Tag - tv-drama

 
 

TV DRAMA

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 4, 2018
'Saimon & Tada Takashi': High school drama with anime and sci-fi twists
The pangs of unrequited love are a familiar staple in high-school movies, but it's not often that they involve an altercation with a flying saucer. In his lopsided debut feature, "Saimon & Tada Takashi," writer-director Manabu Oda mixes sensitive teen drama with surreal humor and low-budget sci-fi schlock. By the end of the film's 83-minute runtime, the fact that it revolves around a gay romance feels almost incidental.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 28, 2018
'Eriko, Pretended': Fake tears fuel a tale of self-discovery
People who secretly fear they are phonies when in actuality they aren't are said to suffer from "imposter syndrome." The title heroine of Akiyo Fujimura's debut feature "Eriko, Pretended" has the opposite problem: She calls herself an actress but in 10 years has only landed one paying gig in her chosen profession, playing a costumed rabbit in a beer commercial.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2017
Fuji TV's wishful thinking is food for thought
Since 1987, Fuji TV has owned Monday night, specifically the 9 to 10 p.m. time slot, when it broadcasts fluffy romantic drama series starring the season's hottest actress and often a prominent member of a boy band.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 7, 2017
Filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda: 'I wanted to do something different'
Hirokazu Koreeda is best known for intimate family dramas that overseas critics often compare to the work of Yasujiro Ozu (1903-63), the genre's unquestioned master. Koreeda rejects these comparisons, however, and says he feels more of a cinematic kinship to Mikio Naruse (1905-69), one of Ozu's contemporaries.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 6, 2017
'The Third Murder': Director Hirokazu Koreeda triumphs with a trial drama that keeps the focus on character
Murder mysteries are popular film and television fodder in Japan, but most revolve around puzzle plots that hold as much real-world probability as the cases of Sherlock Holmes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 29, 2017
Broadway, the West End and ... Yurakucho? Alternative Theatre aims to create a new type of tourist attraction in Tokyo
The neighborhood surrounding Yurakucho Station isn't exactly starved for things to do. The Ginza is an area of intense competition for Tokyoites' leisure time, hosting countless bars, eateries and shops, as well as theaters dedicated to traditional kabuki and the famed all-female Takarazuka Revue.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
May 14, 2017
Weekend drama can be great for the kids
My two daughters rub the backs of their ears to retrieve some magic dust, which they then use to summon a pile of pizza and ice cream, before tucking into the newly created feast with arm-waving gusto.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 23, 2017
Samurai drama to put unique spin on evolution of theater
Japanese audiences will soon join those in Holland as the only people in the world with access to a theater whose seating area rotates to face a ring of multiple stages.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 30, 2016
British envoy, Japan Times turn tide in NHK history drama
Japanese love watching historical dramas, and one of the most popular times portrayed is the final years of the Edo Period (1603-1868), when the nation went through dramatic change politically, diplomatically and socially with the fall of the shogunate.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 30, 2016
NHK may need to rethink its 'taiga' formula
An article that appeared in December in the Yomiuri Shimbun weighed the prospects for the 2016 edition of NHK's year-long historical taiga drama series, which premiered Jan. 10. "Sanada Maru" is the title of the 55th marathon show, and the name of a fortification added on to Osaka Castle to protect it from a planned siege in 1615, 12 years after the Tokugawa shogunate started unifying Japan under its rule. The Yomiuri says this particular period in time is "obviously NHK's favorite," since so many taiga dramas are set around the Warring States Period (in the 15th and 16th centuries). Big events and players from the period have been dramatized multiple times over the years in these series.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Oct 22, 2015
Fuji TV announces Japan-first lesbian drama, but attracts criticism for 'outdated' portrayal
Fuji Television has announced a drama series featuring a lesbian love story as its central theme — a first for Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2015
Julianne Moore takes on a role that her peers would avoid in 'Still Alice'
Julianne Moore says she was surprised to learn that people in some parts of the world have mistaken "Still Alice," her film about Alzheimer's disease, as "science fiction" and even "horror-comedy."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2015
Julianne Moore shines as Alzheimer's patient in 'Still Alice'
Flashback to 1995 when a new actress named Julianne Moore was beginning to get noticed for her work in the Todd Haynes film "Safe," where she played an affluent Southern California suburbanite who becomes afflicted with a mysterious environmental illness. Some 20 years and four Oscar nominations later, Moore finally picked up the best actress award this year for her work in a very similar role in the film "Still Alice."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 26, 2015
'Newcomer,' 56, wins Kishida
Named after a prominent early 20th-century playwright, author and translator, and presented annually by the Hakusuisha publishing house since 1955, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award is indisputably Japan's top honor for writers of plays premiered the year before.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 2, 2015
Dramatist brings citizens of all ages together
Public theaters across the country are holding significantly more community productions and workshops aimed at local residents who are looking to get involved in performance art.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 8, 2015
Google, Toei open samurai drama studio in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills
Google Japan Inc. has opened a studio for the production of samurai drama films at the Roppongi Hills building in Tokyo, the Japanese unit of the U.S. Internet search giant said Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 25, 2015
Summit spotlights school dramatists
"Diversity is the outstanding attraction of high school drama, so I'm always appreciating afresh theater's myriad charms," the prominent director Keisuke Tanaka said with a beaming smile during a recent interview ahead of the fifth annual High School Drama Summit at Tokyo's leading Agora Theater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jan 11, 2015
Pioneering beautician Aguri Yoshiyuki dies at 107
Aguri Yoshiyuki, a pioneering beauty specialist whose life was portrayed in the NHK drama “Aguri,” has died at the age of 107.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Nov 5, 2014
NHK drama's foreign star says Japan has strengthened her
Charlotte Kate Fox, lead actress in the NHK morning drama "Massan," said Wednesday that like the character she plays, she has grown stronger since coming to Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2014
American actress first non-Japanese tapped for NHK series lead
American actress Charlotte Kate Fox will play a leading role in NHK's upcoming morning drama series 'Massan,' based on the true story of Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Japan's whiskey industry.

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