Monthly Archives: December 2020

Best albums 2020

Posted on December 30, 2020 by philipbrasor

For what it’s worth, the pandemic improved my capacity for listening to new music for reasons that are all too apparent, especially to people like me who tend to be rather compulsive about hearing everything that comes out. During past … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 27, 2020

Posted on December 27, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the difficulties faced by elderly people of limited means when it comes to health care costs. In the column, I cite a lecture given by Dr. Hiroshi Honda where he explains his own difficulties … Continue reading →

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Review: Song to Song

Posted on December 25, 2020 by philipbrasor

If timing is everything then it will be interesting to see how Terrence Malick’s 2017 feature fares at the box office in Japan during a pandemic. It has less to do with logistical issues — I predict the movie will … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 20, 2020

Posted on December 20, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the stalled engagement of Princess Mako and Kei Komuro. In the column I cite an Asahi Shimbun Koron piece. Koron articles typically include personal essays by three writers, and I mentioned two of them … Continue reading →

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Review: Book Club

Posted on December 19, 2020 by philipbrasor

In a time when going to the movies is considered by many an endeavor fraught with peril, the choices made by Japanese distributors and movie houses invite extra scrutiny. Here we have a frivolous American romantic comedy originally released in … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 13, 2020

Posted on December 13, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about Misako Obayashi, a homeless woman who was killed by a man who didn’t like her sleeping in a bus shelter near his home in Shibuya. As I wrote near the beginning of … Continue reading →

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Far From Heaven

Posted on December 12, 2020 by philipbrasor

I am slowly adding reviews to this blog that I wrote for the Japan Times and the Asahi Shimbun in the 90s and early 00s and which are not currently on the web. This review from the Asahi was published … Continue reading →

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