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November 09, 2025
 

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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2019

Peaks, troughs and international awards: Japanese films in the Heisei Era

The Heisei Era began in January 1989 and I started writing reviews of Japanese films for The Japan Times in July that year. In 1990, I became Japan correspondent for a British movie trade magazine, a job description that, with a change of publication, I have held ever since.
CULTURE / Film / Heisei Icons,Heisei Icons
Mar 1, 2019

Takeshi Kitano: From manzai comic to giant of Japanese film

Many Japanese filmmakers try to promote their films and talents abroad but stumble more than they succeed: Either Cannes rejects their latest masterpiece or Hollywood turns down their J-horror script.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 8, 2018

The Japanese films that made a splash at TIFF

Every year people from the film industry — buyers, programmers and critics — descend on the Tokyo International Film Festival to see what this country has to offer, and every year they usually find at least one gem among the selections in the Japanese Cinema Splash section for indie films.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2018

Soundtracking the thrill of the climb in Jennifer Peedom's 'Mountain'

With "Mountain," director Jennifer Peedom has done for the mountaineering film what Marks & Spencer's did for food advertisements years ago: taken the concept and beautified it to such an extent that it provokes a visceral response. Salivating over the movie's visual perfection is the only appropriate...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 31, 2018

Short Shorts festival entries give Japan a starring role

From "You Only Live Twice" (1967) to "Black Rain" (1989) and "Lost in Translation" (2003), directors who choose Japan as a filming location are often well-rewarded with beautiful backdrops. The local flavor that works its way into a movie can sometimes be as important as the characters or plot.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017

Working in the film industry as a non-Japanese has its own challenges

Japan is home to one of the most lucrative movie industries in the world, and also one of the most prolific: 1,149 films received a theatrical release during 2016, over 600 of which were domestic productions. It can be hard to stand out in such a crowded marketplace and the challenges are often compounded...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2017

Yasunari Kawabata's surrealist window on the world

Opening with one of the most famous lines in Japanese literature — "Emerging from the long border tunnel, they entered snow country," shifting us at speed from the darkness of the tunnel into the bright light of the snow — Yasunari Kawabata's novel "Snow Country" tells of a city-dwelling, worldly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2017

The Tokyo International Film Festival can be a time of true cinematic discovery (if you know where to look)

Film festivals have multiplied like bamboo shoots in Japan over the past two decades, from Okinawa in the south to Sapporo in the north. But the country's biggest is still the Tokyo International Film Festival, whose 30th edition takes place from Oct. 25 to Nov. 3 at venues centering on Roppongi Hills....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 7, 2017

Hiroshi Sugimoto: The illusion of architecture

The renowned artist made a name for himself by capturing time in a photograph. Now he attempts to do the same with an art complex in Odawara ...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 23, 2017

'Devils in Daylight' and 'The Maids': The literary sleuthing of Junichiro Tanizaki

Question: Is it really the case that for a large part of the 20th century Japan enjoyed a golden age of literature? Or is this just misty-eyed nostalgia?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2017

Japan's filmmakers expand their idea of overseas opportunity

The Japanese film industry has long been insular, making films by and for Japanese with little input from, or concern for, the outside world.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 10, 2017

Fukada's filmmaking a breath of fresh air

Koji Fukada's black comedy "Hospitalite" ("Kantai") won best film in the Tokyo International Film Festival's Japanese Eyes section in 2010 and since then he has become accustomed to stepping up on stages to receive prizes for his work.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2017

'The Neon Demon': Demonically arty — in a good way

With "The Neon Demon," director Nicolas Winding Refn seems to have come to the end of a trilogy that began with "Drive" (2011) and continued through "Only God Forgives" (2013). The idea seems to be to take genre-flick styles — car action, revenge and horror — and unravel them to the point where they...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2017

The special effect of Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul pokes a little fun at Thailand's superstitions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2016

Is Southeast Asia now Japan's competition?

Japan is an Asian entertainment powerhouse, is it not? This October's Japan Contents Showcase, which was held in Tokyo's Odaiba and Shibuya areas, included markets for film and TV (TIFFCOM), animation (TIAF) and music (TIMM), with 356 Japanese companies selling to 1,539 registered buyers, most from Asia....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2016

Japan's team spirit remains youthful in anime

The word "seishun" ("youth") comprises the kanji characters for the words "blue" and "spring," which connotes the freshness and innocence of those earlier years in life. It's also the name of a genre of anime and manga. Even as the population ages, seishun manga and anime seem to lock themselves to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
May 25, 2016

A little 'je ne sais quois' from Eric Rohmer

Everything we know about French films, we learned from Eric Rohmer. At least for Japanese cinema lovers, that's what it felt like, especially in the late 20th century.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2016

'Six Four': Japan held hostage by the Showa Era

'Don't you understand what is to have a child taken from you? How could you be a policeman and not understand that?"
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2016

Tokyo Talkies seeks to broaden exposure to Indian films

Indian cinema is prolific and diverse, with 1,969 feature titles released by 20 regional film industries in 2014, but movie fans in Japan have few chances to see this vast output. (Let's not count Bollywood musicals playing silently on monitors in Indian restaurants.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 3, 2016

Could an aging population save Japan's independent cinemas?

Only a few years ago, movie industry pundits sighed and said that cinema was dead (again), and that streaming networks would soon sweep that corpse aside.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2016

Nagisa Oshima: 'You have to tell the truth about your country, whatever it is'

Jan. 15 marks the third anniversary of the renowned film director's death. Roger Pulvers, who knew him for more than 30 years and was his assistant on “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence,” discusses the man and his work
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015

Tokyo film festival ups its domestic fare

The 28th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which began yesterday, is the biggest event on the Japanese film calendar. And like any such event, TIFF has had its share of critics over the years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2015

Androids and the avant-garde: The best Japanese films screening at TIFF

The Tokyo International Film Festival offers a once-a-year chance to see Japanese movies, both new and classic, with English subtitles. Getting tickets, however, especially for the films in the Competition and Special Screenings sections, may not be easy. With that caveat, here are my personal picks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2015

The ballad of Sam Peckinpah is written in blood

Over the years, the idea of so-called auteur filmmaking has become identified with a certain breed of art-house cinema. A short list of American auteurs would probably include directors such as Woody Allen, Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson — but not someone like Sam Peckinpah, who made ultra-violent...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2013

Re-examining Yasujiro Ozu on film

Yasujiro Ozu once had a reputation for making films only other Japanese could understand.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 4, 2013

One year on from arts world 'disaster'

It's Oct. 27 and the setting sun fades to darkness. A long line of people begins to form around Tsukiji Honganji Temple next to the world-famous fish market in central Tokyo. The scene recalls what happened there last year on Dec. 27, the funeral of Nakamura Kanzaburo XVIII who passed away in the city...
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Nov 21, 2013

A showcase of established and new film talent

Any cinephile that may have left the Tokyo International Film Festival feeling underwhelmed by its high-profile film showings can get their art-cinema fix at this often-underrated rival — Tokyo Filmex.
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2013

'It's Such a Beautiful Day'

Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 21, 2013

How top lowbrow U.S. humor translates in Japan

Somewhere in the history of American cinema, someone (maybe John Waters?) decided that gross and profane and funny could all sit on the same park bench and start up a friendship. That was way back in the 1970s.
The Toyota buyout is a major test for Japan’s reforms
Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota Motor, speaks during a media preview at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo on Oct. 29. Minority investors are challenging the carmaker's bid to take affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. private.
New satellite images suggest 'mass graves' in Sudan's El-Fasher
A general view of a berm construction in Kinin Village near El-Fasher.
From France to Mali, a deportee's struggle far from home
Moussa Sacko, a Malian deported from France — where he had lived since he was a young child — stands on a street in Bamako, Mali, in December. Compared with his home in France, Bamako feels like a different planet, Sacko said.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.
Takaichi calls for the updating of Japan's economic security law
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks to a panel on promoting economic security in Japan on Friday.
Jon Homewood: ‘There’s beauty in what we throw away’
After a peripatetic childhood around the world, teacher and artist Jon Homewood ended up coming to Japan in 2012 for a professional opportunity.
Yokozuna duo Onosato and Hoshoryu poised for another clash of titans
Yokozuna duo Onosato (right) and Hoshoryu clash for the title on the final day of the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament on Sept. 28 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
High-speed rail is expensive and difficult, but seen as a key to growth
Achal Khare, former managing director at India’s National High Speed Rail Corporation, gives a presentation during the IHRA Forum 2025 in Tokyo on Oct. 23.
A 40-year wait for ‘Mishima’ ends at TIFF
Made at a time when Japan was still grappling with Yukio Mishima’s legacy, Paul Schrader’s biopic “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” was blocked from screening in the country for decades.
Takaichi’s balancing act: Supporting Taiwan and stabilizing China ties
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi shakes hands with Lin Hsin-i, Taiwan’s presidential adviser, on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday in this image posted to Takaichi's official X account.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes
By Alex K.T. Martin

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