Monthly Archives: March 2021

Media Mix, March 28, 2021

Posted on March 28, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about the huge amount of money spent to clean up the area surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and the graft that has resulted. At one point in the column I use … Continue reading →

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Review: Tesla

Posted on March 27, 2021 by philipbrasor

Michael Almereyda’s biopic of Serbian-American inventor Nikolai Tesla (Ethan Hawke) is a welcome corrective — or maybe “antidote” is a better word — to The Current War, which attempted to make an entertainment out of the rivalry between Thomas Edison … Continue reading →

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Review: Monster Hunter

Posted on March 26, 2021 by philipbrasor

Expected to meet expectations like the pro he is, director Paul W.S. Anderson is charged with adapting the popular Capcom video game to the Imax screen in much the same way he adapted the Resident Evil game to…how many sequels … Continue reading →

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Review: Lords of Chaos

Posted on March 25, 2021 by philipbrasor

It may seem petty to start this review with the observation that it sure feels odd that a movie which concerns itself, albeit in a tongue-in-cheek expressionistic sort of way, with a true life crime in a language that is … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, March 21, 2021

Posted on March 21, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the telecommunications ministry scandal, which was handled gingerly by the major media until it got so intense and ridiculous that they had no choice but to dive in. Still, it was up to peripheral … Continue reading →

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Review: Minari

Posted on March 19, 2021 by philipbrasor

Amidst the Oscar-related acclaim for Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical feature there was an online interview with Best Supporting Actress nominee Youn Yuh-jung, who expressed bewilderment at the strong emotional reaction that many Korean-Americans had toward the film. Having herself emigrated … Continue reading →

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The Merle file

Posted on March 17, 2021 by philipbrasor

Occasionally, I go through old published reviews of mine from the 90s and 00s and post them here. I came upon one that I did under the alias Merle Pangloss, a parody persona used for reviewing certain types of rock … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, March 14, 2021

Posted on March 14, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the government’s proposed revision to the immigration law. As pointed out by attorney Shoichi Ibusuki and Eri Ishikawa, who works for an organization that provides support for refugees in Japan, during the discussion of … Continue reading →

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Review: The Outpost

Posted on March 12, 2021 by philipbrasor

The post-Platoon American war movie has been obsessed with verisimilitude; not just in terms of visceral shock, but with the kind of behaviors that battle readiness gives rise to. On the surface, The Outpost comes across as a kind of … Continue reading →

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Interview with Aidan Moffat, Dec. 2006

Posted on March 8, 2021 by philipbrasor

Arab Strap has reunited and released a new album. Here’s an interview I did with Aidan Moffatt on the occasion of their farewell tour. From the Japan Times. Pop artists tend to be identified by their musical stylings but some … Continue reading →

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