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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 12, 2008

Film project delivers 'live' operas from U.K.

Performances by two acclaimed U.K. opera ensembles — Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Royal Opera House — will take place in movie theaters nationwide from Dec. 20 as the opening features of U.K. Opera @ Cinema, which is being presented by Sony Corp.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2007

'Rosso Come Il Cielo'

In many ways Mirco was a typical 10-year-old boy; skittish, puppyish and with a very short attention span. One second he'd be playing with a spinning top, and a nanosecond later he'd be running down the street in pursuit of the next fun thing. Mirco was the only child of adoring parents living in the...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 29, 2004

Tenuous but important movie links

THE CINEMA OF JAPAN AND KOREA, edited by Justin Bowyer, preface by Jinhee Choi. London: Wallflower Press, 2004, 258 pp., 24 b/w photos, £45.00 (cloth), £16.99 (paper). The linking of two national cinemas is, as the editor of this interesting collection of essays points out, problematic. Geographical...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 23, 2003

Artistic survivors of a cultural revolution

MEMOIRS FROM THE BEIJING FILM ACADEMY: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation, by Ni Zhen, translated by Chris Berry. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2002, 234 pp., £14.94 (paper). Ni Zhen taught film theory at the Beijing Film Academy where in the 20 years between 1980 and 2000 he...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2001

Firmly on the map

The Sixth Pusan International Film Festival proved to the rest of the film world that it means business, both figuratively and literally. Attendance was down by about 40,000 from last year, but PIFF still managed to fill 143,103 seats over nine days (Nov. 9-17), during which 201 films from 60 countries...
CULTURE / Film
May 2, 2001

Artcore

There's a scene in "Boogie Nights" in which porno director Jack Horner, played by Burt Reynolds, spells out his life dream: to make a "real movie" with hardcore action, something with a story that would make people want to stay beyond the money shot to find out how it ends.
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2001

Anyone for more gore?

Flashback to 1960.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2000

It's Karl Marx vs. Jackie Chan, and the old, fat guy wins

CITY ON FIRE: Hong Kong Cinema, by Lisa Odham Stokes and Michael Hoover. London: Verso, Sept. 1999, 372 pp., $22 (paper). It began as a buzzing, multicultural confusion. The year is 1909. Hong Kong's cinema is born with a silent effort titled "Stealing the Roasted Duck." It is the handiwork of Liang...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2000

Silent films cry out for attention

MASTERPIECES OF JAPANESE SILENT CINEMA. Bilingual (Japanese/English) DVD-ROM (Windows). Tokyo: Urban Connections, Inc. 18,900 yen. The Japanese silent cinema is almost unknown, so little has been available for viewing. Even in a medium where two-thirds of all silent cinema is lost (and perhaps a quarter...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2023

'The Night Before Upheaval' navigates the murky waters of overseas film festivals

Japanese indie director Mutsuki Kameyama explores the ins and outs of the overseas festival circuit in their new documentary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2023

Meiko Kaji conjures the underworld of 1970s Japan

The 'Urami Bushi' singer harks back to a film era of vengeful women, smoke-wreathed bars and gambling dens on the reissue of “Hajiki Uta,” one of her solo albums from the 1970s.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 10, 2023

The Oscars are upon us. What films are you rooting for?

Discussing what makes a great movie is fun conversation fodder. What kind of movie do you think is worthy of an Academy Award?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2022

Tokyo International Film Festival sees welcome uptick in crowds

The 35th edition of the major movie event struck a noticeably different tone after relocating from Roppongi Hills to its new home in one of the more scenic areas of central Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 3, 2022

‘Your Lovely Smile’: A sincere tribute to indie cinemas

In Kah Wai Lim's drama about a struggling director who wanders around Japan pitching his films to independent theaters, Hirobumi Watanabe plays a version of himself with heart and humor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2022

Eiko Ishibashi’s score sets the scene in Oscar-contender ‘Drive My Car’

The composer and musician's body of work spans from abstract art pop to experimental electronics, with her love for cinema serving as a major source of inspiration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2022

The end of ‘Fight Club’ was cut in China. The pattern goes back decades.

The 1999 cult classic starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton is not the only foreign film to be altered for audiences in mainland China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 7, 2022

Peter Bogdanovich, director whose career was a Hollywood drama, dies at 82

Bogdanovich hit the ground running in the '70s with films such as 'The Last Picture Show' but within the decade, he had become one of Hollywood's most ostracized filmmakers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 18, 2021

Lim Kah Wai creates an intricate mosaic of Osakans in ‘Come and Go’

Director Lim Kah Wai's final installment of his Osaka trilogy is a compelling ensemble drama that reflects the diversity of nationalities and lifestyles that coexist in the city.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2021

Godzilla fetes 67th birthday with 4K remaster of iconic 1954 film

The highly anticipated remaster of the original 'Godzilla' film debuted in Los Angeles to celebrate the 67th birthday of the pop culture icon and the world's longest-running movie franchise.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 13, 2021

TIFF and Tokyo Filmex shakeup gets conversations going

The 34th edition of Tokyo's annual film event marked the debut of a newly appointed programming director, an emphasis on female perspectives and the resurrection of the TIFF Times.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 14, 2021

China’s censorship widens to Hong Kong’s vaunted film industry, with global implications

The new guidelines, which apply to both domestically produced and foreign films, come as a sharp slap to the artistic spirit of Hong Kong.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Explainer
Mar 23, 2021

Communications ministry scandal puts focus on Japan's Broadcast Act

A decision to strip a unit of Tohokushinsha of its license came after a number of senior officials connected to the ministry were punished for violating the ethics code.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 21, 2020

Think you streamed everything? Dig deeper on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime

Cinemas have cautiously started to reopen in parts of Japan, but many of us are still having to sit tight and do all our movie-viewing at home. If, by now, you’re feeling like you’ve reached the bottom of the streaming barrel, fret not: There are still choice morsels of domestic and overseas offerings...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2019

'My Girlfriend is a Serial Killer': A rom-com slasher for killing time

In this adapation of the lurid manga series 'Peephole,' Yosuke Sugino plays a suicidal shut-in who falls for his murderous neighbor.
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.
Japan Times
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...

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces