Author Archives: philipbrasor

Best albums 2020

Posted on December 30, 2020 by philipbrasor

For what it’s worth, the pandemic improved my capacity for listening to new music for reasons that are all too apparent, especially to people like me who tend to be rather compulsive about hearing everything that comes out. During past … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 27, 2020

Posted on December 27, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the difficulties faced by elderly people of limited means when it comes to health care costs. In the column, I cite a lecture given by Dr. Hiroshi Honda where he explains his own difficulties … Continue reading →

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Review: Song to Song

Posted on December 25, 2020 by philipbrasor

If timing is everything then it will be interesting to see how Terrence Malick’s 2017 feature fares at the box office in Japan during a pandemic. It has less to do with logistical issues — I predict the movie will … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 20, 2020

Posted on December 20, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the stalled engagement of Princess Mako and Kei Komuro. In the column I cite an Asahi Shimbun Koron piece. Koron articles typically include personal essays by three writers, and I mentioned two of them … Continue reading →

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Review: Book Club

Posted on December 19, 2020 by philipbrasor

In a time when going to the movies is considered by many an endeavor fraught with peril, the choices made by Japanese distributors and movie houses invite extra scrutiny. Here we have a frivolous American romantic comedy originally released in … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Dec. 13, 2020

Posted on December 13, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about Misako Obayashi, a homeless woman who was killed by a man who didn’t like her sleeping in a bus shelter near his home in Shibuya. As I wrote near the beginning of … Continue reading →

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Far From Heaven

Posted on December 12, 2020 by philipbrasor

I am slowly adding reviews to this blog that I wrote for the Japan Times and the Asahi Shimbun in the 90s and early 00s and which are not currently on the web. This review from the Asahi was published … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Nov. 29, 2020

Posted on November 29, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about dueling narratives in the media regarding the COVID pandemic. Though the obvious problem inherent in this split is that the message of “what to do” gets muddled, it’s been obvious for at least twenty … Continue reading →

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Stranger: the hero you never knew you needed

Posted on November 22, 2020 by philipbrasor

Having missed out on American “peak television” as it happened, I always felt out of the loop until I finally did get around to watching The Sopranos and The Wire and even Mad Men years after their original airing. Now … Continue reading →

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Review: Tezuka’s Barbara

Posted on November 21, 2020 by philipbrasor

Macoto Tezka’s live action movie version of his father Osamu Tezuka’s early 70s adult manga combines pastiche and originality in a way that’s dramatically stimulating without being particularly memorable. The original comic’s outrageousness was a function of its time and … Continue reading →

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