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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 27, 2007

Five years of so solid grooves

Tucked away on the corner of the trendy Spain-zaka street in Shibuya, Tokyo, La Fabrique is set for what it hopes will be its biggest bash since it opened its doors five years ago.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2007

'Shindo'

How do you portray genius on the screen, if all you have to work with are gifted, but ordinary, humans? If the genius is a real person -- a Mozart, Beethoven or John "A Beautiful Mind" Nash -- the job becomes fairly straightforward: Cast an actor who can suggest the original subject physically and emotionally....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 27, 2007

Melt-Banana take aim again

'It was my first time to kill so it affected me a lot," says Melt-Banana's vocalist Yako, before breaking into a cackle befitting a Shakespearean witch. "But it wasn't a cute bambi. It was a big deer. You told us about (the Sex Pistols song) 'Who Killed Bambi.' It's you who made us keep thinking about...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2007

He hits below the belt

Winning the Grand Prix at Cannes last year for "Flandres" has not altered filmmaker Bruno Dumont's particular stance. "Yes, the award is nice, but I know that my films are not for everyone. Some people have rejected it in a very strong way," said the director last month when he was in Tokyo for the French...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 27, 2007

Patti Smith "Twelve"

Patti Smith has always been sentimentally reverent toward her fellow artists, even those you wouldn't expect. She once performed Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," the epitome of sappy pop, on a children's TV show (look for it on YouTube) and totally transformed it without really changing anything....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Apr 27, 2007

Hannibal Rising

Director: Peter Webber Language: English
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 27, 2007

Ninagawa's notions of cute

Featuring posing models flashing the peace sign and sucking coquettishly on ice cream, the latest photography exhibition from Mika Ninagawa isn't so much toying with notions of kawaii (cute) as exploiting them to the last drop.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 27, 2007

Under the lonesome trees

Picnic areas. Fishing holes. Camp grounds. Onsen. Hiking trails galore. The Okutama area, with all that it has to offer, might be called the playground of Tokyo, and a weekend visit proves that the great outdoors on the capital's doorstep is a crowd-puller.
SOCCER
Apr 26, 2007

Kawasaki shuts out Chunnam

KAWASAKI -- Fringe player Jong Tae Se scored two late goals as Kawasaki Frontale beat South Koreans Chunnam Dragons 3-0 to move within a whisker of becoming the first-ever Japanese team to qualify for the knockout stages of the AFC Champions League.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2007

Drought dampens Aussie economic boom

SYDNEY -- Weird is the only word for it. In the midst of its biggest-ever economic boom, Australia is drying up. Underground, minerals are being dug up and shipped to Asia at record rates for record prices. Above ground, a drought is so bad that this food-exporting country may not be able to feed itself....
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2007

North Korean nuclear deal

HONOLULU -- (More than) a day later, but not a dollar short. That pretty much sums up what to Pyongyang is a perfectly reasonable negotiating position. It will honor its end of the Feb. 13, 2007, "action for action" denuclearization deal, once the money is in the bank. In short, "checkbook diplomacy"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2007

Tesco opens first supermarket in Japan

British retail giant Tesco PLC opened its first supermarket in Japan in Nerima Ward, Tokyo, on Wednesday, looking to challenge the notion that foreign retailers cannot win the hearts of consumers in the world's second-largest retail market.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2007

Sarkozy vs. Segolene at last

WARSAW -- The surprise in the first round of the French presidential election was that there was no surprise, except for the huge level of voter turnout. The two leaders of the right and of the left, the favorites in all the polls for a long time, came first and second.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2007

Sharp sees 15% increase in profit

Profit at Sharp Corp. jumped 15 percent in the business year to March 31 on strong sales of flat-panel televisions, mobile phones and refrigerators, the company said Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Art imitates life, waking or otherwise

Wildly creative film director Michel Gondry unveils the delightful oddity of his inner selfin his latest movie, 'The Science of Sleep'
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 26, 2007

Take a peak inside Henry Darger's mind

Outsider artists often present a pathetic spectacle to the world: forgotten inmates of mental institutions; shuffling, muttering loners; or misfits, like Henry Darger, who spent his workdays as a low-paid janitor and his free time writing and illustrating an unpublishable 15,145-page novel about a vast...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Japanese/Chinese production tackles history

In 2002, the FIFA World Cup of soccer hosted by Japan and South Korea boosted already flourishing cultural exchanges between the two countries in areas such as pop music, shopping and television dramas. The same year, the scriptwriter and director Oriza Hirata, who founded the Tokyo-based Seinendan Theater...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Apr 26, 2007

The satellite in the room

The NSAT-110 is a Japanese telecommunications satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems and launched in October 2000 from French Guiana on an Ariene 4 rocket into a geostationary orbit some 35,000 km above Indonesia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

'The Science of Sleep'

There's something tread-mill repetitive about conventional on-screen romance. It seems as if we've seen phone-call/e-mail angst, candlelit dinners, fights, reconciliations and sex ad nauseum (and engaged in by the same beautiful people again and again). But Stephane (played by the always amazing Gael...
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2007

A real choice for France

The first round of France's presidential election has left French voters with a clear choice for their future. The results pit conservative Nicolas Sarkozy against Socialist Segolene Royal in the May 6 runoff ballot. While both candidates promise great change for a country whose confidence has been shaken,...
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2007

Honda's fourth quarter profit suffers 20% falloff

Honda Motor Co. reported a 20 percent drop in profit for the January-March quarter despite solid demand that helped mark its seventh straight business year of record sales.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 25, 2007

Nuggets, Bulls to pull upsets in 1st round

NEW YORK -- The playoffs -- the NBA's bridge abutment between the high drama of the regular season and the cold sweat of Secaucus -- are once again upon us.

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