INTERIOR CHINATOWN By Charles Yu (New York: Pantheon Books, 2020, 288 pp., $16, paperback) During Act I of Charles Yu’s comical and award-winning novel, “Interior Chinatown,” I had a flashback to the mid-1980s when my late father, Nisei writer/actor Hiroshi Kashiwagi, landed a role as a Chinese coolie in a murder mystery play. As Yu […]
Mifune honored with star on Hollywood Walk of Fame
November 17, 2016 by Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES — A ceremony was held Nov. 15 to unveil a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the late Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who appeared in a number of films directed by Akira Kurosawa. “Next year will be 20 years since Mifune passed away and it is great to know that his […]
‘Astro Boy’ Falls Short of Tezuka’s Trademark Storytelling Style
November 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment
This past month, Astro Boy, one of Japan’s greatest icons, made his debut in U.S. movie theaters. The new film, appropriately titled “Astro Boy,” is directed by British animator David Bowers (“Flushed Away”) and produced by Hong Kong’s Imagi Studios’ (the CGI-animated “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) — with some oversight by Tezuka Productions, the company […]
‘Lone Wolf and Cub’ must show sensitivity toward casting
I have utter disdain for the whole whitewashing affair with “Ghost in the Shell.” Now I hear that the film’s producer has also gained the rights to remake yet another Japanese property, and I wanted to warn him before he tries anything foolish. Variety reported June 27, that Steven Paul’s SP International Pictures will produce […]