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April 20, 2024
 

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RYUICHI HIROKI

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2022
‘Phases of the Moon’: A thoughtful yet unconvincing tale of rebirth
Ryuichi Hiroki's melodrama about reincarnation adeptly navigates multiple timelines with a sensitive touch while revealing unspoken Japanese beliefs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 24, 2022
‘Motherhood’: More soap opera than psychological thriller
Erika Toda and Mei Nagano offer contrasting perspectives on a frosty parent-child relationship in Ryuichi Hiroki's “Motherhood.”
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 10, 2022
'2 Women': Shinobu Terajima shines as celebrated novelist
The actress gives a luminous performance as a fictional version of Jakucho Setouchi, an author turned Buddhist nun, in Ryuichi Hiroki's biopic.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 13, 2022
‘Noise’: A web of lies imbued with style and pathos
Ryuichi Hiroki's film about three men entangled in a web of lies and murder to protect their island community is a departure from the director's usual romantic dramas and indie fare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2021
Sex, murder and a getaway car: ‘Ride or Die’ stars go on the trip of a lifetime
Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato discuss the challenges of bringing Ching Nakamura's harrowing, sexually explicit manga to the screen in a provocative new Netflix movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2018
'It's Boring Here, Pick Me Up': A rural road movie with no destination
What passes for countryside in Japan is often a vast sprawl of low-rise development: chain restaurants, big-box stores, gas stations and pachinko parlors. While there's no shortage of films that have tried to capture the ennui of life in such areas, the results are often as uninspiring as the locations they depict.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 20, 2017
A courtroom drama, an alien takeover and the lives of sex workers all feature in the best Japanese films of 2017
This year was bad for Japanese films box office-wise, but not quality-wise. Here are my best 10:
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 20, 2017
'The Miracles of the Namiya General Store': Nostalgia-fueled tears are on sale at this shop
Japanese critics are calling "The Miracles of the Namiya General Store" the "most tear-inducing" story ever adapted from a Keigo Higashino novel. The best-selling author has penned such sensations as the thrillers "The Devotion of Suspect X" and "Journey Under the Midnight Sun," but "Namiya" went a different way and instead demonstrates Higashino's hidden flair for feel-good stories.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 19, 2017
Director Ryuichi Hiroki discusses 'Side Job.' and the changing feelings Fukushima evokes
Interviews with Japanese directors tend to be straightforward PR exercises. The subjects may be friendly, but they are also disinclined to deviate from their script, especially if they are on their umpteenth media interview of the day.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 19, 2017
'Side Job.' presents an authentic portrayal of life in Fukushima after disaster
The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and its aftermath have been the focus of many films, both fiction and nonfiction. However, most of them have been by filmmakers who've come from outside Fukushima Prefecture, where the disaster hit hardest.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 18, 2016
'Wolf Girl and Black Prince': The dogged persistence of teen love
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 high school girl agrees to become the "dog" of a handsome, arrogant schoolmate if he pretends to be her boyfriend. That is, she has to do exactly as he says, doggy tricks included, and in return he will hang out with her in front of her friends — the school's "cool girl" clique. How retrograde is that?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2015
The mysterious attraction of an aging, domineering chauvinist
Love never was and never will be logical. Your 20-year-old daughter rolls her eyes at May-December romances in the movies — until she gets engaged to a 50-year-old guy. And you will declaim loud and long against her choice, until you start dating a 20-year-old yourself. I am speaking in a general way, of course. I am certain that all of you reading this only fall in love with age-appropriate partners.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2015
Back to the love hotel for ex-pink film director
Interviews with people you know well can turn awkward if you try to be the probing questioner instead of the coffee-shop companion. No such worries with 61-year-old Ryuichi Hiroki, the former pink film (i.e., soft pornography) director who made his commercial and critical breakthrough with the erotically charged youth drama "800 Two Lap Runners" in 1994.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2015
Sayonara Kabukicho: Life and love in Shinjuku's red-light district
Ryuichi Hiroki has become a victim of his own success, though his studio employers probably don't see it that way. This one-time maker of so-called pink films (i.e., soft pornography), who became internationally celebrated for intimate indie dramas like "Vibrator" from 2003 and "Yawarakai Seikatsu (It's Only Talk)" from 2005, has morphed into the local industry's go-to guy for weepy romantic dramas — a genre that has been a big money-maker here for decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 29, 2013
'Daijobu 3kumi (Nobody's Perfect)'
Teaching kids is usually not thought of as a physically taxing job, but take it from one who has done it: It is, especially in Japanese schools, where one teacher may have to deal with 40 bundles of not-always-well-behaved energy. I spent much of my class time at a Tokyo boys' high school in the 1980s walking or standing, since sitting behind a desk or even on it would have left me too far out of touch with the students, who often needed individual attention — or discipline. And then there was the light but constant labor of handing out work sheets, collecting homework and writing on the blackboard.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2013
'Kiiroi Zo'
Ryuichi Hiroki has become the go-to director for romantic dramas that quality-wise are a cut above the local formula weepers whose starred-crossed lovers are parted by a slow, beautiful death (though Hiroki's couples are hardly immune to life's vicissitudes). At the same time, his films in this genre are pitched at a bigger audience than the typical furrow-browed indie, including fans of the pop/literary novel on which they are inevitably based.
No link to Nankai Trough quake seen after temblor in Shikoku
Satoshi Harada from the Meteorological Agency explains about the magnitude 6.6 earthquake during a news conference early Thursday.
Tehran signals no retaliation against Israel after drones attack Iran
A reported strike against Iran by Israel on Friday came against the backdrop of Iran's support for the Palestinian Hamas militant group, whose assault into Israel on Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of Gaza.
In a first, Japan doctors sue Google over negative reviews on firm's map app
One of the lawyers representing a group of doctors suing Google told a news conference that the main purpose of the lawsuit is not to seek compensation but instead to raise awareness over various problems with the Google Maps system.
Japanese acts seize Coachella's spotlight — and this ain't your typical J-pop
Four-piece Atarashii Gakko! and Okinawan rapper Awich (center) shared the Mojave Stage at 88Risings’s “Futures” showcase at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last weekend.
Former No. 1 Kento Momota retires from international badminton at 29
Badminton star Kento Momota leaves a news conference after announcing his retirement from Japan's national team, in Tokyo on Thursday.
'House of the Owl' brings Hollywood values to Japanese TV
In the new Disney+ series “House of the Owl,” Min Tanaka (left) plays a powerful political fixer, or “kuromaku,” who has a troubled relationship with his adult children, particularly his idealistic son, played by Mackenyu.
Benefits and risks: AUKUS looks to take gamble on Japan
U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British leader Rishi Sunak deliver remarks on the AUKUS partnership, after a trilateral meeting, at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego in March last year.
Baseball Hall of Fame to highlight history of Japan-U.S. ties in new exhibit
Josh Rawitch, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, holds a baseball thrown by former Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo during a no-hitter in 1996 while seated next to a Dodgers uniform used by Shohei Ohtani this season during a news conference at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Tokyo
Latest Biden chip deal highlights U.S. semiconductor successes
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he announces a preliminary agreement with Intel for a major CHIPS and Science Act award, during a visit to the Intel Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
Kyoto’s demon night parade lives to haunt another day
In a Kyoto long past, the "hyakki yagyō" (100 demon night parade) haunted a sleepy corner of Kyoto. Now, one enterprising monster enthusiast has won a small batttle to keep the march alive.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on
By Lance Henderstein

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