That chilliness is appropriate for the subject matter. This is an angry film about the potential desecration of nature by a giant, soulless Tokyo conglomerate called Playmode. The company wants to build a “glamping” (short for “glamorous camping”) resort in the idyllic country town of Mizubiki Village. The resort will draw tourists to an easily managed facsimile of an environment nature already provides, supplementing God’s work with an inferior copy built by man. Writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows up his Oscar-winning film “Drive My Car” with the more somber and meditative...

More than 100,000 packets of sliced bread have been recalled in Japan after parts of a black rat's body were discovered inside two of them, the manufacturer said Wednesday. Food recalls are rare in Japan, a country with famously high standards of sanitation, and Pasco Shikishima Corporation said it was investigating how the rodent remains had crept in to its products. The company said it was so far unaware of anyone falling sick after eating its processed white "chojuku" bread, long a staple of Japanese breakfast tables. Around 104,000 packs...

The Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to North Carolina April 11-12 to discuss jobs, business investment and the country’s relationship with the Southeast United States. Kishida landed in the Tar Heel State on Thursday, April 11 after attending a White House State Dinner with the Bidens and many other star-studded guests. On Friday, Kishida traveled around the state with Gov. Roy Cooper to talk jobs and business investments, according to a press release. To solidify the leaders' relationship, Cooper proclaimed April 12 as North Carolina and Japan Friendship Day....

Comedy docuseries “The World’s Strangest Jobs,” from Johannesburg-based Mannequin Pictures, one of South Africa’s key production, finance, and distribution companies, has sold to Prime Video the rights to the African continent. Mannequin is now pursuing sales in all other territories. The eight-part series is hosted by comedian and actor Schalk Bezuidenhout. The popular South African comic, a household name in his country of birth, balances SAFTA winning acting work (“Hotel”) with his bread and butter as a comic.

China's coast guard sent a flotilla of ships into the territorial waters of the disputed Senkaku Islands on Friday, less than 48 hours after President Joe Biden reaffirmed the U.S.' "unwavering commitment" to defend the Japan-controlled territory from an attack. A brief statement on its website and social media channels said the patrol led by the Chinese maritime law enforcement vessel 2502, a 5,500-ton Shuoshi II-class cutter, was "to protect China's rights." The uninhabited island group, which Beijing calls the Diaoyu Islands, are located in the East China Sea, roughly...

Moderna has paused its efforts to build an mRNA manufacturing facility in Kenya while it determines future demand for COVID-19 vaccines on the African continent, the firm said in a statement Thursday. Moderna’s plan was part of efforts to widen access to vaccines that have remained out of reach to large parts of the world. Africa has been trying to reduce the continent’s reliance on the rest of the world for vaccine supplies. Demand for COVID-19 vaccines in Africa has declined since the pandemic and is too little to support...