Film / Reviews May 26, 2022
'Inu-Oh’: A rock musical that won't be headlining anytime soon
by James Hadfield
While "Inu-Oh" contains good insights into how folk traditions are born, the visuals and music could've benefited from more variety.
Books / Reviews Jun 10, 2017
'Slow Boat': Hideo Furukawa beats Haruki Murakami at his own game
by Iain Maloney
Comparing a Japanese writer with Haruki Murakami is the laziest move a reviewer can make, but with "Slow Boat," Hideo Furukawa leaves critics no choice. Slow Boat, by Hideo Furukawa, Translated by David Boyd.128 pages PUSHKIN PRESS, Fiction. In a postscript, the author explains that the subtitle, ...
Books Dec 24, 2016
Tales from the cracks: 10 of the best books about Japan released in 2016
It's been a difficult year — one that felt like humanity was living on a fracturing ice shelf. That uncertainty came from our exposure to wars and natural disasters, and even our struggles with "truth" itself. The best Japan-related books released in 2016 seemed ...
Books / Reviews Jun 11, 2016
Novelist Hideo Furukawa views the Fukushima disaster through nonhuman eyes
by Kris Kosaka
After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, critically acclaimed writer Hideo Furukawa experienced an unsettling "imagination meltdown." "Novelists are artists, and usually imagination comes between them and reality," Fukushima-born Furukawa says. "But when reality becomes something far beyond our imagination, we are exposed, rendered naked ...