‘A Unique Country in Asia': Sex and politics make for strange bedfellows
The political is personal in Kenji Yamauchi's 'A Unique Country in Asia,' constantly intruding on the most intimate moments.
During the film's opening scene, protagonist Yoko (Ami Chong), a stay-at-home wife and clandestine sex worker, gets so distracted talking about the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that she forgets to finish servicing a client. This being a film that's acutely sensitive to social graces, the john is far too polite to kick up a fuss.
Abe seems to be a constant topic of discussion for Yoko and she doesn't lack for conversation partners. Her days are spent tending to a succession of smartly dressed gents, not all of whom share her distaste for the late politician — as divisive a figure in death as he was in life. A young man gets struck off her client list after outing himself as an active Liberal Democratic Party supporter; Kimura (Kenji Iwaya), an older regular who professes to be a fellow hater, gets treated to special favors.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kyodo News
37 minutes ago
- Kyodo News
Trump says U.S. Steel controlled by him with "golden share"
By Takuya Karube, KYODO NEWS - 2 hours ago - 06:50 | All, World The United States has a "golden share" in United States Steel Corp., President Donald Trump said Thursday, adding it will be controlled by him after Nippon Steel Corp.'s massive investment in the iconic American producer. "We have a golden share, which I control, or a president controls. Now I'm a little concerned whoever the president might be, but that gives you total control," Trump said at a White House event. Trump also said, "It's 51 percent ownership by Americans." But he did not provide details on how the deal between the major Japanese steelmaker and the struggling American company is structured, leaving investors and many other people confused. A golden share is a type of stock that gives veto power over major management decisions, such as approving or rejecting board members and slashing production capacity. But it was not immediately clear how such a share would allow a controlling stake in U.S. Steel to be owned by Americans. Nippon Steel has sought to make U.S. Steel a wholly owned subsidiary. The $14.1 billion takeover bid was announced by the two in December 2023. However, then President Joe Biden came out strongly against the plan. In early January this year, he issued an order blocking the sale of U.S. Steel to the Tokyo-headquartered company, citing national security grounds, following a recommendation by a panel of federal agencies. During the 2024 presidential election cycle, Trump also opposed the takeover, repeatedly saying U.S. Steel should remain in domestic hands, a view shared by the leadership of the powerful United Steelworkers union. On Thursday, Trump said Nippon Steel is a "great company" that will spend "$17 billion" on U.S. Steel, and unlike some other types of businesses, "We can't put it on a trailer and drive it into Japan," referring to the steel industry. In April, Trump ordered the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct another review of Nippon Steel's takeover bid. With the review now complete, Trump needs to decide whether to formally approve Nippon Steel's set of buyout proposals. In late May, a senator from Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered, said the Japanese company had pledged to ensure most board members in the American producer would come from the United States. As a condition for permitting Nippon Steel to partner with U.S. Steel, Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick told CNBC that the U.S. government is poised to receive the special type of stock. "The control structure is going to be somewhat unique. It's a national security agreement that will be signed with the U.S. government," the Republican senator said. "There'll be a golden share that will essentially require U.S. government approval of a number of the board members, and that will allow the United States to ensure production levels aren't cut." During a speech at a U.S. Steel plant in Pennsylvania on May 30, Trump heaped praise on Nippon Steel over what he views as its partnership deal with U.S. Steel, and offered backing for the Japanese company's $14 billion investment into the American producer. At the time, he also said, "Most importantly, U.S. Steel will continue to be controlled by the USA." Related coverage: Trump's steel tariff hike not raised in Japan-U.S. talks: negotiator Many see continued cuts in bond buying as appropriate: BOJ chief Ueda Japan PM hopes for progress in U.S. tariff talks, in no rush for deal
NHK
2 hours ago
- NHK
Pushing the boundaries of the bucket
An innovative Japanese craftsman is taking the traditional art of the wooden bucket to uncharted territory, harnessing computer design and modern art ideas.
Japan Times
3 hours ago
- Japan Times
Stop-motion sci-fi saga ‘Junk World' expands its bizarre universe
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, one of the bright spots was a film set in the dark. The stop-motion animation feature "Junk Head" followed a hapless, amnesic cyborg as he traversed a series of underground caverns populated by grotesque (yet somehow cute) monsters and made friends with a zany cadre of artificial lifeforms called Mulligans. The film's blend of horror and humor helped bring in ¥130 million at the Japanese box office. Not bad for a feature made almost entirely by one person: interior designer Takahide Hori, who had decided to try his hand at filmmaking for the first time at age 40. Hori, born in 1971, had always harbored artistic aspirations, he tells The Japan Times, producing work in fields like illustration, sculpture and manga, but despite winning some awards, he never felt there was much of a future in it for him. "I didn't want to be confined to one genre," Hori says. "I wanted to do something bigger." The inspiration for what form that 'something' might take came when Hori discovered animator Makoto Shinkai's ("Your Name.") 2002 short "Voices of a Distant Star," which Shinkai wrote and produced entirely by himself. Hori realized he might be able to do something similar. He chose stop-motion animation as his medium, combining his previous experience as a sculptor of marionettes with his interior design skills, which enabled him to create elaborate sets. "It really looked like my marionettes had come alive on screen," says Hori. "It was as if all the skills I'd built up until then had come together." Following his marionette experiments, Hori spent four years animating the 30-minute short "Junk Head I," which he finished in 2013, then expanded it into "Junk Head," his full-length debut. That film, which took Hori a total of seven years to complete, was the first chapter in a planned "Junk" trilogy. Now, Hori is back with "Junk World," his second entry in the series, which hits theaters in Japan Friday. And this time, it took him a mere three-and-a-half years. "Junk World," set over 1,000 years before "Junk Head," kicks off with a meeting between humans and Mulligans, who maintain an uneasy truce after a brutal war centuries earlier. Among the humans is Triss, a soldier with an eyepatch, a take-no-prisoners attitude and a robot companion named Robin whose sole purpose is to keep Triss safe. The Mulligan leader is Dante, whose guarded trust of humans isn't shared by all the members of his race — as evidenced by an attack on the meeting by rogue Mulligan forces mere moments after it begins. Triss, Robin and Dante are forced to flee and, during their escape, discover strange portals that allow them to travel in time. The battle then turns temporal as the varying factions begin to use time travel to outfox each other, going further and further back in time to influence the present. After years of harboring artistic aspirations, Takahide Hori tried his hand at filmmaking for the first time at age 40. His first feature, 'Junk Head,' brought in ¥130 million at the Japanese box office. | Matt Schley One of Hori's goals for "Junk World" was to expand the Junkverse's narrative and visual scope. While the first film largely takes place in subterranean hallways (essentially a single set which Hori could rearrange to create new locations), "Junk World" unfolds above ground, with some computer-generated elements — a new addition to Hori's toolkit — helping fill out the wider horizons. Another upgrade was the addition of 3D-printed models, allowing for multiple copies of the same characters to be filmed across different sets at the same time. But because "Junk World" was still an independent, low-budget production, Hori had to figure out a way to stretch the use of his new, more expansive sets, eventually hitting on the idea of time loops as a plausible way to reuse the same locations. "My budget for 'World' was about double that of 'Head,' but still very low," says Hori with a laugh. "The budget for the first film allowed a staff of three to barely get by, and this time, it allowed for a staff of six to barely get by." In many ways, Hori's "Junk" films embody the well-worn notion that limitations breed creativity. The entire concept of the underground world and its malformed creatures, for example, were initially born from budgetary constraints. "I realized that if it were set underground, I wouldn't have to worry about animating the landscape," says Hori. "And if the characters didn't have eyes, it would cut down on parts I needed to build and animate. When I put all that together, including research into real underground organisms, the 'Junk' world slowly came into view." Another example is the language the characters speak in the first film — gibberish, subtitled in Japanese, done to hide the fact that Hori was voicing almost every character himself. "Junk World," on the other hand, is voiced in Japanese, in part because it's a more dialogue-heavy film than "Junk Head," and the complicated story might be hard to track in subtitled form. However, after realizing how many fans were charmed by his invented language, Hori also produced a "gibberish version" of the film, which is being released alongside the Japanese version. It's like those big-budget Hollywood movies that get Japanese dubs and subs, except that cinemagoers will be able to choose between Japanese and 'Junkese.' Regardless which version cinemagoers choose, all the characters are voiced by Hori and the film's five other staff members. "We came down to the wire in terms of production, so the voices were recorded right at the end," says Hori. "If I'd hired professional voice actors, it might not have worked out schedule-wise. In any case, we might not be as good as pros, but I think that DIY, hand-made feel is part of the appeal of my films." While 'Junk Head' largely takes place in subterranean hallways, 'Junk World' unfolds aboveground to expand the narrative and visual scope of Hori's "Junk" universe. | © YAMIKEN For all the extra lore in "World," it retains the unique sense of humor on display in the first film, in which serious sci-fi plot points, thrilling action and splattery gore go hand-in-hand with fart jokes. One subplot involves two men who greedily feast on a delicacy that looks just like a man's, well, private parts. Like much of the movie, it's simultaneously cringe-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny. "I always want people to come out thinking, 'That was fun,'" says Hori. "I want the funny parts to surpass the parts that are grotesque or tough to watch." Hori is currently working on the script for the third "Junk" film, tentatively titled "Junk End." Set about 50 years after "Junk Head," it will reunite viewers with the protagonist of the original — and, thanks to the time travel introduced in "World," may feature some of its characters, too. An average day of stop-motion shooting yields just a few seconds of completed footage, Hori says, meaning it will be some time before "Junk End" hits screens. I ask how he stays motivated over long years of painstaking work. "You spend hours moving your models a fraction of an inch, shooting a frame, then doing it over and over again. But when you finish for the day and play back the footage, it really looks like they're moving. Those little moments of joy add up. Then you think to yourself, 'One day, this will be an entire movie, and that will be a great day.'" 'Junk World' is currently screening in cinemas nationwide. For more information, visit
