Monthly Archives: May 2021

Media Mix, May 29, 2021

Posted on May 30, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about coverage of local governments’ handling of the vaccine rollout. The main theme would seem to be that, while each municipality is running things their own way, they all have to deal with … Continue reading →

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Review: David Byrne’s American Utopia

Posted on May 29, 2021 by philipbrasor

Japanese fans of David Byrne may count themselves lucky, or they may not. The preternaturally optimistic rock star’s Broadway show, adapted to the screen by Spike Lee, will initially be shown here in theaters rather than on TV, to which, … Continue reading →

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Review: Amazing Grace

Posted on May 28, 2021 by philipbrasor

The story goes that Aretha Franklin didn’t want this movie released. It was filmed in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church (formerly a movie theater) in Southern California in 1972 in front of a congregation and quite a few industry … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, May 22, 2021

Posted on May 23, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about how the national newspapers are talking about the scheduled discharge of irradiated ground water from the stricken Fukushima No. 1 reactor into the surrounding sea. One of the purposes of editorials is to put … Continue reading →

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Milva in Tokyo, 1998

Posted on May 19, 2021 by philipbrasor

The great Italian singer Milva died on April 23. For a while in the 90s and 00s she was an annual visitor to Japan, kind of like the Ventures of canzone, and I caught several of her concerts because Masako … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, May 15, 2021

Posted on May 16, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about the Japanese government’s “channels” to the Myanmar military that staged a coup earlier this year. The point of the column is to ask whether the government has the wherewithal to confront the … Continue reading →

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Review: The Father

Posted on May 14, 2021 by philipbrasor

I had no problem with Anthony Hopkins winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Florian Zeller’s screen adaptation of his own play. I saw all the other nominated performances, and only Hopkins’ stood out. Everyone else, including odds-on … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, May 9, 2021

Posted on May 9, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about a viral video showing a jockey kicking a horse. The point of the piece is that the media tends to be passive about anything that might be perceived as animal abuse, and that pertains … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, May 2, 2021

Posted on May 2, 2021 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about bigoted comments made by Yoshiaki Yoshida, the chairman and founder of the cosmetics/health supplement company DHC, and the media reaction. Some marginal matters that didn’t make it into the column but are nevertheless relevant: … Continue reading →

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Review: Along the Sea

Posted on May 1, 2021 by philipbrasor

Akio Fujimoto’s Along the Sea does a good job of describing Japan’s arcane technical intern training program without actually explicating its rules and procedures. As such, it also goes a considerable distance in providing an idea of Japan’s attitude toward … Continue reading →

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