Monthly Archives: December 2023

Best Albums 2023

Posted on December 31, 2023 by philipbrasor

Though I no longer earn income writing music criticism (I still earn a bit covering the biz), I find that the annual task of compiling this list has become more and more time consuming, so, in a way, it’s good … Continue reading →

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Best Movies 2023

Posted on December 27, 2023 by philipbrasor

Owing to Japanese distributors’ habit of taking their time to promote overseas releases, foreign films often don’t show up in theaters here until well after they’ve shown up elsewhere. This trend was exacerbated by COVID and thus I figure more … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Extended Henoko timeline means US military gets what it really wants

Posted on December 23, 2023 by philipbrasor

Last Wednesday, the Fukuoka High Court ordered Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki to “approve” the modified plan for landfill work ordered by the central government for relocating the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to the Henoko area of Nago on … Continue reading →

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Review: Perfect Days

Posted on December 22, 2023 by philipbrasor

Wim Wenders’ ode to everyday wonder works best when its protagonist (Koji Yakusho), who could have been named Analog Man without raising anyone’s eyebrow rather than Hirayama, is simply going about his business, whether its cleaning the very stylish public … Continue reading →

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Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Posted on December 21, 2023 by philipbrasor

As a series, the Hunger Games movie tetralogy had one thing going for it that made it impossible to dismiss: The unrelenting cruelty of the whole concept of the titular games. And while I wasn’t completely convinced that the Armageddon-like … Continue reading →

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Review: First Cow and Showing Up

Posted on December 20, 2023 by philipbrasor

Though Kelly Reichardt‘s films have been screened for special programs and festivals in Japan and are available online through streaming service U-Next, none have ever received a proper theatrical release until now, when we get her two most recent features … Continue reading →

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Review: What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Posted on December 16, 2023 by philipbrasor

Pardon me if I think the title of this British movie is a terrible idea. The first thing that will occur to many people is that Tina Turner song, and they will thus assume it’s about domestic violence. When they … Continue reading →

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Review: Fallen Leaves

Posted on December 15, 2023 by philipbrasor

Tonally and thematically, there isn’t much difference between Aki Kaurismäki’s newest film and his previous ones. The production design is still impeccably nondescript, the dialogue strictly utilitarian, the attention to quotidian detail limited to a lower class socioeconomic field. If … Continue reading →

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Review: The Taste of Things

Posted on December 14, 2023 by philipbrasor

This Belle Epoque-set adaptation of Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel about a well-to-do French epicure may be the most indulgently gorgeous entry into that sub-genre called food porn cinema. In the hands of director Tran Anh Hung, who used his sumptuous … Continue reading →

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Review: The Worst Ones

Posted on December 9, 2023 by philipbrasor

Right from the start, Lise Akoka’s and Romane Gueret’s fiction feature about an indie film crew making a fiction feature about disadvantaged kids in a suburban French town seems to be skewering the methodology of the Dardenne brothers. The director … Continue reading →

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