Philip Brasor
@philipbrasor.bsky.social
📤 592
📥 407
📝 495
Japan media watcher, blogger of Japanese housing philipbrasor.com catforehead.com
"Kill" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3JRFxgI
@kill_cinema
#KILL超覚醒
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Review: Kill
The local distributor is promoting this Indian action film as Bollywood John Wick, which is comprehensible shorthand for what the target audience should expect: lots of balletic, well-executed carn…
https://bit.ly/3JRFxgI
about 13 hours ago
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"The Dream Songs" opens Friday in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3LDE3Hu
@YOU_and_I_film
#君と私
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Review: The Dream Songs
The edit of this 2022 Korean movie intended for release outside of Korea contains opening title cards in English that glancingly refer to the Sewon ferry incident of 2014, a disaster that claimed t…
https://bit.ly/3LDE3Hu
1 day ago
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Infrastructure blues: Japan shifting into reverse on sewerage policy.
bit.ly/4oCjr18
#下水道計画
#浄化槽
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Backed up
Where it’s buried Japan has one of the most extensive and sophisticated sewerage systems in the world. As of 2021, slightly more than 80 percent of the population was served by sewerage syste…
https://bit.ly/4oCjr18
5 days ago
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"The Bibi Files" and "Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin" open this weekend in Tokyo.
bit.ly/43Pa4CG
@thebibifiles
#ネタニヤフ調書汚職と戦争
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Review: The Bibi Files and Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin
Japanese distributors are releasing Alexis Bloom’s muckraking documentary about the House of Netanyahu a year after it was first shown elsewhere. Given the velocity of breaking news these day…
https://bit.ly/43Pa4CG
6 days ago
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"Two Seasons, Two Strangers" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4ouG9Ip
@tabitohibi
#旅と日々
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Review: Two Seasons, Two Strangers
The fact that Sho Miyake’s latest movie (Tabi to Hibi in Japanese) is based on two manga may cause some misunderstanding. The manga author is Yoshiharu Tsuge, whose work is subtle and idiosyn…
https://bit.ly/4ouG9Ip
7 days ago
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Japan's approach to palliative care is horrifyingly limited.
bit.ly/4omNHg9
#透析
#緩和ケア
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Pain mismanagement | FCCJ
November 2025 | Japan Media Review Constraints on pain management are condemning people to long, agonising deaths Photo by
https://bit.ly/4omNHg9
10 days ago
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"A Traveler's Needs" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3JCZXKo
@hongsangsoo_JP
#旅人の必需品
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Review: A Traveler’s Needs
There’s obviously something about Hong Sangsoo’s methodology that appeals to Isabelle Huppert, because this is the third movie of his that she’s starred in. It may be the free-for…
https://bit.ly/3JCZXKo
13 days ago
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"So Long, See You Tomorrow" and "Spirit World" open today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4nuyV5K
#あの時愛を伝えられなかった僕の3つのもしもの世界
@spiritworld25
#SPIRITWORLDスピリットワールド
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Review: So Long, See You Tomorrow and Spirit World
Baek Seung-bin’s third feature’s literary pretensions go beyond his borrowing the title of William Maxwell’s classic 1979 novel. There’s a gay bar that figures centrally in …
https://bit.ly/4nuyV5K
13 days ago
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"Something Is About to Happen" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/433jGcG
@something_movie
#サムシング・ハプンズ・トゥ・ミー
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Review: Something Is About to Happen
The title of this Spanish drama has less to do with the mechanics of the story than with the expectations of the viewer. Director Antonio Méndez Esparza, adapting a novel, concentrates on the every…
http://bit.ly/433jGcG
15 days ago
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To drive or not to drive. That is the question for Japanese welfare recipients.
bit.ly/4qpnrU1
#生活保護
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Media watch: Welfare recipients have to choose between benefits and cars
In June the Supreme Court ruled that government cuts to welfare carried out between 2013 and 2015 were unlawful in a decision that undermined much of the welfare ministry’s rationale for how …
https://bit.ly/4qpnrU1
18 days ago
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"The Day Iceland Stood Still" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/48LZcZK
@wdayoff_1975
#女性の休日
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Review: The Day Iceland Stood Still
October 24 marked the 50th anniversary of the Women’s Day of Peace in Iceland, when 90 percent of Icelandic women commemorated the United Nations International Women’s Year by going on …
https://bit.ly/48LZcZK
20 days ago
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"Hard Truths" and "The Roses" open today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/48G0u8z
#ハード・トゥルース母の日に願うこと
#巨匠マイク・リー最新作
#ローズ家
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Review: Hard Truths and The Roses
One of the many refreshing things about Mike Leigh’s cinema is the way he disregards certain prejudices in terms of plotting and characterization. There are moments during his movies when vie…
https://bit.ly/48G0u8z
21 days ago
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reposted by
Philip Brasor
Japanese govt. taps into anti-foreigner sentiments as if it were planned that way.
bit.ly/47A4fLz
#不法滞在者ゼロプラン
#日本人ファースト
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Media watch: Citizens demand end of immigration policy that doesn’t exist
Tokyo Immigration Services building One of the two women that Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has appointed to her cabinet is Kimi Onoda, who will be in charge of promoti…
https://bit.ly/47A4fLz
22 days ago
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Japanese govt. taps into anti-foreigner sentiments as if it were planned that way.
bit.ly/47A4fLz
#不法滞在者ゼロプラン
#日本人ファースト
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Media watch: Citizens demand end of immigration policy that doesn’t exist
Tokyo Immigration Services building One of the two women that Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has appointed to her cabinet is Kimi Onoda, who will be in charge of promoti…
https://bit.ly/47A4fLz
22 days ago
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7
3
"The Conjuring: Last Rites" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3WNW5ch
@horror_ent
#死霊館最後の儀式
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Review: The Conjuring: Last Rites
I have not followed the Conjuring franchise so far and was taken aback by the conceit that it is based on the adventures of a real life married couple, Lorraine and Ed Warren, who performed exorcis…
https://bit.ly/3WNW5ch
28 days ago
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"Eephus" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4qauxvi
@slowball_film
#さよならはスローボールで
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Review: Eephus
Because of Hollywood, American movies are considered the default cinematic form, meaning any other kind needs to be qualified first; but there are enough American movies that fall outside the perce…
https://bit.ly/4qauxvi
29 days ago
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reposted by
Philip Brasor
Tobias Harris
about 1 month ago
I'm reading journalist Mark Gayn's "Japan Diary," which starts in December 1945, and thus far it seems useful as an illustration of a) racial attitudes at the end of the war and b) insanely unrealistic expectations for what the occupation could accomplish in *checks notes* two months.
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"Holy Cow" and "Brand New Landscape" open today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4326O6A
@holycowjpn
#ホーリー・カウ
@Miharashi_Movie
#見はらし世代
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Review: Holy Cow and Brand New Landscape
Work, as the Nazis used to say, will make you free, though it depends on which end of the whip you’re on. A lot of it has to do with milieu. Louise Courvoisier’s continually surprising …
https://bit.ly/4326O6A
about 1 month ago
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"Grand Tour" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3J3KKBI
@grandtourfilmjp
#グランドツアー
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Review: Grand Tour
Portuguese critic-turned-director Miguel Gomes is comfortable with anachronism. It was the most obvious narrative device in his era-splitting breakthrough Tabu, and in his latest movie it’s e…
https://bit.ly/3J3KKBI
about 1 month ago
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To renovate or not to renovate. That is the question, when it comes to abandoned houses.
bit.ly/46RWLCg
#空き家
#解体
#リフォーム
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Mama said knock it down
House built in Nikko in the early 1980s Recent media reports say that housing starts are dropping in Japan, which is understandable but also worrying to those who gauge Japan’s economic healt…
https://bit.ly/46RWLCg
about 1 month ago
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The Japanese media never really corrected its misinformation about the
#HPV
vaccine.
bit.ly/435U5jb
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Vaccine vexation | FCCJ
October 2025 | Japan Media Review Japan’s newspapers too often put emotion before science in their coverage of the HPV controversy Illustration by Julio Shiiki - Image source: Wikipedia While vaccines...
https://bit.ly/435U5jb
about 1 month ago
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Asia's biggest film festival tries to reassert its importance.
bit.ly/4nD3MOz
#biff2025
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Revamped Busan film festival turns 30 with expanded cinematic showcase
Since its inception, BIFF has been a launchpad for Asian cinema. This year, it grew bigger and brighter with a new Competition section, 90 world premieres and high-profile guests.
https://bit.ly/4nD3MOz
about 1 month ago
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“One Battle After Another” opens today in Tokyo.
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Review: One Battle After Another
Though I’ve little use for wholesale creative comparisons, the critical observation that Paul Thomas Anderson is this century’s Stanley Kubrick makes a certain kind of sense, if only be…
https://philipbrasor.com/2025/10/03/review-one-battle-after-another/
about 1 month ago
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If there's a problem with foreigners buying property in Japan, you'd think the government would have addressed it by now.
bit.ly/3KtJ2Kq
#ニセコ
#固定資産税
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Northern exposure
One of the topics being discussed by candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency is foreigners in Japan, and an aspect of that discussion is foreigners buying property. Some years ago th…
https://bit.ly/3KtJ2Kq
about 1 month ago
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"Julie Keeps Quiet" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/48PXiae
#ジュリーは沈黙したままで
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Review: Julie Keeps Quiet
Sports movies usually have a common narrative arc about overcoming adversity, one which this Beligan film refuses to follow almost constitutionally. The title character, played by Tessa Van den Bro…
https://bit.ly/48PXiae
about 1 month ago
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"Midas Man" and "Becoming Led Zeppelin" open today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4831Slg
#ブライアン・エプスタイン世界最高のバンドを育てた男
@zepmovie
#レッド・ツェッペリンビカミング
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Review: Midas Man and Becoming Led Zeppelin
Midas Man, a biopic about Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, received a qualified rave review from veteran rock critic Greil Marcus this summer. Marcus saw the movie at a film festival in Califo…
https://bit.ly/4831Slg
about 2 months ago
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"I Saw the TV Glow" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3Kl0ZL0
#テレビの中に入りたい
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Review: I Saw the TV Glow
Now that he’s dead, all us habitual moviegoers live in the shadow of David Lynch if only because Lynch was the predominant filmmaker of the last 40 years or so whose vision was not only uniqu…
https://bit.ly/3Kl0ZL0
about 2 months ago
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, Day 6
bit.ly/46ec4Gk
#BIFF2025
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, Sept. 22, part 2
As usual, I retreated earlier than usual on my last day of the festival. I leave tomorrow morning very, very early, and I’m hoping the subway gets me to the airport on time. The first train is 5:21…
https://bit.ly/46ec4Gk
about 2 months ago
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Busan International Film Festival, day 4
bit.ly/4gCp0cD
#BIFF2025
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, Sept. 21
I finally saw Kokuho yesterday. I’m not on Toho’s mailing list so I wasn’t invited to any press screenings for the movie, and I didn’t catch it after it was released three months ago. I didn’t even…
https://bit.ly/4gCp0cD
about 2 months ago
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Busan International Film Festival, day 3
bit.ly/4nnWWvW
#BIFF2025
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, Sept. 20
I spoke to two people yesterday who have been working with and within the Korean film industry for a number of years, and both pretty much thought the new Competition Section of the festival is not…
https://bit.ly/4nnWWvW
about 2 months ago
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, day 2
bit.ly/47ROf8A
#BIFF2025
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Busan International Film Festival 2025, Sept. 19
Been plagued by technical problems ever since I arrived. I bought a Wow card, which you can charge with any denomination of currency and use pretty much everywhere in Korea, including public transp…
https://bit.ly/47ROf8A
about 2 months ago
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"The Phoenician Scheme" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3VJoWON
@phoenicianjp
#ザ・ザ・コルダのフェニキア計画
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Review: The Phoenician Scheme
As a comic filmmaker, Wes Anderson often doesn’t seem to be in on his own jokes. His overly fussy sets and precise camera movements feel so intense that it’s the intenseness that evince…
https://bit.ly/3VJoWON
about 2 months ago
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"The Monkey" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4nG5zBX
#THEMONKEYザ・モンキー
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Review: The Monkey
The best thing about Osgood Perkins’ adaptation of the Stephen King short story is the titular toy, whose malevolent intentions are obvious just by looking at its sick grin and wide-open eyes…
https://bit.ly/4nG5zBX
about 2 months ago
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"Black Dog" opens Friday in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4nu3TLK
#ブラックドッグ
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Review: Black Dog
Lots of cliches move the emotional gears of this Chinese film, which won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The titular canine is an extreme outcast in…
https://bit.ly/4nu3TLK
about 2 months ago
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"Take Me Somewhere Nice" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/46AV3pO
@takeme_films
#テイク・ミー・サムウェア・ナイス
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Review: Take Me Somewhere Nice
Alma (Sara Luna Zoric), who appears to be around 20 years old, is a Bosnian national raised in the Netherlands by her single mother, who brought her to Northern Europe with her father. At some poin…
https://bit.ly/46AV3pO
2 months ago
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"In a Violent Nature" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/47Ap22f
@violentnaturejp
#バイオレント・ネイチャー
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Review: In a Violent Nature
Horror movies are often predicated on ridiculously simple ideas usually having to do with not-so-innocent civilians intruding on the space of malignant forces. In Chris Nash’s debut feature, …
https://bit.ly/47Ap22f
2 months ago
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"Nocturnal" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4mehA09
@brokenmoviejp
#ブロークン復讐者の夜
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Review: Nocturnal
This is the third Korean thriller I’ve seen in the last year wherein a male novelist and a book he wrote figure significantly in the mystery, except that in the case of Nocturnal (also the ti…
https://bit.ly/4mehA09
2 months ago
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Doubling down: Couples straining their resources to live in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4mSzEyl
#ペアローン
#東京住宅価格
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It takes two
According to an article in the Sept. 3 edition of Asahi Shimbun, 40 percent of all recent housing loans are so-called pair loans, meaning they are taken out by married couples, with both spouses…
https://bit.ly/4mSzEyl
2 months ago
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"A Pale View of Hills" and "While You Were Sleeping" open this weekend in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4gjJkiU
@apaleview2025
#遠い山なみの光
#あなたが眠る間
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Review: A Pale View of Hills and While You Were Sleeping
A dramatic device that I have become less patient with as it has become more frequenty wielded is the final-act plot twist, which often feels like an end in itself. In the case of Kei Ishikawa̵…
https://bit.ly/4gjJkiU
2 months ago
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"Sex," "Dreams," and "Love" open today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3K6Y4Fx
#オスロ3つの愛の風景
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Review: Oslo Stories: Sex, Dreams, Love
Not sure what it is about the Norwegian capital that inspires work that comes in threes. We already have filmmaker Joachim Trier’s Oslo Trilogy, but those movies were released over a period o…
https://bit.ly/3K6Y4Fx
2 months ago
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"Bird" and "September Says" open tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4gd8HD2
@bird_habataku
#バードここから羽ばたく
@september_says
#九月と七月の姉妹
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Review: Bird and September Says
Filmmakers create alternative worlds in their work by both design and necessity, but often in their endeavor to recreate naturalism they do the opposite and show us things we’ve never seen be…
https://bit.ly/4gd8HD2
2 months ago
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"How to Train Your Dragon" opens Friday in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4g5TmUG
#ヒックとドラゴン
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Review: How to Train Your Dragon
One of the disadvantages of advanced age is that the past is increasingly telescoped, and when it came to my attention that DreamWorks had made a semi-live version of its animated hit How to Train …
https://bit.ly/4g5TmUG
2 months ago
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Crackdown on improper teacher behavior too little too late.
bit.ly/4nfeCcZ
#わいせつ教員
#文部科学省
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Media watch: School teacher pedophile group seems to have been around a while
Online meeting of education ministry July 10 (Mainichi Shimbun) In early July, the education ministry called an emergency meeting with local school superintendents asking them “to strictly en…
https://bit.ly/4nfeCcZ
2 months ago
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"Love Lies Bleeding" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3Vo67QI
#愛はステロイド
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Review: Love Lies Bleeding
My reaction to the overall visual and aural aesthetic of Rose Glass’s thriller was obviously affected by other recent movies that looked and sounded the same, in particular the work of the Sa…
https://bit.ly/3Vo67QI
3 months ago
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Toyota car loan scheme gets roasted on the internet.
bit.ly/4gbUjuN
#残クレアルファード
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Media watch: Loan or lease, you pay for it all in the end
Toyota Alphard Earlier this month Asahi Shimbun reporter Yotaro Hamada, whose specialty is social welfare, commented on an editorial he had written in July about Japanese opposition parties’ …
https://bit.ly/4gbUjuN
3 months ago
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"Land of Happiness" opens this weekend in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4fPVS0U
#大統領暗殺裁判16日間の真実
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Review: Land of Happiness
The assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 has received a lot of cinematic attention in South Korea recently, as if floodgates had been opened. Several years ago there was The Man Who St…
https://bit.ly/4fPVS0U
3 months ago
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"Ballerina" opens today in Tokyo.
bit.ly/3Jl0Tmj
@ballerina_jw
#バレリーナTheWorldofJohnWick
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Review: Ballerina
The John Wick cinematic universe was built piecemeal in that it started out with a standard revenge story that was so popular it spun off its own underlying mythos. The problem with this methodolog…
https://bit.ly/3Jl0Tmj
3 months ago
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"Parthenope" opens tomorrow in Tokyo.
bit.ly/4lDWsAe
@parthenope_jp
#パルテノペナポリの宝石
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Review: Parthenope
Paolo Sorrentino may not be the most characteristically Italian filmmaker, but he’s obviously the most self-conscious one, an attribute that could be extended to his status in post-New Wave E…
https://bit.ly/4lDWsAe
3 months ago
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Fool that I am I arrived early at
#SummerSonic2025
to catch Lisa’s show at the Marine Stage thinking it was the Thai rapper/singer from Blackpink. Instead it was the Japanese rock singer Lisa (or Risa). I guess I’ll never learn.
3 months ago
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SummerSonic2025 What is it with promoting these monster trucks (by Land Rover) at Japanese rock festivals? I saw this same display at Fuji Rock.
3 months ago
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