Oct 1, 2009

This Week's Required Reading

Bathed in Blood

Director Koji Shiraishi’s torture-porn flick Grotesque gets banned in Britain—and ignites a debate about Japan’s splatter-film boom

Doomsday

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2009 Take Outbreak, mate [...]

Summer Sonic Tenth Anniversary

Four bands, two writers, one festival

Black Water

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2009 This low-budget, high-atmosphere [...]

Spirit Parties

Japan's Obon and summer festivals are loud and mad enough to wake the dead - Here are a few of the major events being held around the country during the coming month.

It’s Alive

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2009 Cheeseball remake of [...]

War Story

Gregory Hadley's Field of Spears recounts a dramatic—and little-known—episode from the closing days of World War II. Yet as the author discovered, the story didn’t finish with the war's end

Ebisusan

An eatery with heart, literally

Peace Prize

After going missing in Mexico for more than 30 years, Taro Okamoto’s Myth of Tomorrow is about to be unveiled inside Shibuya station. Here’s the inside story of the efforts to recover and restore one of the artist’s most stunning works.