Monthly Archives: December 2019

Best Movies 2019

Posted on December 29, 2019 by philipbrasor

As it’s that time of year again, here are the movies I liked the most these past 12 months. As usual, in order to qualify a film has to have opened in at least one Japanese theater during the calendar … Continue reading →

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Review: Heavy Trip

Posted on December 28, 2019 by philipbrasor

Though This Is Spinal Tap effectively made it difficult to make fun of rock musicians, particularly those of the heavy metal variety, in movies for eternity, there’s enough native ridiculousness in the genre for extraneous exercises in parody, a dispensation … Continue reading →

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Review: Parasite

Posted on December 27, 2019 by philipbrasor

The class dynamics exploited in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, certainly the movie of the year regardless of what you think about it, gives rise at first to comedy of the most uncomfortable kind. This has always been Bong’s strong point, though … Continue reading →

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Review: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Posted on December 20, 2019 by philipbrasor

As the most notorious serial killer in American history—quite an accomplishment, if you think about it—Ted Bundy has been the focus of volumes of journalism and analysis and scads of films, mainly documentaries. Director Joe Berlinger, who made this circumspect … Continue reading →

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Review: 3 Faces

Posted on December 16, 2019 by philipbrasor

In his last samizdat production, Taxi, Jafar Panahi spent almost the entire running time behind the wheel. He spends a good portion of his latest movie also in a car, thus in a way extending a cinematic style perfected to … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 15, 2019

Posted on December 15, 2019 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the so-called shock of moving the 2020 Olympic marathon and walking race from Tokyo to Sapporo. As pointed out in the column, the International Olympic Committee has every right to unilaterally move events outside … Continue reading →

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Review: Sorry We Missed You

Posted on December 13, 2019 by philipbrasor

At this point in his career Ken Loach is neither anybody’s fool nor anything less than what he resolutely says he is in his films—a staunch socialist muckraker with no qualms about using rough sentimentality to drive home his political … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 1, 2019

Posted on December 1, 2019 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about Reiwa Shinsengumi leader Taro Yamamoto, who was profiled and analyzed in several cover stories in a recent issue of Newsweek Japan. As pointed out in the column, Yamamoto currently holds no elected office, a … Continue reading →

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