Film / Reviews Feb 6, 2020
'Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku': A musical take on an otaku romance
by Mark Schilling
This film adaptation of a web comic by single-named artist Fujita has the central couple dancing and singing their way to love.
Film / Reviews Aug 28, 2019
'Ni no Kuni': Two worlds but little life to be found
by Matt Schley
Two things about "Ni no Kuni." 1) It features a protagonist who uses a wheelchair, an admirable display of diversity and inclusion in a medium that rarely features characters with disabilities. 2) There isn't much else to like about the film. "Ni no Kuni" hit ...
Film / Reviews Apr 17, 2019
'Kingdom': An admirable try at Chinese history
by Mark Schilling
Why should Japanese kids care about a manga set in China's Warring States Period, (475-221 B.C.)? The players and power struggles are hard enough for professional historians (and this reviewer) to grasp, let alone 10-year-olds. Yasuhisa Hara found a winning answer in "Kingdom," a manga ...
Film / Reviews Feb 15, 2017
'One Week Friends': Groundhog day in the 'friend zone'
by Mark Schilling
Someday soon someone is going to come up with an algorithm for commercial seishun eiga (youth films). Plug in the variables — teenaged love in its more innocuous variations being first and foremost — and pop out a script for another hit. If not computer-generated, ...
TV | CHANNEL SURF Jul 1, 2016
'Doctor X'; 'The Man With the Divine Tongue" Kagome
by Philip Brasor
Ryoko Yonekura returns as the genius freelance surgeon Dr. Michiko Daimon in a special two-hour installment of "Doctor X" (TV Asahi, Sun., 9 p.m.). Michiko happens to be in Kanazawa when national politician Aiko Ichinose (Kayako Kishimoto) collapses on the street after an intimate interlude ...
Film / Reviews May 18, 2016
'Wolf Girl and Black Prince': The dogged persistence of teen love
by Mark Schilling
Girls go for bad, abusive guys, while relegating nice, decent ones to the dreaded "friend zone": A misogynistic lie or the cold, hard truth? Ryuichi Hiroki's "Wolf Girl and Black Prince" seems to say the latter, starting with its premise. A naive, socially inept ...