Tag - masato-harada

 
 

MASATO HARADA

A con artist (Sakura Ando, top) and her half-brother (Ryosuke Yamada) try to make a getaway from the Osaka underworld in Masato Harada’s “Bad Lands.”
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2023
‘Bad Lands’: Sakura Ando steals scenes in fast-paced thriller
The actor delivers a hypnotic lead turn as a con artist running from the law and a violent ex in Masato Harada’s high-octane film.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 15, 2022
'Hell Dogs': Mayhem with a touch of noir
Masato Harada's fast-paced film starring Junichi Okada as an undercover police officer in a yakuza gang delivers blood-spattering action scenes and a flurry of movie references.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2021
‘Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai’: A historical swashbuckler full of gusto
Director Masato Harada's period film focuses on the rise and fall of the infamous Shinsengumi samurai corps during the years of political tumult leading up to the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2018
'Killing for the Prosecution': A complex crime drama stuffed with exposition
Once a maker of Hollywood-style sci-fi ("Gunhed," 1989) and noir ("Painted Desert," 1993), Masato Harada has become a director of films about fact-based, character-testing group missions, be it police routing radicals from a Karuizawa villa ("The Choice of Hercules," 2002) or samurai fighting the biggest battle in Japanese history ("Sekigahara," 2017).
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2017
'Sekigahara': A bold attempt to portray one of Japan's most decisive battles
The Battle of Sekigahara was fought on Oct. 21, 1600, and changed the course of Japanese history. Tokugawa Ieyasu and his Army of the East won an overwhelming victory over the Army of the West led by Ishida Mitsunari, resulting in the political unification of the country and the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate for the next 260 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2016
'Scoop!': Read all about it here
Japanese weekly scandal magazines are pond scum, are they not? Dishing up grainy paparazzi photos of the famous and powerful, accompanied by wink-wink stories about improprieties and crimes — alleged or exposed — they appeal to the lowest common denominator, with their only raison d'etre being sales figures. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they all vanished from the face of the Earth?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2015
Spotlight on Harada films is well-deserved
Following last year's embrace of anime and "content," 2015 sees the Tokyo International Film Festival reassert its credentials as an event, first and foremost, for cineastes. One particularly welcome addition is the new Japan Now section, a roundup of recent and upcoming movies from the likes of Hirokazu Koreeda, Shinya Tsukamoto and Yoji Yamada.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 19, 2015
A militaristic turn for the Japanese film industry
Why have Japanese filmmakers recently been turning out so many films about World War II and its aftermath? The obvious answer is that they're commemorating the 70th anniversary of that war's end, which was marked on Aug. 15. But there are far fewer new films about WWII in most of the countries that fought with and against Japan in that conflict. (China, where the anti-Japanese war film has long been a thriving subgenre, is an exception.)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 5, 2015
A more complex portrayal of Emperor Hirohito
Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa, had a procession of public images during his long reign from 1926 to 1989 — though none were quite accurate.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores