Kengo Kora and the perfect period drama sword fight
'Game of Thrones" star Sean Bean is well-known for dying in almost everything he stars in. If you had to find a Japanese equivalent, though, it would certainly be Kengo Kora. Since his 2006 big-screen debut, the Kumamoto native has featured in around 50 films, ...
Seeking out Japanese movies at a film festival in Bangalore
Going to Bangalore, a city of more than 10 million people in India's south, to spend five days watching movies is not the sort of thing I usually do. Which is exactly why I agreed to serve on a jury for the Network for ...
Could 'Shoplifters' or 'Mirai' pick up an Oscar? The chances are slim but real
The 2019 Oscar race is entering its final stretch, with prognosticators already unveiling their lists of winners. This year two Japanese films are up for Academy Awards — Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Shoplifters" (best foreign language film) and Mamoru Hosoda's "Mirai" (best animated feature film). An executive ...
Hirokazu Kore-eda's 'Shoplifters' and Mamoru Hosoda's 'Mirai' among 2019 Academy Awards nominations
Two Japanese films were among nominations for the 2019 Academy Awards, announced early Tuesday morning. Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Manbiki Kazoku," titled "Shoplifters" overseas, was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign-language film. "Mirai," directed by Mamoru Hosoda, was among the nominees for best animated feature. The last Japanese ...
As two rule breakers gave the Japanese film world hope in 2018, elsewhere eyes turned to China
The Japanese movie business is something like a restaurant where new cooks and waiters arrive as old ones retire or die, but the menu remains much the same, decade after decade. This year, similar to every year going back to the 1980s and beyond, the ...
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. It's the only thing that has satisfied her taste buds since her advanced-stage cancer caused her to lose her appetite, and even her desire for alcohol has vanished ...
'Shoplifters': Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winner is an eloquent look at the human condition
When a Japanese director wins the Palme d'Or — the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, the film world's equivalent of soccer's World Cup — the response of the local media is to celebrate: Our side won. Making the victory sweeter for Hirokazu Kore-eda ...
Can Hirokazu Kore-eda's success with 'Shoplifters' shed some light on poverty in Japan?
Director Hirokazu Kore-eda recently won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for "Shoplifters," a critically acclaimed family drama that was partially inspired by real-life events. It attempts to depict a slice of life in which people are struggling to make ends meet, a set of circumstances ...
Hirokazu Kore-eda — who won the top prize at the Cannes film festival Saturday — is Japan's answer to Ken Loach, a director whose stories about struggling ordinary people never fail to touch. His gentle slices of ordinary life have been praised for their humanism, ...
The number of people aged 65 or older caught shoplifting in Tokyo has been rising, with the elderly outnumbering those 19 or younger in 2012 for the first time since 1989, when officials started compiling comparable date. Police officials believe shoplifting by the elderly is ...
