Tag: Japan Foundation

March 7, 2016 · 0 comments

Andrew Osmond takes a step into the past. Thanks to cinema and TV, some long-ago places can feel closer to us than most present-day countries. For British people, one of the closest is Victorian England, specifically Victorian London, home to Dickens dramas, Sherlock mysteries, Martian invasions and the gory mythos of Jack the Ripper. This […]

February 21, 2016 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. The Elegant Life of Mr Everyman is one of the oldest films screening in the current Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme; it was released back in 1963. Directed by Kihachi Okamoto, it’s an observational comedy, voicing the frustrations and neuroses of the ordinary working man when the shade of World War II […]

February 11, 2016 · 0 comments

By Andrew Osmond. “In the twenty-first century,” notes the Anime Encyclopedia, “it became apparent that the last frontier for modern Japanese animation might be the real world itself, with a deep sense of ready nostalgia for hazy school days, mawkish classroom flirting, or the exotic appeal of old-fashioned friendships and hobbies.” Anthem of the Heart […]

February 8, 2016 · 0 comments

Paul Browne reviews a film that mixes cosplay and complications. If there’s one human trait that can be relied upon, it’s tenacity. It’s an element that runs through Yuki Tanada’s 2012 film The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky, a story that also weaves in themes of poverty, fantasy, maliciousness and altruism.

January 27, 2016 · 0 comments

By Jasper Sharp. Just a few stops to the west on the Sagano line from Kyoto lies the suburb of Uzumasa, an entertaining but curiously overlooked destination for tourists with more than a passing interest in Japan’s pop-cultural heritage. It is the site of Toei Kyoto Studio Park, commonly referred to by the locals as […]