Tag - film-review

 
 

FILM REVIEW

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2013
Silver Linings Playbook
Sometimes life falls off its dreary grid and takes on the texture and flavor of strawberry chiffon cake. That's kind of what happens when watching "Silver Linings Playbook": The more this romantic comedy-drama about an ex-teacher with mental-health problems and the people around him progresses, the more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2013
'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
You're fed up with your family, your upbringing, your school, your social class. You don't fit in and are reminded of it. The rules and social norms that other people seem to follow so blindly seem to you phony, trite, suffocating. You develop an attitude, a bit of psychological armor, and step off the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013
'R-18 Bungakusho Vol. 1: Jijojibaku no Watashi'
Sex is universal, but kinks can be local. Japanese S&M, at least the varieties I've seen in films over the years, is less about black leather and fishnet stockings, more about candle wax and artfully elaborate knots designed to display the flesh of the (inevitably female) subject in enticing ways.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013
Moonrise Kingdom
Wes Anderson is one of those directors who, love him or hate him, has been remarkably consistent. Each film, from "Rushmore" right on down, is an artfully constructed and totally hermetic world unto itself, with flawed or absent father-figures, a closet's worth of funky-yet-chic pop-culture knickknacks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2013
'Jack Reacher'
Every time I witness the presence of Tom Cruise in Tokyo, I imagine the possibilities of him moving here as a permanent resident. He loves sushi (apparently a frequent customer at Sukiyabashi Jiro). He knows the streets of Ginza. He's clearly work addicted. Unlike in the U.S. no one here will ever direct...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2013
'Life of Pi'
Director Ang Lee's adaptation of author Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize-winning "Life of Pi" feels almost like two films sandwiched into one. In the core, you have the succulent special-effects-driven story of a young Indian survivor of a shipwreck who's adrift in a lifeboat with a man-eating Bengal tiger....

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