NEWSWORTHY
'Divine Justice': The surprises behind closed doors
Love hotels feature in many Japanese films, including those, like Ryuichi Hiroki's "Kabukicho Love Hotel" and Izuru Kumasaka's "Asyl: Park and Love Hotel," that make such establishments a central focus. Typically guests drop their social masks within their walls, while employees get an up-close ...
'The Relative Worlds': A rough ride across two universes
The concept of parallel universes is a fascinating one. What if there was another you out there, making the big bucks, fighting in a war or writing bad poetry? And what would happen if you and your alternate self were ever to meet up? That's ...
Hollywood's biggest night — the Oscars — is set to take place next month without a host for the first time in 30 years, after comedian Kevin Hart pulled out of the gig and no suitable replacement was found. Though organizers have yet to confirm ...
A second helping of horror for 'Suspiria'
Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino cites categorization as one of his enemies, and the sudden fierceness in his eyes shows he's not kidding. "I feel uncomfortable putting ideas and thoughts into boxes," Guadagnino, 47, tells The Japan Times. "As soon as you categorize something, it starts to ...
'Chiwawa': An enigma wrapped in a riddle
Edie Sedgwick was an Andy Warhol "superstar" and Bob Dylan muse who died at age 28 after bouts with mental illness and drug addiction — and has had a long afterlife as a legendary 1960s "it" girl. She is an inspiration for "Chiwawa," Ken Ninomiya's ...
'The Nikaidos' Fall': What's in a name? Everything.
The weight of tradition threatens to crush a once-great family in "The Nikaidos' Fall," a contemporary drama about people with an unhealthy fixation on the past. Iranian director Ida Panahandeh's film starts in a cemetery and never really leaves the realm of the dead. ...
As the heavyweights return, will 2019 be a smash year for anime?
When looking forward to the coming year in anime, it may be helpful to jump in the time machine and hop back to 2016. That's the year Japan was hit with a flood of smash original anime films, including the sleeper hit "In This ...
'Kono Michi': A biopic heavy on sentimentality
Biopics are a Hollywood staple, though poets don't usually get a lot of play, with the Beats (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and company) among the prominent exceptions. The same is true in Japan: Notorious criminals are more likely to be the subjects of biopics ...
'His Lost Name': A lack of more than just a name
Cinema abounds with tales of imposters and con artists, but some of the most interesting stories are the ones where people get wise to a deception and decide to go along with it anyway. In "His Lost Name," a young drifter arrives in a ...
'Bohemian Rhapsody' wins best picture and Glenn Close upsets Lady Gaga at Golden Globes
Thunder bolt and lighting rocked the 76th Golden Globes where a string of upsets culminated with the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" winning best picture, drama, over another movie about musicians: Bradley Coopler's much more heavily favored "A Star Is Born." "A Star Is Born" ...
Join in the chatter during film awards season
With the Golden Globes finished, the race to the Oscars is on. It's time to try out your Japanese on the topic of movies.
A year on, Time's Up movement has taken shape but faces long road to ending sex discrimination
The Time's Up movement against sexual harassment, founded a year ago, has made tangible progress in the world of showbiz and beyond — by fostering solidarity and encouraging women to speak out — but the road ahead is indeed long. On Jan. 1, 2018, more ...
