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July 11, 2026
 

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Mark Schilling
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2001
The comfort of strangers
Sora no Anna Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri Running time: 127 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2001
Asia’s best shine at cinema showcase
Film festivals are addictive, especially if you’ve got that magical piece of laminated paper called a press pass. Volunteers smile at you, directors schmooze with you and theater doors swing open for you at the flash of a badge. Best of all, you can spend all day watching movies with no guilty feelings...
LIFE / Travel
Sep 25, 2001
No, really, it’s completely unspoiled!
Paradise in the South Pacific? Isn’t that only ad copy for getaway resorts that put little beach umbrellas in the cocktails and charge prices the locals could only afford after a winning lottery ticket?
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2001
Pixels can’t really tell the whole story
Final Fantasy Rating: * * * Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi Running time: 106 minutes Language: English Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2001
Welcome to my worst nightmare
Kemonogare -- Orera no Saru to Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hideaki Sunaga Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2001
Truly, madly, but not too deeply
Zeitaku na Hone Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Isao Yukisada Running time: 107 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
‘Electric Dragon 80000V’
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2001
A bolt from the past
Electric Dragon 80000V Rating: * * * Director: Sogo Ishii Running time: 55 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing What should rockers do when the paunch starts to sag over the jeans and the gray hair starts to glint in the spotlights? Have some self-respect and stop shaking that wrinkled booty,...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
‘Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu’
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Just please don’t ask ‘why?’
The first questions John Williams is always asked about “Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu (Firefly Dreams)” are the “whys“: Why are you in Japan? Why did you shoot a film using only Japanese actors? The answers, Williams says, don’t come easy, “because I never imagined I would end up making a film here.”
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2001
Bridging the gap
Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu Rating: * * * * Director: John Williams Running time: 95 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing For decades, foreign directors have been going to Hollywood and making movies with American settings, stories and stars that American audiences have accepted as their own. Charlie...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2001
The powerful roar of distant waves
Nami Rating: * * * * Director: Hiroshi Okuhara Running time: 111 minutes Language: Japanese Now showing Are we all going to end up slaving 24/7? The Japanese have long led the way to an all-work, no-play future, but now the Americans, writes Martin Kettle in Guardian Unlimited, are catching up....
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2001
Are the fishing fools running out of line?
Tsuri Baka Nisshi 12 Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Katsuhide Motoki Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 18 Some sequels make sense, but a “3” or “4” after the title of a Hollywood movie is generally a good reason to stay away unless you happen to be feeling charitable toward a studio...
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2001
A samurai flick for the MTV generation
Red Shadow Aka Kage Rating: * * 1/2 Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 108 minutes Language: JapaneseOpens Aug. 11 at Marunouchi Toei and other theaters Silent-era samurai movies fulfilled the same function as the westerns of W.S. Hart and Tom Mix: They entertained the common herd, particularly...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2001
Lost and found in a dream
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) Rating: * * * * * Director: Hayao Miyazaki Running time: 125 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli animators had their biggest-ever triumph with “Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke),” an eco-fable set in premodern...
COMMUNITY
Jul 22, 2001
When we had heroes
They were voices in the silence, stars in the night they showed the way and they showed what was right
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2001
Ms. Tokyo takes a trip to reality
Koko ni Iru Koto Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Masahiko Nagasawa Running time: 115 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing The TV trendy drama was a bubble-era phenomenon, with its stories about the love troubles of beautiful young singles working at glamorous “katakana jobs” (such as “event planner“...
COMMUNITY / THE PARENT TRIP
Jul 13, 2001
Whatever can go wrong . . .
Writers of how-to articles about traveling with kids usually talk about Baby’s ears popping in airplanes and keeping little Junior and Sis amused on long drives so they don’t refight the Macedonian War in the back seat. Older kids, these writers seem to assume, can take care of themselves, when they...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2001
Screenwriting by remote control
Stereo Future Rating: * * Director: Hiroyuki Nakano Running time: 111 minutes Language: JapaneseNow showing Filmmaking is about putting images on the screen. It is also, if not always, about telling a story. Hollywood has long subordinated images to story, the classic ideal being the “seamless” style...
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2001
Full-speed ahead into cinematic chaos
Rush Rating: * * Director: Takehisa Zeze Running time: 110 minutes Language: Japanese Now playing at Cine Amuse in Shibuya Takehisa Zeze’s “Rush” is a reviewer’s ultimate nightmare: a film whose plot is all but impossible to follow, let alone describe. Walking out of the theater, I laughed -- it was...
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Trump says ‘Japan’ instead of Iran at meeting in Ankara
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference during a NATO leaders' summit in Ankara on Wednesday.
World’s first fully sealed vertical-farming facility opens in Tokyo
Fully sealed units are stacked on top of each other at Plantx's vertical-farming facility in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Wednesday.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
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