Culture
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Why Drive My Car should win the best picture Oscar
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s light yet profound drama is the kind of thrilling discovery that foreign-language cinema i…
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Kyōsai review – wild satirical swipes at the western world
Royal Academy, LondonLike Hogarth on sake, the artist’s quirky works wittily satirise the human carnival of fo…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Horror films, Animation in film, Film
Jujutsu Kaisen 0 review – sorcerer anime series gets a spectacular prequel
This masterful coming-of-age tale sees the process of coming to terms with past traumas through a horror-fanta…
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Oki: Tonkori in the Moonlight review – joyous celebration of a dying art form
(Mais Um)The Ainu maestro curates a collection that gives his people’s endangered ancient sound a modern lease…
- Japan, World cinema, Drama films, World news, Asia Pacific, Festivals, Berlin film festival 2021, Culture, Berlin film festival, Film
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy review – a triptych of light-touch philosophy
Ryusuke Hamaguchi brings a gentle warmth to this ingenious collection of three stories united by themes of fat…
- Japan, South and Central Asia, World news, Asia Pacific, Sony world photography awards, Awards and prizes, Photography, South Korea, Colombia, Art and design, India, Americas, Culture
Cast a wide net: award-winning photos from across the globe – in pictures
From Qatari fishermen to Peruvian chimpanzees, these images represent the best of the Sony World Photography a…
- Japan, Technology, Drama films, Virtual reality, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Romance films, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Belle review – anime that makes for an intriguing big-screen spectacle
This weird postmodern drama sees a lonely teenager join a virtual world where she becomes a hugely successful …
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‘Society was volatile. That spirit was in our music’: how Japan created its own jazz
Postwar Japan embraced the music of its former enemy – and, powered by anti-establishment feeling, remade it. …
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Mystery of the second world war ‘trophy’ and the Royal Court founder
When George Devine’s family discovered a Japanese battle flag among his belongings, it led to a three-year que…
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Yoshitomo Nara: ‘My works’ roots are in fairytales, not comics’
Housed in a custom space made from cast-offs, the Japanese artist’s cartoon girls blend fairytale lore with 60…
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‘I go too far, too deep’: the Swiss wanderer who found the soul of Japan
In 1951, Werner Bischof was sent to cover the war in Korea. The photographer instead found himself captivated …
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Various Artists: Tokyo Glow review – radiant homage to Japanese city pop
(Nippon Columbia) This upbeat collection unearths artists whose glossy, disco-influenced pop contains subtle f…
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Screen sensation: the single-shot thriller bringing time-travel into the Zoom era
It was shot in a week and premiered to 12 people, but micro-budget sci-fi movie Beyond the Infinite Two Minute…
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Emi Wada obituary
Costume designer who won an Oscar for Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, and created John Gielgud’s cloak in Prospero’s Boo…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, France, Books, Television, Anime, Culture
Japanese anime One Piece to air its 1,000th episode in 80 countries
Cartoon series, starring Monkey D Luffy, started life as a manga in 1997 and is a record seller as a comic boo…
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UK royals’ Japanese artefacts to go on display at Buckingham Palace
Exhibition will include items amounting to ‘one of finest’ holdings of Japanese art in the westJapanese treasu…
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Haunting monotones: inside the strange world of Eikoh Hosoe
A survey of the work of the Japanese photographer, best known for his controversial collaboration with writer …
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‘The script is a vehicle’: Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi on Drive My Car
Hamaguchi’s award-winning and absorbing new movie Drive My Car deals with issues of grief and infidelity – and…
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Decaying but beloved, Tokyo’s Capsule Tower faces uncertain future
When it was built in 1972, it was the capital’s only example of the metabolism architectural movement – but ti…
- Japan, World cinema, Drama films, Action and adventure films, Akira Kurosawa, Westerns, Culture, Film
Seven Samurai review – an epic primal myth that pulsates through cinema
Akira Kurosawa’s tale of ascetic mercenaries brought together for a single job inspired endless imitations, bu…