Tag - kirin-kiki

 
 

KIRIN KIKI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 16, 2021
Five books about Japan that are perfect for foodies
Many authors writing about Japan use the countryu2019s cuisine as a central plot point. Here are five food-centric books perfect for a lazy afternoon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 6, 2019
Film director Hirokazu Kore-eda steps out of his comfort zone
Award-winning director makes rare move overseas with latest release in a bid to experience various types of filmmaking.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2019
'Cherry Blossoms and Demons': Swan song remains an ugly duckling
The late Kirin Kiki maintained such an industrious work schedule that moviegoers have had multiple chances to pay their last respects since she passed away last September. "Cherry Blossoms and Demons" is her actual swan song, albeit one that all but the most ardent fan can probably skip.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2019
'Erica 38': The rise and fall of a true con artist
Con artists in movies are typically likeable rogues who prey on the deserving. The title character of Yuichi Hibi's "Erica 38," who is neither "Erica" nor "38," is closer to the unlikable reality: A woman who dupes others with no discernible guilt or remorse, even when her victims are on the verge of ruin or suicide. She takes lovers, but the only thing she trusts is cold, hard cash.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Mar 18, 2019
Japanese rock singer and actor Yuya Uchida dies at 79
Japanese rock singer and actor Yuya Uchida, who performed as the opening act for the Beatles' concerts in Tokyo in 1966, has died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital, his management office said Monday. He died Sunday morning at 79.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2018
'Every Day a Good Day': The wonder of tea with Kirin Kiki
I attended my first tea ceremony decades ago, as part of a company orientation. Kneeling on the floor, I sat in the formal seiza position, stumbled through the motions and sipped the thick green tea. Just as the pain in my legs was reaching a crescendo, I bowed to my host and hobbled out. I had next to no idea what it all meant. A box ticked off in the Japanese cultural experiences list?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 16, 2018
Veteran actress Kirin Kiki dies at age 75
Veteran actress Kirin Kiki, who won two Japan Academy best actress awards during her career, dies in Tokyo at the age of 75.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2018
Actress Kirin Kiki wants an ending with no twists
When life gave her lemons, film star Kirin Kiki didn't make lemonade, but wild grass enzyme juice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 28, 2018
'Japan's grandmother' Kirin Kiki has defied conventions throughout her long film career
Now 75, Kirin Kiki is everyone’s favorite Japanese grandmother, a role she has been playing for years now on big screens and small. But she has also never been anyone’s stereotype of quietly suffering, nobly self-sacrificing Japanese womanhood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 16, 2018
'Mori, the Artist's Habitat': A delightful dip into a creator's world
Fact-checking biopics is an easy game for critics to play since nearly all films about real people fudge facts or even outright lie to tell a story. I've played the game myself, but in the case of Shuichi Okita's delightful "Mori, the Artist's Habitat," it's almost beside the point.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2016
A new wave of Japanese filmmakers matches the old
Nearly two decades after the Japanese New Wave of the 1990s, the directors who led it, including Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase, are still the local industry's most prominent faces abroad. But this year a new generation of filmmakers has finally started to make itself heard, with 36-year-old Koji Fukada winning the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes for "Harmonium" ("Fuchi ni Tatsu") and 43-year-old Makoto Shinkai obliterating the box-office competition with his animation "Kimi no Na wa." ("Your Name."). Both generations found themselves on my best 10 list for 2016.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2015
Director Kawase disregards criticism of her sentimental leprosy drama 'An'
When I first interviewed Naomi Kawase in 1998, after she won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or award for her first feature, "Moe no Suzaku" ("Suzaku"), I remarked on her "quietly stubborn determination" to persist in the face of various detractors. If anything, criticism has increased in the intervening years. Feminists have attacked her for making apolitical personal documentaries, and her fiction films are favorite pinatas of critics voting in the annual edition of Eiga Geijutsu magazine's "Worst Ten" poll. At the same time she has garnered many awards and honors here and abroad, including seven invitations to the Cannes festival — the most of any living Japanese director.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 3, 2015
Director Naomi Kawase has finally made a 'real Japanese film'
Sooner or later, many Japanese directors — be they internationally acclaimed auteurs or industry outsiders — end up making what Sion Sono (a noted auteur/outsider himself) once described to me as "a real Japanese film." To put it simply, this sort of film is aimed squarely at the domestic audience, especially folks looking for a good cry.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world