Search - cinema

 
Menu
Search
 
April 27, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access
2,017 results
Sort by: Relevance Newest Oldest
After adjusting your search parameters, press Enter on your keyboard or click on the red magnifying glass to run your query again.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2020

'One Cut of the Dead' director Shinichiro Ueda brings teleworking to Japan's film industry

Shinichiro Ueda reunites the cast of his hit comedy 'One Cut of the Dead' for an innovative teleworking sequel
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 11, 2019

Tomorrow's film legends descend on Saitama

Launched in 2004 to promote digital cinema, the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival (July 13-21) in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, has become a showcase for emerging filmmakers. Among the Skip City alumni who have gone on to thriving careers are Cannes Palme d'Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan ("Winter Sleep"), Kazuya Shiraishi ("The Blood of Wolves"), Ryota Nakano ("Her Love Boils Bathwater") and Shinichiro Ueda ("One Cut of the Dead").
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2019

'Afternoon Breezes': Hitoshi Yazaki's pioneer of Japanese LGBTQ cinema is revisited

What was Japan's first LGBTQ-themed film? One often-mentioned candidate is Keisuke Kinoshita's 1959 melodrama "Farewell to Spring," though more for the emotional ties between its young male protagonists than anything explicitly erotic. More upfront in its treatment — and more critically acclaimed — is Toshio Matsumoto's "Funeral Parade of Roses" (1969), a free-form reworking of the Oedipus myth set in the countercultural milieu of go-go-era Tokyo and starring pioneering gay multitalent Shinnosuke Ikehata, aka Peter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 13, 2018

Politics and cinema intermingle at Busan International Film Festival

The 23rd edition of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) opened Oct. 4 as Typhoon Kong-rey approached the South Korean port city. When the storm peaked on Saturday morning, some public events were cancelled, but the screenings continued and were still packed with press, industry people and, most importantly, film fans — the core reason for BIFF’s reputation as the most vital film festival in Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 4, 2018

Yemenis find solace in cinema after years of war in flick about their plight

Yemenis filed into a makeshift cinema for the first time since fighting broke out in their city of Aden more than three years ago — and watch some of their own story reflected back at them on the projector screen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 6, 2017

'52Hz, I Love You' upends the stereotype that Asian cinema can't do romantic musicals

Once upon a time (a decade ago), the unspoken consensus in the movie world seemed to be that Asians couldn't do love stories, much less musical love stories. Happy, soaring, blockbuster types that would send audiences home with goofy smiles and humming a tune from the soundtrack? Not happening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2017

As it approaches 50, Iwanami Hall remains vital to cinema lovers

The Tokyo neighborhood of Jinbocho is a favorite of mine. Mostly known for bookshops, it is a bastion of quaintness amid a metropolis that can be downright oppressive at times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 6, 2016

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival is not just for film buffs

Launched 13 years ago in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture to present movies in the then-emerging digital format, the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival has since become a leading domestic showcase of feature, short and animated films by up-and-coming filmmakers from Japan and around the world.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 29, 2015

Innovative cinemas try to show home viewing is no great shakes

Cinema operators are fighting to lure people away from tablets and smartphones and back into theaters, adopting enhancements to the traditional movie experience.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 1, 2014

New tech brings cinema to the deaf and blind

The lights dimmed inside the theater at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the audience quieted down. As Masayuki Suo's film "Maiko wa Lady (Lady Maiko)" began, the viewers were ready — with glasses-shaped head-mounted displays and earpieces designed to make cinema accessible to the deaf and blind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014

Farewell to Taiwanese cinema, but not to love

If Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang threw a dinner party, it's easy to guess who would be invited. Tsai has staunchly and consistently worked with the same small cluster of actors from his 1992 debut film "Rebels of the Neon God" through to "Stray Dogs," which will open in Tokyo on Sept. 6, under the Japan title "Picnic." Some of these actors are closer to him than family.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2011

Volunteer-led Tohoku cinema provides welcome escapism

Following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 in the Tohoku region, survivors received nearly every type of aid imaginable from thousands of volunteers, ranging from hot meals to haircuts. But they also faced long, soul-deadening hours in shelters and temporary housing, with little in the way of entertainment or inspiration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010

2010 top movies: best moments in a mixed 12 months for Japanese cinema

This was the best of years and the worst of years for Japanese films. On one hand, dire TV-network-produced blockbusters continued to fill multiplexes. On the other, makers of indie films, both big names and small, struggled for funding and distribution, as the mini-theater (art-house) sector continued its slow death spiral.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010

Tokyo celebrates a wide world of cinema

Because it offers few world premieres of high-profile films, the Tokyo International Film Festival is not the world's most significant. European and American festivals get all the good premieres, and South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival, the region's best, has a wider selection of Asian premieres and sponsors Asian filmmaking. TIFF's real value is local, in that it offers Tokyo cinephiles a chance to sample a wide variety of international films that will likely not play in a nearby theater anytime soon, if ever.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 13, 2009

Road map for increasingly accessible world of Japanese cinema

JAPANESE CINEMA, by Stuart Galbraith IV. Taschen, 2009, 192 pp., 354 photographs, $29.99 (hardcover) This is a large (23.1 cm by 28.9 cm), fully illustrated account of Japanese film from its beginnings. There have now been a number of such histories, each perforce written from different perspectives and using various paradigms and methodologies. This latest entry, from the esteemed author of "The Emperor and the Wolf" — the most detailed study of director Akira Kurosawa and his iconic leading actor Toshiro Mifune — begins from the premise that there is now so much more to see.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 8, 2009

Revealing artistic shades of pink in Japanese cinema

Porno gets little respect as a film genre in the West, with its makers relegated to a ghetto that few escape. How many A-list directors in Hollywood, past or present, started by making even the milder sort of sex stuff seen on cable?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 17, 2008

'One scene/one shot,' one director

KENJI MIZOGUCHI and the Art of Japanese Cinema by Tadao Sato, translated by Brij Tankha, edited by Aruna Vasudev and Latika Padgaonkar. Oxford: Berg Books, 2008, 196 pp., with 35 photographs, £17.99 (paper) This is the English translation of Tadao Sato's defining study of the director, originally published as "Mizoguchi Kenji no Sekai" (1982). It is to be welcomed for a number of reasons.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 6, 2008

Festival explores artistic side of Thai cinema

The realm of Thai cinema goes well beyond martial arts movies such as "Ong-bak" (titled "Mach!" in Japan), which was a hit here in 2004. Movie fans in Japan unfortunately rarely ever get a chance to experience much else from Thailand's vibrant film industry, which has more to offer that is surprisingly artistic, imaginative and edgy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 28, 2004

Giving thanks on a day of cinema

The Dreamers Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Running time: 117 minutes Language: English/some French Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] As a child, I was raised as a Catholic, and went to church on Sunday, um, religiously. I can still remember the first time I skipped Mass and why: a double-feature at the old Harvard Square Theater of "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Easy Rider." From then on, Sundays were celebrated absorbing the works of Hitchcock, Truffaut, Scorsese, Tarkovsky, Fellini and Cassavettes, usually after smoky Saturday midnight screenings of cult classics like "The Harder They Come" or "Eraserhead."
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2002

Advertising sales bottom out while cinema sales flicker

Falling sales at advertising agencies in April began to show signs of bottoming out, while the fading effects of a popular animation film led to a downturn for cinema operators, a survey of the nation's service industries showed Monday.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 18, 2001

That's, like, what living is like, in'it?

Ratcatcher Purely Belter Rating: * * * * 1/2 Japanese title: Boku to Sora to Mugibatake Director: Lynne Ramsay Running time: 93 min. Language: English Now showing Rating: * * * * Director: Mark Herman Running time: 99 min. Language: English Opens April 28 So often, children in British cinema are plagued by unfulfilled longing, longing that, likely as not, stems from some small, innocent desire. We are privy to their dreams, but rarely see them satisfied. You can't help but feel outraged over the struggles of children in British movies, rowing their feeble boats against a current that insists on carrying them away into stories of injustice, abuse, bad plumbing, "never enough money in the house" and so on.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2001

A month of the early years of Chinese cinema

The National Film Center in Tokyo will this week launch a monthlong series of screenings exploring the early years of Chinese cinema.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2020

Skip the trip to Italy and binge Asian cinema online

As we head into summer, now is the time to crank up the air-conditioning, get comfortable and delve into Japanese cinema with these recommendations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 14, 2020

For filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi, freedom was the most important thing of all

Director Nobuhiko Obayashi, who died on April 10 at the age of 82, was incredibly prolific during his six-decade career. A pioneering experimental filmmaker in the 1960s, he went on to direct 2,000 television commercials (by his own estimate; no exact count exists) and 43 theatrical features.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2020

Shochiku celebrates a century of Japanese cinema hits

Despite setbacks caused by COVID-19, film studio Shochiku is determined to go ahead with its program of anniversary events and releases where possible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2019

'Five Million Dollar Life': Assessing the value of a single life

The weight of expectations — from family, friends, community — can be tough on any young person. Now imagine those people once paid $5 million to save your life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 3, 2018

'Dare to Stop Us': Japanese cinema's bad boy as seen by one of the women who worked with him

In the 1960s Koji Wakamatsu was Japanese cinema's enfant terrible: A real-life outlaw — he once joined a yakuza gang and served time in prison — he made pioneering "pink" (softcore porn) films such as "The Embryo Hunts in Secret" (1966) and "Go, Go, Second Time Virgin" (1969), whose extreme sex and violence, filmed with raw energy and wild invention, gave censors and industry guardians conniption fits.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 4, 2018

The tenacious trio set to rule Japanese cinema in 2018

Most of the actors I'm looking forward to seeing on screen in 2018 have only managed to make waves in the Japanese entertainment industry fairly recently, which, of course, just adds to the buzz they're likely to see this year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 3, 2018

Diving into Southeat Asian cinema at the Singapore International Film Festival

Since its start in 1987, the Singapore International Film Festival has become a key regional film event, despite being held in a city state that produces only a handful of feature films annually.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jul 27, 2017

It's a bit out of the way, but Skip City festival makes up for the distance with great films and rare access

The location for the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival doesn't make it particularly easy for casual fans to pop in. The Skip City complex — which hosts studios for audiovisual production, as well as educational and entertainment facilities — is a fairly lengthy bus ride from Kawaguchi Station in Saitama Prefecture.
New JAL chief concerned about yen’s ‘excessive’ weakness
Mitsuko Tottori became Japan Airlines’ first female CEO on April 1, having risen through the ranks as a flight attendant and heading the flight attendant and customer experience divisions.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Yen inches closer to intervention point as BOJ meeting starts
The rate of the yen against the U.S. dollar is displayed in the trading room at foreign exchange brokerage Gaitame.com in Tokyo on Thursday.
Princess Aiko makes debut at imperial garden party
Princess Aiko attends an imperial garden party in Tokyo on Tuesday.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Top U.S. and China diplomats talk tough amid warnings of new ‘downward spiral’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Friday
Kyotographie's strong 12th edition shines light into the margins
Yassine Alaoui Ismaili, who goes by Yoriyas, turned to photography, shooting motion while in motion himself, after an injury forced him to give up his career as a professional breakdancer.
For amateur sumo, a fresh start offers hope against time-wasting and gamesmanship
Wrestlers prepare for the start of a bout at the 2023 Sumo World Championships in Tokyo. Starting this month, placing one hand on the clay first is no longer allowed.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima
Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER