November 15, 2012
First it was a TV series and now it's a movie. "EA's Rock" is a parody about a superhero team sworn to protect world peace on a planet that, well, doesn't really need much protecting.
November 09, 2012
Prolific film director Shion Sono's dramatization of events after last year's Great East Japan Earthquake resulted in "Himizu," which focuses on a murderous spree by two teenagers in the devastated Tohoku region.
October 23, 2012
YANGPYEONG, South Korea--The near-death of an actress in an accident while filming nearly ended director Kim Ki-duk's career four years ago, but after making "Pieta," which took best picture at this year's Venice film festival, he is now South Korea's most feted auteur.
October 22, 2012
FUCHU, Hiroshima Prefecture--Aya Domenig’s grandfather never told her why he was so reluctant to speak about his experience as a doctor in Hiroshima at the end of World War II.
October 18, 2012
Film director Koji Wakamatsu, known for his works themed on politics, violence and eroticism, including the award-winning “Caterpillar,” died on Oct. 17 at a Tokyo hospital. He was 76.
October 18, 2012
During the high-flying years of the bubble economy, the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) could lay claim to being Asia's leading film festival.
October 04, 2012
YOKOHAMA--A Chinatown cinema has flickered back to life in a temporary revival half a century after it last screened movies for Yokohama's Chinese residents.
October 02, 2012
Posters, photos and promotional matchboxes from movies across the ages are some of the items on display in an exhibition marking 100 years since cameras first rolled at the Nikkatsu Corp. film studios.
September 27, 2012
Four decades after George Akiyama shocked Japanese fans with a manga about cannibalism, the content of which was considered so extreme that sales to minors were banned, the work has been adapted into an animated feature.
September 26, 2012
OSAKA--Although news broadcasters first, reporters at Mainichi Broadcasting System Inc. knew that the footage they shot of people impacted by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami was too powerful to be confined to the small screen.
September 19, 2012
MATSUZAKA, Mie Prefecture--Wrinkled and somewhat yellowed with age, the dress shirt on display at the Iitaka Rojin Fukushi Center in Matsuzaka has clearly seen better days. Yet, despite its obvious age, the garment still clearly bears the initials of its famous owner, legendary film director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-63).
September 14, 2012
A drama loosely based on the story of a resident Korean filmmaker and her pain of being separated from loved ones stuck in North Korea has been selected to represent Japan at the U.S. Academy Awards in February.
September 11, 2012
A live-action movie adaptation of the swashbuckling "Rurouni Kenshin" manga series is enjoying a box-office success nearly as mythic as its historical storyline and will now likely reach foreign audiences, too.
September 01, 2012
The live-action adaptation of the "Rurouni Kenshin" manga and anime series raked in 555.48 million yen ($7 million) at the box office in the first five days after it premiered in Japan on Aug. 25.
August 21, 2012
SENDAI--Can one predict disasters? A documentary film that some consider did so is showing again in cinemas across Japan.
August 13, 2012
SHIMADA, Shizuoka Prefecture--A song recorded by students at Shimada Junior High school in Shizuoka Prefecture has been used as the ending theme for the animated film “Himeyuri” (Star lily), about a group of high school nurses who served during the Battle of Okinawa.
August 09, 2012
A documentary to be shown in a Tokyo theater soon depicts atomic bomb survivors in a Nagasaki nursing care home coming to grips with their experiences 67 years ago.
July 10, 2012
FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima Prefecture--In a bid to attract young audience members, who are declining in number, the Cinema Mode theater joined with university students to offer a special screening of a movie focusing on sexual minorities.
June 29, 2012
Tokyo curry shop owner Kuku Minami is more used to dishing out his spicy creations than being behind the camera of a serious documentary film.
June 26, 2012
KAMAKURA, Kanagawa Prefecture--When Hiroyuki Matsumoto won a Best of Hawaii prize at the Honolulu Film Awards festival this spring, he felt a sense of disappointment.