After nine months of intensive work, I am happy to announce my biography on Shanghai film star Ruan Lingyu is now available in paperback on Amazon.

this was heartbreaking. poignant. progressive. by far one of the greatest silent films i’ve ever seen.

Kozaburo Yoshimura’s “Night River” (1956), starring Fujiko Yamamoto and Ken Uehara, has arrived on the Criterion Channel under the title “Undercurrent.” I saw the film some years ago via Japanese DVD. Glad to now see it with subtitles.

When they say nobody moves a camera like Spielberg, they’re absolutely right.

Film criticism, when done well, is supposed to make you think deeper about a film and engage with it in more complex ways. It is not really meant to decide for the entire population whether or not they should see something. You all have agency. You get to decide that yourself.

“Repast / めし” (1951) ✦ Setsuko Hara

Going live with @normancengland this Saturday night (8/30) at 7:30pm MST for a chill hang out session where we talk all things Japan and #Godzilla (link below)

I'll be a guest at the Palermo Comic Convention in Sicily this month, sharing tales from the Godzilla set.

Good to read someone who thinks about film criticism as an art, not consensus. @pgalvan91

Yasujiro Ozu's signature low camera setup was not designed to "capture the viewpoint of a Japanese person seated on a tatami mat." It's a charming story that will probably live forever, but it's untrue. I wrote an essay on this urban myth a few years ago.

Toshiro Mifune & Akira Kurosawa behind the scenes of 'Yojimbo' (1961).

At my favorite sushi joint. Got seated in front of the restaurant’s Godzilla mural. No complaints.

Keisuke Kinoshita with his younger brother and composer Chuji Kinoshita, September 1971. When adapting TWENTY-FOUR EYES, Keisuke asked Chuji if they could use school songs for the film, eventually selecting children’s songs and folk songs of the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods.

“He understood perfectly the psychology of women.”—Yoko Tsukasa on Mikio Naruse (#botd)

Mikio Naruse (#botd) and Masayuki Mori at sea for the on-location shoot of FLOATING CLOUDS, circa 1954.

Yoko Tsukasa (#botd) and Yuzo Kayama attending a press conference for SCATTERED CLOUDS on November 14, 1967 in Nagoya.

Tokyo Story - 東京物語 (1953) Directed by Yasujirō Ozu

We need more theater critics. More food critics. Architecture critics. Movie critics. People who have studied a subject and aren’t afraid to point out when art is terrible instead of just “creating content.”

【小津安二郎】私はあんな素晴らしい男性は見たことがありませんね。映画界とか何とか、そういうことをのけて、すばらしい方でした。「おとな」っていう感じでしたね。いま、あんまり「おとなだなあ」っていう人、いないじゃないですか。(笑) ほんとに頼れるなあっていう人でしたよ。

↑ 水晶橋から御堂筋線淀屋橋駅 : 1955年 ↓ 2024年12月, 2025年8月 #ゴジラの逆襲 #GodzillaRaidsAgain

My @OurCultureOC book review of “The Cinema of Kinoshita Keisuke: Films of Joy and Sorrow,” to be released by @EdinburghUP later this month. Kinoshita’s one of my favorite Japanese directors; glad there’s finally a book on him in English. https://t.co/fmJA8gVB1K