'Hell or High Water'

Among the snubs and surprise inclusions in this year's Oscar nominations, one might have stood out for Japanese movie fans — and I'm not talking about "Your Name." In what's surely a first, a Best Picture nominee has bypassed cinemas here and gone straight to Netflix.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2017

'Green Room': Saulnier runs a red light on violence

The opening aerial shot of "Green Room" soars over the wavy green mass of an Oregon cornfield, before finding a swath through it where a van has swerved off the highway. Inside the van, so shabby you can practically smell the stale beer and B.O., four members of a rough-living punk band, The Ain't Rights,...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 1, 2017

Hiroki Matsukata: a gangster farewell

Hiroki Matsukata, who died at age 74 on Jan. 21, may have been born into an acting family — his father was jidaigeki (historical drama) actor Jushiro Konoe — but in his yakuza films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s, Matsukata's portrayals of feral-but-charming hoods seemed to boil up off...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 28, 2017

British actor John Hurt, star of 'The Elephant Man,' dies at 77

Veteran British actor Sir John Hurt, nominated for an Oscar for his starring role in "The Elephant Man" and his supporting role in "Midnight Express," has died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 27, 2017

Ceausescu bunker offers a window into Romania's brutal communist past

The hermetically sealed heavy steel door to the bunker of Romania's late communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, opens with a squeak, releasing a burst of cool air.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2017

T-C-T and TPAM set to offer a hot winter's feast of the arts

A bonanza is brewing in Tokyo and Yokohama for lovers of cross-cultural contemporary theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 19, 2017

Sion Sono swan dives into Shinjuku's chaos

Celebrated abroad for films that mash up everything from extreme sex and gore to Christian imagery and classical music, Sion Sono has emerged as one of the most distinctive directors in Japanese cinema this century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 18, 2017

Shinya Tsukamoto and the song of 'Silence'

Since his early films, such as "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) and "Tetsuo II: Body Hammer" (1992), pioneered the cyberpunk genre with a crazed energy and invention, Shinya Tsukamoto has had a reputation as Japanese cinema's outlaw. While doing the occasional work for hire, he has stayed outside the industry...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 12, 2017

'Garage Rockin' Craze': 'It's not about fame, they want 15 minutes of fun'

Mario Cuzic used a video camera to face the question that keeps many expat English teachers up at night: What am I going to do before I head back home? His answer, "Garage Rockin' Craze," is a documentary on the history of Japan's underground garage rock scene that has nurtured internationally renowned...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2017

'Dirty Grandpa' is quite a stinker

'Dirty Grandpa." The un-ironic title is like a spray-painted graffiti sign warning everyone to stay away from this sewage-swilling clogged cesspit masquerading as a movie. Woe betide anyone who catches this on an airplane, they may wind up using all the airsick bags in their row, because it really stinks....
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Jan 10, 2017

From Iceland to Maldives, Chinese seek 'lung-cleansing' trips

Toxic haze that settled over much of China during the last three weeks has triggered a flight reflex among residents, leading to the rising popularity of smog avoidance travel packages to far-flung locations such as Iceland and Antarctica.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 4, 2017

'Tampopo' has blown back to our screens

Released in 1985, Juzo Itami's "Tampopo" was famously a flop in Japan, but a hit abroad, especially in the United States, where it became the second-highest-earning Japanese film ever. This "noodle Western" about a rough-hewn truck driver (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who helps a spunky widow (Nobuko Miyamoto)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2017

'Wiener-Dog': Todd Solondz is always painfully funny

Trigger warning: I am about to discuss a Todd Solondz film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 28, 2016

'14 That Night': Not quite abreast of teenage angst

Japanese films about high schoolers are many; junior high schoolers, few. One reason is that producers can cast a film about 17 year olds with 27-year-old actors who have massive fan followings. The result: bigger box office than if they had used newcomers barely into adolescence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2016

'Knight of Cups': Is Malick's cup half-full or half-empty?

Halfway through "Knight of Cups," the latest treatise from philosopher-filmmaker Terrence Malick, the movie's chorus of internal monologues yields a line that could be read as a memo to the director himself: "Don't get your head too far up your own ass."

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan