Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Jan. 5, three of Japan’s top business lobbies held a joint New Year’s press conference and one of the topics discussed was the disaster in Ishikawa Prefecture, in particular how it might affect the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo, whose progress … Continue reading →

Here are links to the articles I wrote for this year’s TIFF website. Thanks to Karen Severns. Gondola Q&A Sermon to the Birds Q&A A Long Shot Q&A Blind at Heart Q&A Zhang Yimou masterclass Tatami Q&A Roxana Q&A Tony … Continue reading →

Khozy Rizal served double duty at the 28th Busan International Film Festival. On the one hand, his short film, Basri & Salma in a Never-ending Comedy, was part of the special program Renaissance of Indonesian Cinema. But he was also … Continue reading →

Atsushi Funahashi describes his movie as a “docudrama,” which usually means a blend of documentary and staged scenes. In actuality, everything here is staged, with real actors. The subject is ex-convicts who find it very difficult to reintegrate into Japanese … Continue reading →

Here is our January column for the Number 1 Shimbun, which is about the process of choosing the current name of the imperial reign and why the attendant calendar system is so inconvenient.

Here is our media column for the December 2022 issue of Number 1 Shimbun, which is about the media’s lack of scrutiny over the government’s push for a much larger defense budget.

Last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced a ¥29 trillion economic package to fight inflation, centered mainly on the energy sector, that will supposedly save every household in Japan about ¥5,000 a month on their utility and gasoline bills. As … Continue reading →

In my daily reports on this blog I reviewed movies I had seen in screenings at the festival, but I also saw other films online and in the Video Library. Here are observations of those movies. Festival section names in … Continue reading →

It rained yesterday off and on but never heavily, so while I carried around my umbrella, I never used it. Last night I had drinks with the director Shin Suwon and her producer. Though none of her films are being … Continue reading →

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 →