Search Results for: Jasper Sharp

March 4, 2021 · 0 comments

by Jeremy Clarke. You’d be forgiven for assuming Mothra (1961) to be a typical Toho monster movie in which a giant moth attacks Tokyo. However, the film single-handedly redefined the genre as much as the original Godzilla film defined it.

February 18, 2021 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. So, what happened at the Japanese box office in 2020? The critics lists and industry stats from the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, or Eiren, are all now in, so it’s time once more for my annual mull over the figures, trends and top titles of another year in Japanese cinema. 2020 […]

January 24, 2021 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. The ongoing Coronavirus crisis may have disrupted many aspects of the cultural calendar, but it is heartening to report that one the Japan Foundation UK Touring Film Programme is still pushing ahead. Its 18-film line-up for 2021 is organised under the theme “This is My Place: Carving out a sense of existence […]

September 11, 2020 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. In these days of cosplay conventions and K-drama and Chinese sci-fi blockbusters on Netflix, it is easy to forget how little access to – and, let’s face it, interest in – Asian popular culture the West had for the vast bulk of the twentieth century. Not so in the other direction, however, […]

August 5, 2020 · 1 comment

By Jonathan Clements. After his classroom is disrupted by a girl with a nosebleed, Mr Kitagawa (Eiji Okada) comes to understand that many of the people in Hiroshima are still suffering the after-effects of the city’s atomic bombing seven years earlier. Although parts of the city have returned to relative calm, with volley-ball matches under […]