Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (July 24, 1886–July 30, 1965) was a master at burrowing right down into the heart of human relationships while...

An epistolary novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019) by Vietnamese-American author and poet Ocean Vuong is one of those rare and...

Bad Elements by Ian Buruma was published in 2001 so, considering how dramatically China has grown over the past couple decades, I almost...

I have to be in a certain mood to watch and enjoy horror—a mood that seems to lift after the period between summer and Halloween. And so...

When We Were Orphans (2000), Kazuo Ishiguro's fifth novel, has been called the author's weakest work, and I heard that he's admitted this...

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (残菊物語, or Zangiku Monogatari) is a 1939 film by director Kenji Mizoguchi. Running about 140 minutes,...

Sanjuro (椿三十郎, or Tsubaki Sanjūrō) is a black-and-white film directed by Akira Kurosawa, released in 1962, and starring the charismatic...

Quicksand by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki is a novel about deceit, jealousy, and betrayal. Written between 1928 and 1930 as a serial for a...

The Downfall of Osen (折鶴お千, or Orizuru Osen) is a 1935 silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and with benshi accompaniment. It stars...

Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories (2009) is a collection of works by Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927). I'd seen Akira Kurosawa's 1950...

BBC Two's eight-part series Giri/Haji is the best TV I've seen so far in 2019, and that includes this year's The Handmaid's Tale and...

Another guilty Netflix pleasure, Earthquake Bird is as predictable as it tries not to be. Labeled as a "psychological drama mystery...

Encounters with Kyoto: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 3 (2019) is an absorbing, at times amusing collection of twenty-two storytellers'...

Akira Kurosawa's final epic, Ran (or 乱, which can mean riot, war, disorder, and disturb), released in 1985, is based both on legends of...

The Water Magician is a 1933 silent film (with benshi accompaniment) by Kenji Mizoguchi. Takino Shiraito (played by Irie Takako) is a...

The Image Factory: Fads & Fashions in Japan (2003), by Donald Richie, takes a penetrating and frequently humorous look at Japan’s styles...

Tokyo March (Japanese: 東京行進曲, or Tōkyō kōshinkyoku) is a 1929 silent film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi which was originally screened with...

A Japanese Mirror, published in 1984, is Ian Buruma's dissection of the myths that imbue the darker segments of Japan's culture. He...

Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak's novel entitled 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World (2019) is two series of events...

Never seen anything like this. Intensely disturbing, sexually explicit, beautifully framed and shot, and based on actual events, In the...