Tag - wide-angle

 
 

WIDE ANGLE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Mar 1, 2017
Binge on the best of the Italian neorealists
Even a casual film buff knows that "Bicycle Thieves," the 1948 black-and-white film by Vittorio De Sica, is regarded as one of The Great Films of All Time. It's the best-known film by far of Italian cinema's postwar neorealist movement, but those who wish to delve deeper into that rich vein can binge...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 23, 2017
From the 'Queen of Boogie' to 'The Lion King,' Japanese audiences are always up for a good musical
Few Japanese will dispute that we are a nation of dedicated music fans and, though it may not seem like it at first, this goes for musicals, too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 22, 2017
Asian Film Festival unspools in Osaka
Why go to Osaka to see films? I may sound like an insufferable Tokyo snob asking this, but given all the hundreds of movies on offer in the nation's capital, it's worth answering to justify the shinkansen ticket.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 15, 2017
It'll get released in Japan — come 'Hell or High Water'
Among the snubs and surprise inclusions in this year's Oscar nominations, one might have stood out for Japanese movie fans — and I'm not talking about "Your Name." In what's surely a first, a Best Picture nominee has bypassed cinemas here and gone straight to Netflix.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 8, 2017
'Do Not Resist': The consequences are high
Armored personnel carriers prowl the streets as bulky stormtroopers with automatic weapons and body armor batter down doors. Light aircraft and drones cruise the skies above, monitoring the movements to and from individual dwellings 24/7. Afghanistan? Nope, this is the troubling image of white-picket-fence...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Feb 1, 2017
Hiroki Matsukata: a gangster farewell
Hiroki Matsukata, who died at age 74 on Jan. 21, may have been born into an acting family — his father was jidaigeki (historical drama) actor Jushiro Konoe — but in his yakuza films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s, Matsukata's portrayals of feral-but-charming hoods seemed to boil up off...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 25, 2017
Helen Pankhurst: The suffragettes were just the beginning
As women march to protest Donald Trump's presidency and "Suffragette" is released in Japan, the words of Helen Pankhurst, activist and British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's great-granddaughter, should resonate with many filmgoers.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 18, 2017
The truth is still out there
"The truth is out there." This tagline to the sci-fi TV series "The X-Files" used to give me chills when it was first aired on Fox in 1993. The series touted an intriguing minimalist elegance — from its set designs to FBI agent Dana Scully's pristine white shirts and smart suits, contrasted with the...
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 11, 2017
'The Knick': Still gnarlier than 'The Walking Dead'
A number of auteurs have dabbled in TV series, such as David Fincher with "House of Cards" and Martin Scorsese with "Vinyl"; but with "The Knick," Steven Soderbergh becomes the first to hands-on direct every episode of a show from beginning to end. The result is a two-season arc of absolutely gripping...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Jan 4, 2017
'Tampopo' has blown back to our screens
Released in 1985, Juzo Itami's "Tampopo" was famously a flop in Japan, but a hit abroad, especially in the United States, where it became the second-highest-earning Japanese film ever. This "noodle Western" about a rough-hewn truck driver (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who helps a spunky widow (Nobuko Miyamoto)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 28, 2016
'Ruined Heart': a belated release
When you're covering a film fest, sometimes you crave a quick jolt. I'm still not sure how Khavn's "Ruined Heart" (Japan title: "Kowareta Kokoro") snuck into the main competition section of Tokyo International Film Festival in 2014, but watching it at the time felt like necking a triple vodka and Red...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 14, 2016
'Beep' tracks down 8-bit maestros
Here's one for the gamers: "Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound" interviews more than 80 composers, sound designers and voice actors in a comprehensive look at its topic. Starting with mechanical pinball bells, "Beep" moves through the bleepy 8-bit sounds of 1980s arcade games to the present, where...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Dec 7, 2016
'Crazy Thunder Road' is still a mad, but great film
Sogo Ishii — or Gakuryu Ishii, as he now prefers to be known — was just 23 when he released "Crazy Thunder Road," perhaps one of the greatest films to emerge from Japan's punk era (an honor it shares with the director's 1982 follow-up, "Burst City"). A nihilistic tale of warring biker gangs and ultra-nationalist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 30, 2016
The diversity of religion captured on film
Reflecting on the rise of a generation of Japanese that has grown up suspicious of organized religion — particularly those who came of age in the shadow of 1995's terror attacks by the Aum Shinrikyo cult — Nihon University's College of Art has put together a Religion Film Festival, which will be...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 23, 2016
The gritty side of Polish film
European cinema lost one of its greats in October, when Polish director Andrzej Wajda passed away at the age of 90. Wajda, perhaps best known for his 1981 Cannes Palme d'Or winner "Man of Iron," had a long association with Japan, being awarded both the Kyoto Prize in 1987 and the Order of The Rising...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 16, 2016
'Nuclear Nation' offers a long, hard look at Fukushima refugees' plight
'Nuclear Nation 2016' re-examines the situation facing Fukushima refugees forced to abandon their homes and evacuate from their hometowns after the Fukushima disaster.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 9, 2016
Tokyo Filmex sharpens its focus
Is Tokyo Filmex losing its raison d'etre? Opening less than a month after the Tokyo International Film Festival ends, Tokyo Filmex was once the hard-core indie antithesis of the larger, more mainstream TIFF, but the latter is now more welcoming to the kind of young, up-and-coming Japanese and Asian directors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Nov 2, 2016
Tokyo Station Gallery celebrates Ken Takakura's traditional virtues
Ken Takakura (1931-2014) was a major film star for nearly five decades. He also became a national icon for embodying traditional virtues, especially in his dozens of gang films for the Toei studio in the 1960s and '70s.
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 26, 2016
Staring into the 'Black Mirror'
After two short seasons on British broadcaster Channel 4, the near-future techno-dystopian sci-fi series "Black Mirror" moves to Netflix, with a bigger budget and more episodes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / Wide Angle
Oct 19, 2016
Kyoto International Film Festival wraps up in style
Kyoto is a great destination for a variety of reasons — and the Kyoto International Film and Art Festival (KIFF) wants to be one of them. Its third edition, which just wrapped up on Oct. 16, offered everything from the arts and crafts for which Kyoto is famous to screenings of 108 short and feature...

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Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo