Author Archives: philipbrasor

Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 8, 2022

Posted on October 8, 2022 by philipbrasor

The big news at this year’s BIFF is that, after 2 years of limited activities due to the pandemic, the festival is back to normal. I arrived Thursday evening, the day after the official opening, and had to make my … Continue reading →

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Review: The Bad Guys

Posted on October 7, 2022 by philipbrasor

Dreamworks reportedly hopes to develop this animated feature into a franchise, but so much of it is pastiche that it might be difficult to pass off as original. The premise is that the heroes are not only “bad guys” in … Continue reading →

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Review: Support the Girls

Posted on October 5, 2022 by philipbrasor

Movies, especially American movies, love characters who are ground down by the effort to just get by, and usually they are allowed some measure of triumph. Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls, which is set in a Hooters-type family restaurant in … Continue reading →

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Number 1 Shimbun October

Posted on October 4, 2022 by philipbrasor

Here is our column for the October issue of the Number 1 Shimbun, which is about separate names for married couples in Japan.

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Media watch: Statues of limitations to honor not-dead political figures

Posted on October 1, 2022 by philipbrasor

Now that Shinzo Abe’s state funeral is history, we can get back to the business of mocking politicians, like former prime minister and sports honcho Yoshiro Mori, whose penchant for gaffes is even more fulfilling than Taro Aso’s. On Sept. … Continue reading →

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Review: Downton Abbey: A New Era

Posted on September 30, 2022 by philipbrasor

Having jumped ship on the beloved British series around the time Dan Stevens left, I assumed this movie installment would be an entirely self-contained episode with no need to brush up on what happened in those latter seasons I missed. … Continue reading →

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Review: The Princess

Posted on September 29, 2022 by philipbrasor

Twenty-five years after she perished in a car crash while fleeing paparazzi in Paris, Princess Diana’s overstuffed legacy hardly needs another cinematic boost (that biopic with Kristen Stewart opens in Japan next month), but this HBO documentary does a pretty … Continue reading →

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Media watch: The orphans who made it to Japan

Posted on September 26, 2022 by philipbrasor

We rarely have anything positive to say about the late Shinzo Abe, but with his state funeral happening tomorrow we wanted to point out at least one good thing he did. This year marks the 50th anniversary of normalized relations … Continue reading →

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Review: The Dry

Posted on September 25, 2022 by philipbrasor

The awkward title of this mystery, based on a best-selling novel, describes a small town in rural Australia that has been suffering through a drought for some time. The intent seems to be to prepare an environment of discomfort and … Continue reading →

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Review: The Monopoly of Violence/Babi Yar. Context

Posted on September 24, 2022 by philipbrasor

For those of us who don’t live in France or, for that matter, the EU, the so-called Yellow Vest Movement, in which mostly working people and far-left and far-right elements opposed to Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal policies clashed violently with police … Continue reading →

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