Mark Schilling
Mark Schilling's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
Screen International
Japan Times
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Egoist (2022) |
Through Matsunaga’s moving and intimate direction, Suzuki’s committed performance of Kosuke’s agony is raw and immediate. - Japan Times
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| Posted Feb 09, 2023
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Small, Slow But Steady (2022) |
It is quietly moving in its examination of human fragility without being pessimistic about human resilience. - Japan Times
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| Posted Dec 15, 2022
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A Man (2022) |
[A] multilayered, masterful drama. - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 18, 2022
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Broker (2022) |
In the hands of another director, the story might have taken a shouty, manipulative turn, but Kore-eda opts for emotionally grounded nuance. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jun 23, 2022
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Gensan Punch (2021) |
Veteran character actor Shogen's soft-spoken and self-abnegating portrayal of the hero manages to exude a quiet grit that comes off as authentic. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jun 02, 2022
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Last of the Wolves (2021) |
This is a wolf - and a film - with a bite. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jan 18, 2022
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A Family (2020) |
The film's mawkish laments for the passing of old-school gangsterdom, killed off by stringent anti-gang laws, are frankly ludicrous. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jan 05, 2022
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Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) |
Shows us how fiction can tell deeper truths than fact and how one kind deed can power us through life, in all its beauty, terror and mystery. - Japan Times
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| Posted Dec 13, 2021
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Come and Go (2020) |
The individual characters and their stories are compelling enough that the film's editing rhythms, with one scene succeeding another at a rapid clip, become more stimulating than confusing. - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 29, 2021
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We Couldn't Become Adults (2021) |
Soaked in nostalgia for 1990s Tokyo. - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 11, 2021
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Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021) |
Gaunt, wary and silent, Onoda looks like a ghost returning to the land of the living, a moment that eloquently sums up what he - and his country - lost in the collective madness of war. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 13, 2021
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Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter Part I - The Final (2021) |
Action director Kenji Tanigaki, who worked in Hong Kong with such stars as Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, brings a panache and impact to these scenes that lift them above the Japanese action norm. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 11, 2021
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Hell's Garden (2021) |
The result is often hilarious, though the gender politics can be dubious. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 23, 2021
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A Balance (2020) |
In its honesty about the real-life pitfalls of finding and telling the truth, A Balance is a rare and brave achievement. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 17, 2021
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Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me? (2021) |
In Kuroki's brilliantly understated performance, the dreamy, unworldly Sawako has her steely side, too. Watching her unsheathe it is one of this charming and devastating film's many pleasures. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 15, 2021
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It's A Summer Film! (2021) |
As a celebration of adolescent passion and energy, "It's a Summer Film" has a clunky poignance and charm. And if it entices anyone to watch The Tale of Zatoichi, it will have served a worthy purpose. - Japan Times
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| Posted Aug 17, 2021
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A Dobugawa Dream (2018) |
Japanese films about socially isolated teenagers are hardly rare, though truly original takes on the subject are uncommon. In his debut feature, however, Asato Watanabe has hit on one. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jul 08, 2021
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Hokusai (2020) |
Akihiko Nihonmatsu's vibrant and atmospheric cinematography makes everything from Edo's jostling dens of sin to the deserted Kanagawa coast look evocative of Hokusai's art and life. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jun 03, 2021
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Zokki (2020) |
Zokki contains a wealth of unifying comic detail... as well as a climax that draws plot strands together in a satisfying way. - Japan Times
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| Posted May 18, 2021
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Gekijoban: Signal (2021) |
The climax is packed with positive messaging that is thuddingly obvious. - Japan Times
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| Posted May 15, 2021
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Umibe no Kanojotachi (2020) |
No one over-emotes or emotes much, period. But as the harsh reality of the central heroine's dilemma sinks in, the film builds to an emotionally charged climax that feels earned, not imposed. - Japan Times
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| Posted May 14, 2021
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Ride or Die (2021) |
[Ryuichi Hiroki] is a director with visual flair, and a sure sensitivity to his characters' inner lives. - Japan Times
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| Posted Apr 14, 2021
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Under the Turquoise Sky (2021) |
Just when the film seems stuck in a repetitious rut, like the van's wheels spinning in the mud, it begins to give us glimpses of another, more mysterious Mongolia. - Japan Times
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| Posted Apr 08, 2021
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First Love (2021) |
If raw and real is what you want, see "Life: Untitled." - Japan Times
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| Posted Apr 07, 2021
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Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction (2021) |
As Megumi, Matsuoka exudes a quirky charm and warmth that look uncalculated, but turn out to be facets in a finely layered jewel of a performance. - Japan Times
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| Posted Mar 26, 2021
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Kontora (2019) |
It makes its points more by poetic metaphor, though it is also firmly grounded in the real, including the darker sides of its characters' psyches. - Japan Times
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| Posted Mar 17, 2021
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Aristocrats (2021) |
"Aristocrats" isn't a cliched worlds-collide sort of comedy. - Japan Times
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| Posted Feb 25, 2021
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Under the Open Sky (2020) |
A masterful portrait of a lifelong outsider trying to find a place in a society that hands out few second chances. - Japan Times
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| Posted Feb 10, 2021
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Suicide Forest Village (2021) |
In [Takashi Shimizu'i][s latest, "Suicide Forest Village," he shows he still knows the tricks of the trade, though the psychological depths and signature style found in the work of fellow master of horror Kiyoshi Kurosawa elude him. - Japan Times
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| Posted Feb 10, 2021
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The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window (2021) |
Hirate, a former member of pop group Keyakizaka46, is particularly good as Erika, burning with a merciless intensity that is the film's scariest effect. Which is saying something, if not a lot. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jan 22, 2021
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Angry Rice Wives (2021) |
The film simplifies the history of the riots, airbrushing out male participation. It does, however, highlight the real bravery of the female protestors, who fought not only ingrained sexism, but also the deep poverty that put their families at risk. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jan 22, 2021
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Hold Me Back (2020) |
In "Hold Me Back" [Non] shows that she can be both the ingenue audiences have come to love and an experienced actor able to carry a film. - Japan Times
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| Posted Dec 30, 2020
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Mrs. Noisy (2020) |
"Mrs. Noisy" makes a worthy plea for more tolerance in a society that lacks it, with those unable or unwilling to conform pushed outside the circle of wa. - Japan Times
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| Posted Dec 07, 2020
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Underdog (2020) |
In its gritty realism, in and out of the ring, it's the best boxing film to come out of Japan since "100 Yen Love." - Japan Times
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| Posted Dec 01, 2020
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Any Crybabies Around? (2020) |
Kudos to [Taiga] Nakano, who reveals Tasuku's weaknesses without making him totally contemptible. - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 18, 2020
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Life: Untitled (2019) |
The film's structure is episodic, with characters sketched in rather than fully developed. Nonetheless, some stand out, such as Shiho (the always excellent Reiko Kataoka). - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 11, 2020
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Ora, Ora de Hitori Igu Mo (2020) |
Yuko Tanaka... is perfectly cast as Momoko. - Japan Times
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| Posted Nov 06, 2020
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Living in Your Sky (2020) |
As expected from [Shinji] Aoyama, the dialogue is intelligent and pithy, while [Mikako] Tabe's portrayal of Naomi ranges from spacey charm to laser-eyed sternness, underlaid with a melancholy and loneliness that feels of-the-moment. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 28, 2020
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Wife of a Spy (2020) |
"Wife of a Spy" is more than a penetrating study of one woman's troubled psyche; it's also an unflinching gaze at the horror of a world gone mad. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 14, 2020
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Hoshi no Ko (2020) |
[Mana] Ashida turns in a laser-focused turn as the conflicted protagonist. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 08, 2020
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Kamata Prelude (2020) |
The result is something of a patchwork, running the gamut from magical realism to absurdist comedy, but it held my attention from beginning to end. - Japan Times
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| Posted Oct 01, 2020
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Midnight Swan (2020) |
Additionally, though Hattori has her limits as an actress (this is her first film role), she is a quietly strong presence as Ichika, right down to her trained dancer's poise. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 24, 2020
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Cenote (2019) |
There's something hypnotic about the procession of swirling, glittering images, and haunting about the narration, which is drawn from Mayan poetry and delivered by otherworldly voices. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 17, 2020
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(undefined) |
At the end of this cacophonous but charming movie, I was misting up. Shin Adachi, c'est moi. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 10, 2020
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Reiwa Uprising (2019) |
By the end, Yasutomi had my vote. And so did the probing, truth-telling, easy-to-enjoy Reiwa Uprising. - Japan Times
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| Posted Sep 03, 2020
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Stigmatized Properties (2020) |
At once funny and creepy, [Noriko Eguchi] nails the mood the film should have had all the way through. - Japan Times
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| Posted Aug 27, 2020
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(undefined) |
The story's final destination is apparent from the beginning, but [Shinya] Tamada cleverly finesses this sense of inevitability with a sleight-of-hand ending. - Japan Times
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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(undefined) |
[Miyuki] Tokoi's tenacity in taking Sky's story beyond its obvious conclusion deserves applause, as does Sky, a "zero" who becomes a self-actualized "plus," triumphantly undefined by a pronoun. - Japan Times
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| Posted Aug 13, 2020
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Koshien: Japan's Field of Dreams (2019) |
Compelling and illuminating. - Japan Times
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| Posted Aug 13, 2020
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Labyrinth of Cinema (2019) |
Bursting with energy, passion and dreamlike invention, and while conveying a strong antiwar message, it is anything but preachy. - Japan Times
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| Posted Jul 30, 2020
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