Arts/Entertainment

• NEW SONO SION PROJECT TACKLES POST-FUKUSHIMA JAPAN (WED.-SUN., JAN. 18-22, 2012)
  Sion Sono is following up “Himizu”, which he rewrote to include the March tsunami, with “Land of Hope,” a family drama set after a huge earthquake and Fukushima-type nuclear accident. (THR)
• TSUI HARK’S ‘FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE’ LEADS ASIAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS (WED.-SUN., JAN. 18-22, 2012)
  Director Tsui Hark’s 3D extravaganza “The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” leads the Sixth Asian Film Awards nominations with seven noms. (THR)
• IS HOLLYWOOD 'WHITEWASHING' ASIAN ROLES? (MON.-TUES., JAN. 16-17, 2012)
  America’s embrace of Japanese pop culture, particularly manga and anime, hasn’t resulted in an embrace of Asian and Asian-American actors when those storylines go to Hollywood. (CNN)
• KEN WATANABE SET TO ATTEND DAVOS (MON.-TUES., JAN. 16-17, 2012)
  The crossover Japanese actor will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 25 to give a speech on the March earthquake and tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan, his office says. (Japan Times)
• ‘BATTLE ROYALE’ HITS BLU-RAY FOR THE FIRST TIME (MON.-TUES., JAN. 16-17, 2012)
  The controversial Japanese movie, set in a dystopian future where high school students are forced to fight each other to the death is set to hit stores. (THR)
• BOOK REVIEW: ‘THE ORPHAN MASTER’S SON’ (FRI., JAN. 13, 2012)
  Adam Johnson’s novel recounts the adventures of Jun Do, a North Korean soldier, kidnapper and surveillance officer who becomes complicit in the state’s crimes and then falls in love with an actress. (NY Times)
• UCLA’S MELNITZ MOVIES TO SCREEN ANIMATOR HIROMASA YONEBAYASHI’S NEW ‘SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY’ (THURS., JAN. 12, 2012)
  This quarter’s Melnitz Movies will also debut a monthly film series in cooperation with UCLA’s Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies titled “New Visions of Japanese Cinema.” The first film to screen: “The Secret World of Arrietty” on Feb. 16. (Daily Bruin)
• ERIKA SAWAJIRI TO RETURN IN ‘HELTER SKELTER’ LIVE ACTION ADAPTATION (THURS., JAN. 12, 2012)
  Erika Sawajiri is to return to the big screen in Mika Ninagawa’s adaptation of cult manga “Helter Skelter,” four years after she was effectively excommunicated from Japanese showbiz for a fairly mild tantrum. (THR)
• FILM REVIEW: 'SKETCHES OF KAITAN CITY' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s film peruses the downhill slide of ordinary lives in a northern industrial town in recession. (THR)
• FILM REVIEW: 'WOMEN ON THE EDGE' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  Self-indulgent, dramatically lax and grating representation of three sisters reuniting in their deceased parents' ancestral home. (THR)
• FILM REVIEW: 'KAIJI 2' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  Japanese machine fetish reaches a hilarious height in "Kaiji 2," where the eponymous protagonist stakes millions of yen and several lives in a battle to out-wit a Pachinko (pinball) machine as monstrous as Megatron. (THR)
• FILM REVIEW: 'TOKYO ISLAND' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  Female Robinson Crusoe politico-erotic fantasy is as amusing as it is baffling. (THR)
• FILM REVIEW: 'POSTCARD' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  Japan's nominee for the best foreign language Academy Award is the 49th and final film from Japanese director Kaneto Shindo. (THR)
• BLU-RAY REVIEW: 'THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE' (WED., JAN. 11, 2012)
  The film’s television roots and production values are evident throughout with poorly designed, cheap looking sets, absolutely no attention to period detail whatsoever and ... feel of a bad mid-eighties television soap opera. (WhatCulture.com)