Tag Archives: japanese

A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere. An odd young man is arrested near the scene of the latest murder, who has a strange effect on everyone who comes into contact with him. Detective Takabe starts a series of interrogations to determine the man’s connection with the killings.
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Lazy girl Satomi is assigned a stint, against her wishes, to her school’s Robot Club. However, it’s not the premiere club that she got assigned to, but the “B” team where the team members are hardly cooperative, made up of a motley bunch of losers.
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When a married man begins an affair with a woman from his past, he comes to suspect her young son intends to murder him.
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In the best traditions of Japanese mystery stories which place fiendishly elaborate plots at their centre, Murder at the Doll House more than succeeds as a classic detective story. We’re presented with a set of strange occurrences which our master sleuth will explain to us in a long lecture at the end and even if one or two twists are a little obvious, the satisfaction involved in having figured them out ahead of time outweighs any kind of disappointment. Toshio may say he wants to be like Philip Marlowe but in actuality his detective is a little more in the European mould – almost like a more active Poirot or a slightly less obtuse Sherlock Holmes. Still, donning a trench coat with a turned up collar yet eschewing the classic hat which would have obscured his giant ‘70s perm, Matsuda once again turns in a very “cool” performance as super smart private eye.
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A bunch of young angry misfits and hoods who aren’t quite up to joining the yakuza, hatch and execute a variety of petty scams. The youngest, a high school student who has a way with women, is approached by a yakuza and asked to spy for them.
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A demon-faced monster seeking revenge appears in the forms of a gigantic ox and a huge spider! The young Genji warrior protects the Fujiwara Clan and the beautiful lady in tragic love! A grand visual epic told with mesmerizing extravagance!
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A Tokyo man witnesses the death by poisoning of his grandfather, and travels to his hometown of Yattsu Mura to find the killer. Centuries ago, the town was the site of a massacre, and is now the stalking ground of a mysterious serial killer…
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A naively honorable samurai (played by Raizo) comes to the bitter realization that his devotion to moral samurai principles makes him an oddity among his peers, and a very vulnerable oddity in consequence. He takes the blame for the misdeeds of others, with the understanding that he will be exiled for one year and restored to the clan’s good graces after the political situation dies down. As betrayal begins to heap upon betrayal, he realizes he’ll have to live out his life as a master-less ronin, if not hunted down and killed.
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In International Gangs of Kobe the opposite occurs; it’s Sugawara’s presence that brings out Takakura’s ruthless side. Although the two start off as allied gang members, Kobe proves too small a town for the giants of yakuza cinema. The gang splits into rival factions and Takakura and Sugawara settle their differences with violence. Tons of action and a notable cast make the unexceptional International Gangs of Kobe a load of silly yakuza fun.
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The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On is a brilliant exploration of memory and war guilt, a subject often ignored in modern Japan. In this controversial documentary, Kazuo Hara follows Kenzo Okuzaki in his real-life struggle against Emperor Hirohito. He proudly declares that he shot BBs at the Royal Palace, distributed pornographic images of the Emperor, and once killed a man for the sake of his strange crusade. As the film progresses, Okuzaki reveals a gruesome mystery: why were some Japanese officers killing their own soldiers during WWII? What happened to their bodies? Okuzaki begs, cajoles, and occasionally beats the story out of elderly veterans. When these old men do break down and talk, their testimonies are some of the most chilling, riveting descriptions of wartime desperation ever committed to film. In his desire to unearth these horrors, Okuzaki’s behavior grows increasingly extreme and bizarre. By the film’s end, Hara seems to ask whether the terrible nature of this buried incident is worth the violence of Okuzaki’s methods.
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Beautiful young Chieko is hired as assistant manager at the office of a large corporation. Her boss is an oversexed married man whose advances and behavior make her uncomfortable. When she finds out from the other girls in the office that they have had the same problem with him, they get together and come up with a special plan to get their revenge.
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In ancient Japan, a good lord is killed and his throne is taken by the trecherous Yuki Daijo and his wizard friend Oroki-maru. The young prince Ikazuki-maru is rescued from the jaws of death by a magic bird sent by a wizard. Ten years later, Ikazuki-maru embarks on an adventure to avenge his parents and the wizard’s death with his magic powers he learned from the wizard. He kills Yuki Daijo but then must battle Oroki-maru in a battle to the death.
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Yumi, an exceptionally beautiful call girl, has a close call with death when a client forces her to die with him. An old cop pities her and agrees to be her guarantor so that she could join a Nishijin weaver workshop. Yumi wishes to put her dark past behind her, but she’s exposed by an ex-client. Despite the unwavered support of the old cop, she sees no way out and uses her seductive body again to get what she wants. Hiroyuki, her co-worker at the weaver workshop, is a pure-hearted young man who may redeem Yumi from her deadly path as a femme fatale.
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Family and friends of the late Shuzo Miwa have gathered for his annual memorial service, this one marking the seventh anniversary of his passing. Three of his long time friends – married Shuzo Taguchi, married Soichi Mamiya, and widowed Seiichiro Hirayama – have long known and admitted to each other that they have always been attracted to his widow, Akiko Miwa, who they believe has gotten even more beautiful as she has matured. The three friends take it upon themselves to find a husband for the Miwa’s now twenty-four year old daughter, Ayako Miwa, who they believe as beautiful as her mother, and who, as a pure innocent, deserves a good husband. Their self-appointed task is despite them knowing that Ayako does not want them to do so. She doesn’t want to get married, at least not yet, as she struggles with her traditional sensibilities in post-war modern Japan. Her first priority as she sees it is to take care of her widowed mother, who would be alone if she were to get married.
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Fujishita Kumi is an ordinary office lady. Longing to escape her poor fishing village for a life in the city, she came to Tokyo. One day while alone in the office, she’s spotted rolling up her pantyhose by the window cleaner Kurata Katsuo. This was to be their first encounter. Completely enchanted by Kumi, Katsuo does everything he can to get close to her. He’s is a man with a terrible past. With the death of his coal miner father, his family was broken up and he was forced to follow in his father’s footsteps laboring away in the mud. In spite of this, Katsuo still has dreams. He dreams of living in Resiporuko, a utopian fantasyland that exists only in his imagination.
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