Japan
theartsdesk Q&A: Wim Wenders on 'Perfect Days'Wednesday, 21 February 2024![]() Wim Wenders’ latest narrative film Perfect Days might seem an uncommonly mellow work by the maker of Alice in the Cities (1974), The American Friend (1977), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987), but it still finds the 78-year-old... Read more... |
The Boy and the Heron review - elegiac swan song by the Japanese anime masterFriday, 22 December 2023![]() Admirers of Hayao Miyazaki will find much to love in The Boy and the Heron, which he has said will be his final feature before retiring from film-making at the age of 82. It’s a beautifully crafted piece of work with all the tropes... Read more... |
Pacific Overtures, Menier Chocolate Factory review - lesser-known Sondheim scores afreshMonday, 11 December 2023![]() This is, by my reckoning at least, the third major London production over the years of Pacific Overtures, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's dazzling curiosity of a show first seen on Broadway in 1976 and reappraised ever since in stagings... Read more... |
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine, Hayward Gallery review - a Japanese photographer uses droll humour to ask big questionsTuesday, 17 October 2023![]() A polar bear stands guard over the seal pup it has just killed (main picture). How could photographer, Hiroshi Sugimoto have got so close to a wild animal at such a dangerous moment? Even if he had a powerful telephoto lens, he’d be risking life and... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2023 reviews: PLEASE LEAVE (a message) / Shadow KingdomFriday, 18 August 2023![]() PLEASE LEAVE (a message), Underbelly, Cowgate ★★★★One of (brilliantly named) London-based theatre collective Clusterflux’s actors sent me a Twitter DM to request a review of their new show: here that review is, a few days later. Yucca... Read more... |
Plan 75 review - dystopian vision of euthanasia in JapanMonday, 15 May 2023![]() It’s not a great moment for older audiences contemplating an outing to the cinema. They could have their intelligence insulted with the feeble, sugary comedy, Book Club: The Next Chapter or they could choose Plan 75 and find... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Bullet TrainTuesday, 11 April 2023![]() Last year’s Brad Pitt vehicle Bullet Train was an affable action comedy except in those parts – including the dreadful coda – when it was an insufferably smirky one. Freighted with more thrills, intelligence, gravitas, and social commentary, 1975’s... Read more... |
John Wick: Chapter 4 review - is this the El Cid of shoot-'em-up movies?Saturday, 25 March 2023![]() Since the first John Wick film from 2014 became an unexpected hit, the Wick franchise has blossomed into a booming business empire, also including comic books, video games and upcoming TV spin-offs. The title role has transformed Keanu Reeves, who... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: LivingMonday, 20 March 2023![]() Mr Williams (a wonderfully restrained, Oscar-nominated Bill Nighy) is taking time off work from his job in the Public Works department at County Hall in London. It’s the early Fifties and office life is very proper, with bowler hats and a strict... Read more... |
Tokyo Vice, BBC One review - murder, extortion and corruption in the Japanese capitalThursday, 01 December 2022![]() There was originally a plan to make Tokyo Vice a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe, but it has ended up as a TV series starring Ansel Elgort. It’s almost certainly the better for it, because the eight episodes of this first season – the way it ends,... Read more... |
My Neighbour Totoro, Barbican review - dazzling stage adaptation of a Japanese classicThursday, 20 October 2022![]() As 10-year-old Satsuki observes as she arrives in the countryside with her little sister Mei, “We’re not in Tokyo anymore” – and they’re not in Kansas either, but there is a tang of Oz in the air. The 1988 Studio Ghibli film, My... Read more... |
Album: Boris - Heavy RocksMonday, 08 August 2022![]() Boris are an eclectic Japanese band, with over 20 albums to their name. Following their creative instincts and often recording live with no overdubs, they are never less than brave, making music that takes no prisoners. They are masters of sounds... Read more... |
