Monthly Archives: July 2024

Fuji Rock ’24: July 28, second half

Posted on July 29, 2024 by philipbrasor

Further on from my train of thought in the previous post, I saw Ali, a guitar band from Indonesia at the Field of Heaven in the late afternoon. Apropos that stage, their music is spacey and ethnic, a kind of … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock ’24: July 28, first half

Posted on July 28, 2024 by philipbrasor

They keep saying this is the 25th anniversary of FRF’s move to Naeba, which is technically true, but I prefer to think 2024 is the 26th year the festival has been in Naeba. Yeah, a trivial distinction, but just saying. … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock ’24: July 27, second half

Posted on July 28, 2024 by philipbrasor

Another crucial time is between 3 and 5 in the afternoon, since that’s when the audience starts flagging. The general energy level drops precipitously, and you tend to see a lot of people nodding out on the ground in weird … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock ’24: July 27, first half

Posted on July 27, 2024 by philipbrasor

Saturday morning is an important time for the festival. A good portion of the people who attend arrive either late Friday night or early Saturday morning, so it’s vital they get into the swing of things as soon as possible. … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock ’24: July 26, second half

Posted on July 27, 2024 by philipbrasor

People started arriving in significantly larger numbers as the afternoon wore on, but not enough to provide Omar Apollo with the kind of crowd he deserved at the Green Stage. Wearing powder blue pajamas and lady shoes, he was in … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock ’24: July 26, first half

Posted on July 26, 2024 by philipbrasor

Walked around the grounds this morning before the music started. The festival has definitely downsized since I was last here in 2019. The World Food Court is essentially gone. Field of Heaven only had six vendors, whereas five years ago … Continue reading →

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Fuji Rock Festival ’24: Prefest

Posted on July 25, 2024 by philipbrasor

This is my first time back at Fuji since 2019. It’s also the first time I’ve taken the train up to Naeba. I’d been to every edition that’s been held here since it started at Naeba in 1999, except for … Continue reading →

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Review: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Posted on July 25, 2024 by philipbrasor

Having only read a handful of short stories by Haruki Murakami, I don’t feel I’m in a position to make informed pronouncements about how faithfully filmmakers have adapted his work. I liked Lee Chang-dong’s Burning and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My … Continue reading →

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Review: The Royal Hotel

Posted on July 24, 2024 by philipbrasor

The last time director Kitty Green and actor Julia Garner entertained us, it was with a clammy study of malevolent male power in the entertainment industry. In The Assistant, Garner played the titular factotum to a faceless Weinsteinian indie producer … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Korean and Japanese groups set to excavate disaster site with or without the government’s permission

Posted on July 22, 2024 by philipbrasor

In February 2022, we posted a piece about the 1942 Chosei coal mine disaster in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, which killed 183 workers, 136 of them Koreans who had been brought to Japan. A local group was formed in 1991 and … Continue reading →

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