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October 08, 2025
 

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FILM

“KPop Demon Hunters” director Maggie Kang discussed how she fused Korean folklore with K-pop spectacle at Netflix’s Creative Asia event in Busan.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Oct 5, 2025
With Hollywood facing headwinds, Netflix looks eastward
The streamer’s Creative Asia event at the Busan International Film Festival unveiled new initiatives designed to expand the region’s storytelling role.
Anshul Chauhan’s Japanese film “Tiger” won the Hylife Vision Award for independent films at this year’s Busan International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2025
Japanese films win crowds but few prizes at Busan festival
From art house cinema to commercial hits, 24 films showcased Japan’s range at the 30th edition of the Busan International Film Festival.
Kabuki has been trying for years to attract a new generation of fans. One way to do this has been to adapt manga and anime franchises, such as “Naruto,” for the stage. 
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 3, 2025
The summer kabuki came roaring back
A hit film and shifting demographics are drawing new audiences to kabuki, sparking hopes for a revitalized future.
Director Park Chan-wook and the cast of his latest film “No Other Choice” attended the Busan International Film Festival’s glittering opening ceremony where the film’s lead actor, Lee Byung-hun, served as host.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
Revamped Busan film festival turns 30 with expanded cinematic showcase
Since its inception, BIFF has been a launchpad for Asian cinema. This year, it grew bigger and brighter with a new Competition section, 90 world premieres and high-profile guests.
An elderly inmate (voiced by Kaoru Kobayashi in the present and Junki Tozuka in flashback) confides in a potted balsam flower (voiced by Pierre Taki) about the decisions that led him to prison in "The Last Blossom."
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
Pieces fall perfectly into place in the reflective ‘The Last Blossom’
Reflective and heartfelt, Baku Kinoshita’s animated feature tells a story of second chances without being overly sentimental.
A young man (Kodai Kurosaki) has a tense reunion with his estranged father in “Brand New Landscape.”
CULTURE / Film
Oct 2, 2025
‘Brand New Landscape’ captures family dysfunction in a shimmering city
In director Yuiga Danzuka’s first feature, Tokyo gleams with promise — but loneliness lingers in every corner.
Suzu Hirose (left), Satoshi Tsumabuki (center) and Masataka Kubota (right) play childhood friends caught up in the simmering tensions of postwar Okinawa in Keisuke Otomo’s “Hero’s Island.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
‘Hero’s Island’: Okinawa-set epic is lavishly realized but lacks bite
Keisuke Otomo recreates postwar turmoil in rich detail that is sometimes more vivid than the characters themselves.
An anthropomorphic frog (voiced by Non) and a banker turned parking lot attendant (Koichi Sato) team up on a mission in "After the Quake."
CULTURE / Film
Sep 25, 2025
The familiar is made surreal in ‘After the Quake’
Tsuyoshi Inoue’s feature reworks NHK’s four-part Haruki Murakami drama adaptation, evoking the dreamlike atmosphere of the author’s works.
Filmmakers Chloe Zhao and Lee Sang-il will receive the Kurosawa Akira Award, given to filmmakers who have “left their marks in cinema and will be entrusted with the film industry's future,” at this year's edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2025
Tokyo film festival to open with Everest and close with some Shakespeare
Japan’s main movie event kicks off Oct. 27 with the true story of the first woman to summit Mount Everest. It closes Nov. 5 with Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet."
Colorful displays promote the Japanese film "Demon Slayer" at a cinema in the Ikebukuro earlier this month.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2025
Japan government to support domestic digital content overseas
The package includes multi-year support for the digital content industry's overseas expansion.
Park Chan-wook (center) attended the Busan International Film Festival opening ceremony with “No Other Choice" cast members on Wednesday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 19, 2025
Park Chan-wook’s sharp satire ‘No Other Choice’ opens Busan festival
The director's socially charged murder-comedy made its Asian premiere at the film festival on Wednesday.
In “Ranshima Bound,” Yoshio (Tomoki Kimura, right) returns to his Hokkaido hometown with his supposed wife (Yuko Kii) when his estranged brother tells him their mother is in a coma.
CULTURE
Sep 19, 2025
‘Ranshima Bound’: Family fractures and buried truths collide in Hokkaido chill
Tomoki Kimura’s turn as a one-time punk rocker drifting through life grounds Kamada’s drama in rage, regret and reluctant tenderness.
Channing Tatum, one of the English-language voice actors, and others attend the premiere of “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – Infinity Castle” at the TCL Chinese 6 Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 9. Japanese anime has surged from niche fandom to global box-office powerhouse with the latest “Demon Slayer” installment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 19, 2025
Anime’s ‘Demon Slayer’ hit is a watershed for Japan
Its animation finally has a global box-office smash. Now the country must capitalize on it.
The government is considering raising the upper limit on the industry ministry's subsidies for video productions costing ¥300 million or more from the current ¥200 million.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2025
Japan to boost support for its anime and film industry
The government is aiming to triple overseas revenue from Japanese content to ¥20 trillion in 2033.
Yoshihiko Matsui’s “There Was Such a Thing Before” follows two high-school friends (Oshiro Maeda, left, and Airu Kubozuka) growing up in the aftermath of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant meltdown.
CULTURE / Film
Sep 18, 2025
‘There Was Such a Thing Before’: Fukushima grief and fury in monochrome
Eighteen years since his last feature, Yoshihiko Matsui is back with a somber Fukushima tale that demands attention, even as its drama feels stilted.
A woman walks past the poster of Lee Sang-il’s kabuki drama "Kokuho" outside a cinema in Tokyo's Roppongi district.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Sep 18, 2025
From high risk to record-breaker, ‘Kokuho’ defied expectations to become a megahit
Lee Sang-il's three-hour kabuki drama overcame doubts over subject matter to find its audience.
A statue of young swordsman Tanjiro Kamado, the main character in the "Demon Slayer" anime franchise, is on display at a cinema in Tokyo's Ikebukuro neighborhood.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 17, 2025
Japan’s box office belongs to 'Demon Slayer' as latest film ranks second all time
“Infinity Castle” entry has overtaken “Spirited Away,” making the franchise the undisputed king of Japan’s all-time box office.
Robert Redford attends the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. The famed U.S. actor and director died at his home in Utah at the age of 89.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Sep 16, 2025
Robert Redford, screen idol turned director and activist, dies at 89
Known for roles in "The Sting" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," the actor also founded the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
Japanese immunologist among three Nobel medicine prize winners
Shimon Sakaguchi, an immunologist and distinguished professor at Osaka University, attends a news conference after winning the 2025 Nobel Prize in medicine, in Osaka Prefecture on Monday.
Spanish tourist injured in latest bear attack
Shirakawago, a U.N. World Heritage site in Gifu Prefecture
Americans and Canadians unite in battling 'eating machine' carp
A Fisheries and Oceans Canada team patrols the Grand River in Dunnville, Ontario, in search of invasive grass carp specimens on Sept. 25.
Trump hails 'wisdom and strength' of Japan's incoming prime minister
Sanae Takaichi, the newly elected leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, gives a news conference after the LDP presidential election in Tokyo on Saturday.
Trump has his eyes on the prize — but a Nobel win looks unlikely
A protester holds a sign with an image depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and the words "Nobel" written on it, as supporters and family members of hostages who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, demonstrate to demand the immediate end of the war and the release of all hostages, outside the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv, on Sept. 2.
‘Takaichi trade’ stalls as political reality calls for wait-and-see approach
Tokyo stocks staged a powerful rally on Monday. On Tuesday, they rallied again, then retreated.
‘We have drawn lessons,’ Indian Army chief says of brief clash with Pakistan
Indian Army chief Upendra Dwivedi waves as he arrives to attend the ceremonial reception of Defense Minister Gen Nakatani in New Delhi in May.
How a family-run landscaper turned the Osaka Expo green
The team at Ryokukou Garden consists primarily of a single family, including Toshiki Tanisaki (second from right), who led the company's efforts at the Osaka Expo, Chikako Tanisaki (fifth from right), who performs daily maintanence at the expo, and Takeshi Tanisaki (fourth from right), who added a nursery to the family farm more than 50 years ago.
Eat your balloons: The culinary theater of Grant Achatz comes to Tokyo
Avant-garde chef Grant Achatz and his team from Alinea are in Tokyo for a three-week residency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?
By Alex K.T. Martin

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