Stay updated with breaking news from கெண்டரோ. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
Mar 4, 2021 While certain Mongolians are well-known in Japan, especially the sumo wrestlers who have come to dominate the sport in the past 20 years, Mongolia the country mostly draws a blank in the popular mind. Kentaro, a multicultural actor who goes by one name and has Hollywood credits (“Rush Hour 3,” “Taxi 2”), did not exactly set out to educate the audience with his first film as a director, “Under the Turquoise Sky,” but he still offers an affectionate, visually sumptuous love letter to Mongolia’s land, people and culture. Whether it motivates more Japanese to visit Mongolia (about 22,500 did in 2017) I have no idea, though its beauty shots of the wide open Mongolian landscape, made with an 8K video camera, may prompt many a Google search. ....
Feb 25, 2021 The recent vogue for international co-productions in Japanese cinema has spawned some fascinating hybrids, while transporting filmmakers to locations that seldom grace the nation’s silver screens. With overseas travel still a distant dream for most of us, this kind of escapism feels particularly welcome right now. In “Under the Turquoise Sky,” Yuya Yagira plays a wealthy Japanese playboy, Takeshi, who gets whisked away to the steppes of Mongolia in search of a long-lost relative. The ensuing journey is full of unexpected turns, mixing realism, fantasy and comedy on the way to a surprisingly soulful conclusion. This Japanese/Mongolian/French co-production is the debut feature by single-named director Kentaro, who is as hard to pin down as the film itself. Raised overseas, primarily in France, the Japanese filmmaker speaks English with a slight London twang, but talks the language of a Parisian cineaste. ....