Culture
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What a carve up! Playful, intricate Japanese leaf art – in pictures
Almost every day for the past five years, the Kanagawa-born artist Lito has drawn an image on to a leaf – usua…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom review – intriguing fantasy franchise is far from your average anime
Its Game of Thronesian intrigue, benevolent Skeletor protagonist and surprising lack of gratuitous violence se…
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‘I wanted those 828 men not to be forgotten’: the Chinese documentary raising wartime ghosts
The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru – rejected earlier this week as China’s official Oscars contender – recounts a …
- Godzilla, Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, Action and adventure films, World news, Asia Pacific, Culture, Film
Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color review – magnificent monster in mono
Black and white re-release of one of the fire-breathing lizard’s best outings looks terrific and has an intrig…
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Black Box Diaries review – Japanese journalist’s courageous documentary about her own rape ordeal
Shiori Itō’s account of her sexual assault by a high-profile colleague, and her fight for justice, is a tough …
- Japan, Society, Rape and sexual assault, Law, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Culture, Film
Black Box Diaries review – inside the remarkable events that triggered Japan’s #MeToo movement
Japanese journalist Shiori Itō tells how she pursued her rape case against a prominent TV executive This is th…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
My Hero Academia: You’re Next review – old-style superhero battle anime with hint of the surreal
The fourth film spin-off from the daffy Japanese X-Men knock-off beams its dream-like action into a flying for…
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Bold, bizarre, brilliant – Metaphor: Refantazio is everything I adore about Japanese RPGs
In this week’s newsletter: JRPGs can be an acquired taste – but fortunately it’s one I can’t get enough of. Pl…
- Malala Yousafzai, Fukushima, Japan, Marine life, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, South Korea, Culture, Film
The Last of the Sea Women review – female Korean divers as picturesque eco-feminist tradition
Sue Kim’s film about South Korea’s underwater fishers has everything from nuclear pollution to sexism to cover…
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Pushing Buttons: At Tokyo Game Show, I saw the Japanese games scene I grew up with is still live and kicking
In this week’s newsletter: Konami, cute RPGs, weird but wonderful indie games – everything I saw at Japan’s bi…
- Japan, Games consoles, Museums, Asia Pacific, Nintendo, Games, Culture, Nintendo Switch, Super Mario
Former Nintendo factory in Kyoto opens as nostalgia-fuelled gaming museum
Museum features consoles from 1983’s Famicom to 2017’s Switch, as well as honouring Nintendo’s pre-video-game …
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Pushing Buttons: At Nintendo’s new museum in Japan, I found a nostalgia-laced trip down memory lane – not a history lesson
From playing Super Mario on a giant control to spotting Pikmin hiding in corners, my visit to this delightful …
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Crime films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram review – cult anime goes on wild treasure hunt
The latest outing for the high school sleuth sees him join forces with his arch enemy, a master thief. Despite…
- Anglicanism, London, Desert Island Discs, Yorkshire, University of East Anglia, Norfolk, Japan, Museums, Culture
Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll obituary
Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum whose radical ideas and management style put her in the cultural fi…
- London, Japan, Exhibitions, Sculpture, Restaurants, Asia Pacific, Art and design, Japanese food and drink, Culture, Food
‘Strange and exciting’: Japanese food sculpture goes on show in London
Sampuru are a restaurant staple – a 3D version of menus. And such is the precision craftsmanship in their crea…
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Pachinko season two review – this excellent drama is extremely close to being an all-time classic
There’s a rare emotional intelligence to this deft, heartfelt look at Koreans living in Japan. It’s a methodic…
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Unseen wonders: 70 years of Japanese female photographers – in pictures
Japanese photography has traditionally been dominated by men – but a new collection, I’m So Happy You Are Here…
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‘I make reality out of fantasy’: Hiroshi Sugimoto on fooling the world with his camera
As his survey opens in Sydney, the legendary photographer talks about using light and shadow to bring the dead…
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Atomic People review – the quietly devastating truth about surviving Hiroshima
This deeply moving documentary gives a voice to the ‘hibakusha’ who endured the horrific US bombings – and are…
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Playing for survival: the blind Japanese woman keeping a music tradition alive
Goze – women who earned a living as musicians despite sight impairments – are all but forgotten in Japan but R…