Ride Your Wave, the latest from prolific anime director Masaaki Yuasa, offers a comforting and serene approach to loss.
Tag: Japan
Posted inFilm
The Political Provocations of a Maverick Japanese Documentarian
Kazuo Hara’s epic Reiwa Uprising, screening at Doc Fortnight, follows members of a new progressive political party trying to shake up the system.
Posted inFilm
An Anime Fantasy Combines Myth With Climate Change
Makoto Shinkai’s new feature Weathering with You entreats the world to pay attention to the climate emergency, as constant rainfall is interpreted as punishment from the gods.
Posted inNews
Chris Ofili and Naoki Urasawa Among Artists to Create Posters for 2020 Olympics
Twenty posters to commemorate the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.
Posted inFilm
The Labor Rights Film That Got Both of Its Directors Murdered by the Yakuza
A special screening tour of Yama — Attack to Attack offers a chance to see this extremely rare Japanese film, which was intended to be used in perpetuity to agitate on behalf of the working class.
Posted inArt
The “Small-Time Crook” Whose Visions Defied Apartheid
An amateur photographer’s images of louche Cape Town nightlife in the 1960s capture a daring, booze-fueled, melting-pot spirit in the face of apartheid.
Posted inIn Brief
Long-Lost Chapter of the World’s First Novel Found in a Tokyo Home
Before now, only four of 54 chapters from the Tale of Genji had been confirmed as original transcriptions.
Posted inBooks
How Victorian Intellectuals Idealized Japan and Its Culture
The undercurrent of the book is the link between Japonisme, aesthetics, and queer culture: Admiring Japan was, in several cases, shorthand for queerness and a dainty homoeroticism.
Posted inArt
The Cultural Legacy of Animals in Japanese Art Over 17 Centuries
With more than 300 works drawn from 66 Japanese institutions and 30 American collections, this is likely one of the largest exhibitions of Japanese art that a generation of Americans will ever see.
Posted inIn Brief
Artists Demand Removal of Their Works From Aichi Trienniale in Open Letter
The letter, signed by 10 artists participating in the triennial, called the decision to close the exhibition After ‘Freedom of Expression?’ an “unacceptable act of censorship.”
Posted inIn Brief
Freedom of Speech Exhibition in Japan Closed Due to Censorship
After organizers received threats of violence, an exhibition at the 2019 Aichi Triennale was shuttered. The controversy stemmed from a statue of a Korean “comfort woman,” highlighting the history of sexual slavery during World War II.
Posted inFilm
Exploring the Isolations of Age, Disability, and Depression in Japan
A trio of documentaries playing at this year’s Japan Cuts festival tackle different facets of social alienation.