‘Dawning on Us’: Kenji Yamauchi’s pandemic drama contains some home truths
Kenji Yamauchi’s drama about a family on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the wake of the pandemic hits a few snags but also offers wry observations.
'The Bastard and the Beautiful World': Former SMAP stars let loose in a quartet of twisted tales
The members of SMAP, the five-man mega-group that disbanded in December 2016, had their share of hit films, though their central field of operation was always television. Now three of them — Goro Inagaki, Shingo Katori and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi — star in a four-part ...
Kanji Furutachi: Reacting to Japan's film industry
Over the years I've heard many complaints about the bad acting in Japanese films, from the hammy emoting of over-indulged veterans to the amateurish turns of "idols" cast more for their agency connections than any perceptible talent. I've added to this chorus of negativity, ...
'At the Terrace' offers witty, coarse fun
"I know that many film fans have an allergy to films based on plays," writes Kenji Yamauchi on the website for his new film, "At the Terrace" ("At the Terrace: Terasu Nite"). "The never-changing setting and the long conversations bore them." "Boring," however, was not ...
Family comedy 'Her Father, My Lover' is dark and absurd
"Love is strange," goes the song. But aren't lovers stranger? Maybe not you, but what about your middle-aged pal, besotted with a girl young enough to be his daughter? What could he be thinking? And "strange" is no longer the descriptor many would use. ...
Named after a prominent early 20th-century playwright, author and translator, and presented annually by the Hakusuisha publishing house since 1955, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award is indisputably Japan's top honor for writers of plays premiered the year before. As the same person can only win ...
