Winner of a number of awards from the Japanese Academy, Kinema Junpo, Mainichi and Blue Ribbon, “W's Tragedy” is based on Shizuko Natsuki's “Murder at Mt Fuji” but essentially takes the film within a film (within a stage play actually in this case) in one of the most successful titles of Kadokawa's pop experimentalism.
Natsuki's original book, the story of a rich family torn apart by the murder of their patriarch, and their heiress being accused of the crime, becomes a play and is acted out by a troupe of actors in Osaka. Shizuka Mita is a young, ambitious actress, who aims at taking a central role, that of rich heiress Mako Watsuji, which ends up, though, to another young actress, Kaori. A saddened Shizuka finally succumbs to the woes of Akio Morita, a man who had met her accidentally on the street and started flirting with her,...
Natsuki's original book, the story of a rich family torn apart by the murder of their patriarch, and their heiress being accused of the crime, becomes a play and is acted out by a troupe of actors in Osaka. Shizuka Mita is a young, ambitious actress, who aims at taking a central role, that of rich heiress Mako Watsuji, which ends up, though, to another young actress, Kaori. A saddened Shizuka finally succumbs to the woes of Akio Morita, a man who had met her accidentally on the street and started flirting with her,...
- 10/31/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
From the late ’50s and into the 1970s the Japanese New Wave exhibited an incredible creative outburst that defined and shaped what we consider contemporary Japanese cinema. But most studious critics have labeled what came after, the 1980s, as the “lost decade” of Japanese filmmaking, where no major directors or movements came to the forefront in either the home country or worldwide. Nevertheless, there’s been a recent surge of reconsideration of that period, mainly through retrospectives and restorations, like the one put together by Japan Society on Shinji Somai, one of the most important, eclectic directors who got his start in that epoch.
“Rites of Passage: The Films of Shinji Somai” features seven of the director’s early features, made between 1981 and 1990, which cemented his style. As the name of the retrospective and its accompanying description by its programmers hint, Somai cut his teeth into the seishun eiga (youth film) genre,...
“Rites of Passage: The Films of Shinji Somai” features seven of the director’s early features, made between 1981 and 1990, which cemented his style. As the name of the retrospective and its accompanying description by its programmers hint, Somai cut his teeth into the seishun eiga (youth film) genre,...
- 4/26/2023
- by Jaime Grijalba
- The Film Stage
Few Japanese filmmakers have a cinematic style as distinct and refined as the late Nobuhiko Obayashi. Four years after his feature debut, the wild 1977 horror-comedy “House”, the director helmed the similarly bonkers yet not as widely recognised “School in the Crosshairs”. Loosely based on Taku Mayumura’s novel, “Psychic School Wars”, Obayashi’s second feature for Kadokawa Productions is a pacy and spirited slice of exaggerated high-school drama, with a dose of telekinesis thrown in for good measure.
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on Terracotta
Yuka Mitamura (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is cute, popular, at the top of her class, and also just happens to be psychic. After stumbling upon her powers during an after-school incident, Yuka begins to wonder how she can use her abilities to help her rowdy classmates. However, things take a sinister turn when another young psychic, Michiru Takamizawa (Masami Hasegawa), joins Yuka’s school and uses her powers to lead a ruthless school patrol,...
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on Terracotta
Yuka Mitamura (Hiroko Yakushimaru) is cute, popular, at the top of her class, and also just happens to be psychic. After stumbling upon her powers during an after-school incident, Yuka begins to wonder how she can use her abilities to help her rowdy classmates. However, things take a sinister turn when another young psychic, Michiru Takamizawa (Masami Hasegawa), joins Yuka’s school and uses her powers to lead a ruthless school patrol,...
- 8/24/2022
- by Tom Wilmot
- AsianMoviePulse
Salor Suit and Machine Gun
A perky high-schooler takes on the mob in “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”, a one-of-a-kind genre-bender that riffs on the yakuza film, coming-of-age drama and ‘idol movie’, inventively adapted from Jiro Akagawa’s popular novel by director Shinji Somai, a massively influential figure in Japanese cinema whose work has been little seen outside his homeland.
Hoshi Izumi is a young innocent forced to grow up quickly when her father dies and she finds herself next in line as the boss of a moribund yakuza clan. Wrenched from the security of her classroom and thrust into the heart of the criminal underworld, she must come to terms with the fact that her actions hold the key to the life or death of the men under her command as they come under fire from rival gangs.
Presented in both its Original Theatrical and longer Complete versions, and...
A perky high-schooler takes on the mob in “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun”, a one-of-a-kind genre-bender that riffs on the yakuza film, coming-of-age drama and ‘idol movie’, inventively adapted from Jiro Akagawa’s popular novel by director Shinji Somai, a massively influential figure in Japanese cinema whose work has been little seen outside his homeland.
Hoshi Izumi is a young innocent forced to grow up quickly when her father dies and she finds herself next in line as the boss of a moribund yakuza clan. Wrenched from the security of her classroom and thrust into the heart of the criminal underworld, she must come to terms with the fact that her actions hold the key to the life or death of the men under her command as they come under fire from rival gangs.
Presented in both its Original Theatrical and longer Complete versions, and...
- 8/29/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
After experiencing the permeating machismo of the Yakuza Papers Pentalogy, the opportunity to watch a film that actually parodied the yakuza ways, and even more, which had a girl for a protagonist, was more than welcome. “Sailor Suit and Machine Gun” is based on the homonymous, 1978 novel by Jiro Akagawa and stars pop idol Hiroko Yakushimaru, with her presence helping immensely in the appeal the film had in Japan, winning popularity awards for both the title and the protagonist from the Japanese Academy. Furthermore, the distribution income it generated was the biggest in the domestic market for 1982, while the theme song of the film, which was also sung by Yakushimaru, stayed at the 1st place of the weekly Oricon Singles Chart for five consecutive weeks.
Izumi Hoshi is a normal high school girl, until one day, and after a number of yakuza appear in the school she attends,...
Izumi Hoshi is a normal high school girl, until one day, and after a number of yakuza appear in the school she attends,...
- 12/8/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Stars: Masato Sakai, Mitsuki Takahata, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Min Tanaka, Jun Kunimura, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Tomokazu Miura, Sakura Ando, Tamao Nakamura, Koji Ohkura, Mayu Tsuruta | Written and Directed by Takashi Yamazaki
The honeymoon is over for newlyweds Akiko and Masakazu Isshiki, who’ve just moved into his family home in the quiet town of Kamakura. While her husband, an author of fantastic fiction, struggles with writers block, Akiko has to come to terms with the rough spots in a marriage – the misunderstandings, the doubts, her husbands obsessive toy-train hobby. And then there are the peculiarities of Kamakura, which, as Masakazu remarks offhandedly, has been a magnet for mystical energy for millennia. Ghosts, goblins, even a charming local death god amble through its streets, and what’s more, her husband moonlights as a “spectral investigator” for the local police! For such a sleepy little town, there are certainly a lot of strange things going on.
The honeymoon is over for newlyweds Akiko and Masakazu Isshiki, who’ve just moved into his family home in the quiet town of Kamakura. While her husband, an author of fantastic fiction, struggles with writers block, Akiko has to come to terms with the rough spots in a marriage – the misunderstandings, the doubts, her husbands obsessive toy-train hobby. And then there are the peculiarities of Kamakura, which, as Masakazu remarks offhandedly, has been a magnet for mystical energy for millennia. Ghosts, goblins, even a charming local death god amble through its streets, and what’s more, her husband moonlights as a “spectral investigator” for the local police! For such a sleepy little town, there are certainly a lot of strange things going on.
- 7/17/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Takashi Yamazaki is set to direct a third film in the Always franchise. The new film, Always: Sanchome no Yuhi ‘64, is set in the year of the Tokyo Summer Olympics and will be shot in full stereoscopic 3D.
Based on Ryohei Saigan’s manga “Sanchome no Yuhi - Yuyake no Uta”, the films present a nostalgic view of a bustling Tokyo neighborhood during post-occupation Japan. The first two installments, released in 2005 and 2007, were set in the late 50s as the Tokyo Tower was being built. The leap forward to 1964 was not part of the original manga, but Saigan signed off on the new film and even added some of his own ideas to the screenplay.
Returning cast members include Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Maki Horikita, Masako Motai, Tomokazu Miura, and Hiroko Yakushimaru.
Filming began on January 12 and will be completed by the end of April. Theatrical release is slated...
Based on Ryohei Saigan’s manga “Sanchome no Yuhi - Yuyake no Uta”, the films present a nostalgic view of a bustling Tokyo neighborhood during post-occupation Japan. The first two installments, released in 2005 and 2007, were set in the late 50s as the Tokyo Tower was being built. The leap forward to 1964 was not part of the original manga, but Saigan signed off on the new film and even added some of his own ideas to the screenplay.
Returning cast members include Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Maki Horikita, Masako Motai, Tomokazu Miura, and Hiroko Yakushimaru.
Filming began on January 12 and will be completed by the end of April. Theatrical release is slated...
- 1/20/2011
- Nippon Cinema
The official website for Nobuhiro Doi‘s Hanamizuki has been updated with a full trailer. The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song.
Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university, they attempt a long-distance relationship, but it’s ill-fated. However, a miracle occurs ten years later…
Toho will be releasing “Hanamizuki” in Japan on August 21, 2010.
Thanks to logboy for the heads up.
Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university, they attempt a long-distance relationship, but it’s ill-fated. However, a miracle occurs ten years later…
Toho will be releasing “Hanamizuki” in Japan on August 21, 2010.
Thanks to logboy for the heads up.
- 6/13/2010
- Nippon Cinema
The official website for Nobuhiro Doi‘s Hanamizuki has been updated with a teaser trailer. The teaser actually premiered on Japanese TV a few weeks ago, but it was predictably covered with morning news graphics and talked over by a chatty announcer.
The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song. Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university,...
The film is named after and inspired by a hit 2004 single by singer Yo Hitoto which is also used as the main theme song. Yui Aragaki stars as a Hokkaido high school student named Sae who lives with her mother Ryoko (Hiroko Yakushimaru) and dreams of attending a Tokyo university. Sae studies for her entrance exams while being watched over by the flowering dogwood tree (hanamizuki) planted by her father (Arata), who died when she was young. Eventually, she meets and falls in love with Kohei (Toma Ikuta), who is planning to stay in Hokkaido and become a fisherman like his father. When Sae leaves Hokkaido for university,...
- 4/18/2010
- Nippon Cinema
Shunsuke Kitami (Etsushi Toyokawa) is once the hottest photographer and during his life in early 40s he suddenly becoming so lazy that he have not touched his camera over the last one year since a trip to Okinawa with his wife Sakura (Hiroko Yakushimaru). Despite being persuaded by his assistant Makoto (Gaku Hamada) for him to return to work, Shunsuke's laziness remains and his womanizing behavior continues and this prompts Sakura to file for a divorce. One day Shunsuke tries to take advantage of an young actress, Ranko (Asami Mizukawa) after a photo session. At the same time Sakura arrives and he scrambles to look normal and ensure that nothing happens between both of them. Sakura wants Shunsuke to take last portrait of her while their divorce is being finalized. While developing the photo inside a dark room he sees one shot of Sakura running away from the camera and saying goodbye.
- 2/22/2010
- by simplyzane
- AsianMoviePulse
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