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Bonsai: Art and Nature
Book
Bonsai trees, with a strong heritage in Japanese tradition, are the artistic miniatures of the plant...
The Buddha in the Attic
Book
Read our exclusive interview with Julie, in which she talks about the sentence that made everything...
Rice, Agriculture, and the Food Supply in Premodern Japan: The Place of Rice
Charlotte von Verschuer and Wendy Cobcroft
Book
The majority of studies on the agricultural history of Japan have focused on the public...
Phonto - Text on Photos
Photo & Video and Entertainment
App
Phonto is a simple app that allows you to add text to pictures. ・ More than 400 fonts are...
Alison Pink (7 KP) rated Bel Canto in Books
Jan 15, 2018
This is a book unlike any I have ever read before. It seems like nothing much happens, yet I found myself sucked into the story & completely invested in how the characters would come out of the story. It was incredibly realistic, but at the same time so unbelievable & so romantic!
Bel Canto tells the story of a a birthday party for a captain of Japanese industry. That party is thrown in a Central American country better known for it's drugs than much else. The Japanese man is coaxed into coming to the party because he is a HUGE opera fan & his favorite soprano will be performing. As soon as Roxanne Coss finishes her last scheduled aria the lights go out & in pound soldiers looking to kidnap the president. Of course the president isn't there as he decided to stay home to watch his TV show!
From there, the story tells of the captivity of the hostages (guests at the party) & their captors. Relationships begin to flourish after the initial shock wears off. The book tells the story of this captivity & eventually it's tragic & heartbreaking conclusion.
Bel Canto tells the story of a a birthday party for a captain of Japanese industry. That party is thrown in a Central American country better known for it's drugs than much else. The Japanese man is coaxed into coming to the party because he is a HUGE opera fan & his favorite soprano will be performing. As soon as Roxanne Coss finishes her last scheduled aria the lights go out & in pound soldiers looking to kidnap the president. Of course the president isn't there as he decided to stay home to watch his TV show!
From there, the story tells of the captivity of the hostages (guests at the party) & their captors. Relationships begin to flourish after the initial shock wears off. The book tells the story of this captivity & eventually it's tragic & heartbreaking conclusion.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Mary and the Witch's Flower (2017) in Movies
May 11, 2018
A Familiar Tale
If you were a newly-formed Japanese animation studio and somebody said that your first film was good, but not quite up to the standard of Studio Ghibli, you would probably still be quite pleased. Unless you were Studio Ponoc, a newly-formed Japanese animation studio making use of the talents of many Studio Ghibli veterans, with the expressed intention of continuing the Studio Ghibli tradition.
Yet here we are. This is a very good-looking film, with many classic virtues, and a doubtlessly intentional resemblance to the Wizarding World money-making machine - lonely child finds herself transported off to a school for witches, where various adventures awaits. But the animation is sometimes simply very good rather than Ghibli-standard immaculate, the story is rather simplistic, and the characterisation thin. Where Ghibli films are charming, this one is sometimes just a bit twee. It's by no means a bad film, but by positioning itself as 'the Ghibli successor', and copying the Ghibli house style so closely, Studio Ponoc has basically created a set of expectations which - in this film at least - they struggle to meet.
Yet here we are. This is a very good-looking film, with many classic virtues, and a doubtlessly intentional resemblance to the Wizarding World money-making machine - lonely child finds herself transported off to a school for witches, where various adventures awaits. But the animation is sometimes simply very good rather than Ghibli-standard immaculate, the story is rather simplistic, and the characterisation thin. Where Ghibli films are charming, this one is sometimes just a bit twee. It's by no means a bad film, but by positioning itself as 'the Ghibli successor', and copying the Ghibli house style so closely, Studio Ponoc has basically created a set of expectations which - in this film at least - they struggle to meet.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Godzilla (1998) in Movies
Mar 24, 2018
Much-reviled and frequently-mocked (especially in subsequent Toho films) American Godzilla is actually not bad as a mega-budget reinvention of the classic American monster B-movie (which the original Japanese Godzilla was inspired by), it's just very disappointing as an actual Godzilla movie. The French irradiate the Pacific, causing humble iguana to grow to ginormous proportions, experience curious gender issues, and then devastate Manhattan.
Some good effects sequences, particularly the two big battles between 'Godzilla' and the US armed forces, and the leads work hard to be likeable, but on the whole the film seems much more interested in American pop culture (there's a pastiche of Jurassic Park, jokes about Elvis, some really unsubtle digs at film critics who didn't like Independence Day) than in the Japanese pop icon it's supposed to be about - the monster is lacking in grandeur and majesty, doesn't have Godzilla's special abilities, and is basically just a big lizard you can kill with conventional weapons. (No wonder the beast is just called 'Zilla' in its subsequent appearances.) Not awful on its own terms, but then it was never going to be judged on those.
Some good effects sequences, particularly the two big battles between 'Godzilla' and the US armed forces, and the leads work hard to be likeable, but on the whole the film seems much more interested in American pop culture (there's a pastiche of Jurassic Park, jokes about Elvis, some really unsubtle digs at film critics who didn't like Independence Day) than in the Japanese pop icon it's supposed to be about - the monster is lacking in grandeur and majesty, doesn't have Godzilla's special abilities, and is basically just a big lizard you can kill with conventional weapons. (No wonder the beast is just called 'Zilla' in its subsequent appearances.) Not awful on its own terms, but then it was never going to be judged on those.
Andy K (10821 KP) rated The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) in Movies
Aug 26, 2018 (Updated Aug 26, 2018)
A masterpiece
After rewatching this David Lean masterpiece last night, it reaffirmed my view it is truly epic and one of the greatest films of all time.
When a British regiment is captures in 1943 and imprisoned in a Japanese labor camp, it is a battle of wills between the British commander and the Japanese camp tyrant. After a lengthy standoff, it is decided the British officer will be in charge of rebuilding the faulty bridge which had been begun earlier in a better location with a more stable foundation.
Meanwhile an American solider escapes, is rescued and ordered to return to the same camp to aide the British soldiers in destroying the bridge before it can be used.
The cinematography is glorious and the film never looked so beautiful on my 65" 4K TV. The colors were vivid and the atmospheres stunning, epic and mesmerizing.
Alec Guinness and William Holden are two of my favorites and these are the best roles of their career.
Take a moment (or 2 hours and 40 minutes) and give yourself the pleasure of watching this.
When a British regiment is captures in 1943 and imprisoned in a Japanese labor camp, it is a battle of wills between the British commander and the Japanese camp tyrant. After a lengthy standoff, it is decided the British officer will be in charge of rebuilding the faulty bridge which had been begun earlier in a better location with a more stable foundation.
Meanwhile an American solider escapes, is rescued and ordered to return to the same camp to aide the British soldiers in destroying the bridge before it can be used.
The cinematography is glorious and the film never looked so beautiful on my 65" 4K TV. The colors were vivid and the atmospheres stunning, epic and mesmerizing.
Alec Guinness and William Holden are two of my favorites and these are the best roles of their career.
Take a moment (or 2 hours and 40 minutes) and give yourself the pleasure of watching this.
We Fought at Kohima: A Veteran's Account
Raymond Street and Robert Street
Book
The Japanese advance through Thailand, Malaya and Burma appeared unstoppable and the fate of India...
JI
Japan's International Democracy Assistance as Soft Power: Neoclassical Realist Analysis
Book
Japan has increasingly emphasized democracy assistance since the mid-2000s, such that it now...