You can read about Japan for years and learn a lot about the country; but there’s something missing if you can’t hear and see those same things. That’s why I love documentaries about Japan so much. They give you a look into some of the most interesting things happening in Japan without having to buy [...]
When’s the last time you walked away from a movie hungry? It’s pretty rare for me. American movies about food seem to be few and far between, and the ones that are around are usually socially-conscious documentaries that bum me out more than anything. Japanese movies about food seem to do exactly the opposite. Most [...]
Every once in a while, the stars align and Japan manages to send one of its animated movies over to America to play in our theaters. More often than not, it’s a Studio Ghibli film, but this should come as no surprise since Studio Ghibli is awesome and pretty much everyone hails them as the [...]
A little while ago I wrote about my favorite J-drama actors and actresses. While they’re great and all, they don’t really get a lot of screen time overseas and while some of them star in movies, they still don’t have much international acclaim yet. There are, however, a handful of Japanese movie stars who have [...]
One of the most interesting documentaries I’ve ever seen has been the “Up” series from England. The series started in 1964 with 7 Up, and is still going strong after almost fifty years. The premise is simple: filmmakers document the lives of ordinary people, checking in with them every seven years. So at ages, 7, [...]
Certain clichés permeate different films. Parodies like Scary Movie (and the other, awful franchises that followed) couldn’t exist if movies didn’t draw upon these stereotypes. Japanese samurai films are unquestionably rife with their own brand of clichés; the two samurai dashing at each other, swords drawn, only to have one fall to his death. No [...]
In the 60s, a Japanese song became incredibly popular not only in Japan but across the world. In Japan, it was called 上を向いて歩こう or roughly, “I Will Walk Looking Up.” It was an emotional song about the defeat of a popular Japanese protest movement against American military bases in Japan. But people in English-speaking countries [...]
