100en no koi / 100 Yen Love

Even with a sharp script by Shin Adachi, director Masaharu Take doesn’t quite pull of the complex balance of something between an homage and a send-up of Million Dollar Baby – not quite getting the effective tragedy out of tragic-comedy. And bringing a questionable sensibility to what should be funny. The story of Kazuko (Sakura Ando), a loser taking her one shot in the boxing ring sends up the usual hero dynamic. Ando, who is being dangerously typecast for her ennui, spends half of the film as a misdirected cliché of a downbeat slacker, stuck working in a convenience store after escaping from her family and her largely unexplained dysfunctionality. Kazuko meets Kano (Hirofumi Arai), a washed up boxer and strangely unattractive individual, who needy person that she is, ends up with. This pushes her into her attempt at Rocky-ness and finding self worth. 100 Yen Love has several moments – the boxing ring scenes are great – and a lot of filler that keeps the viewer wondering what Take is up to.

Originally published in EL Magazine, December 2014

0.5mm / 0.5 Miri / 0.5ミリ

Momoko Ando’s second feature, 0.5mm shows that she’s grown, but not a lot since her pallid debut, Kakera. She adapted her own novel, creating an overlong picaresque tale of Sawa (Sakura Ando), a young woman caught up in the inequities of life and set adrift in the sad, strange world of geriatric Japan. It starts great. Sawa, working as a nurse, is cajoled into spending the night with her barely functioning keep. He gets a little horny and accidently gets set on fire. As she tries to save him he dies. She stumbles downstairs to find his daughter, her employer, has hung herself – her son staring in disbelief. Soon Sawa is on the road on her own, crossing with and taking advantage of a series of lost old men. Her adventures come to a full circle with an unconvincing denouement that closes up a family trauma and makes some vague statement about gender roles in Japan. Ando highlights some great actors, but little character development and 3+ hours make 0.5mm a challenge at best.

Originally published in EL Magazine, November 2014.

Ieji / The Way Home / 家路

Nao Kubota’s premier feature, Ieji, has a great premise, a host of great actors and particularly cogent message for post 3.11 Japan, but falls flat in its unisnspired direction and its length. Not that Kubota’s heart isn’t in the right place. The story pits Jiro (Kenichi Matsuyama) and his brother, Soichi (Masaaki Uchino) against the reality of life in the shadows of the Fukushima meltdown. Jiro, young, single, with a troubled past has moved back within the no-man’s zone surrounding the stricken reactor to rebuild and replant. His older brother, Soichi, is still living in cramped temporary housing with his wife (Sakura Ando), daughter and mother (Yuko Tanaka). The conflicts around individual and collective responsibility, family ties and the future of Tohoku are given the perfect opportunity to be played out. Even with his incredibly fine cast, though, Kubota doesn’t give them much room to breathe deeply, though he give them plenty of Ozu-ish time to appear meaningful. Flat and flawed as it is, Ieji is still better than most films dealing with 3.11.

Originally published in EL Magazine, March 2014. 

Kazoku no kuni / Our Homeland

Director Yong-hi Yang, who has explored issues of her own Korean/Japanese family in documentaries, brings a fresh focus with her first feature fiction, Kazoku no kuni. The film follows the tale of  Sonho (Iura Arata), a man who emigrated to North Korea from Japan in the 1970s, following an invitation to a better life there. In reality many Korean expats and Korean/Japanese did this from the 1950s through the 70s. In Kazoku no kuni he returns to Japan to get an operation, reuniting with his old family and particularly his sister, Rie (Sakura Ando). A powerful drama unfolds as Sonho tries to convince his sister to go to North Korea with him. The family dynamics are carefully etched with Yong-hi Yang’s sure direction. The leads, Ando and Arata, take on difficult and complex issues of nationalism, identity and family ties, giving them life through generous and deep portrayals. The supporting cast fills out the edges and details of this superbly crafted and heartfelt exploration of a little seen part of contemporary history.

Originally published in EL Magazine, August 2012.

10 Best Japanese Films 2010

Here, my friends, is my list of the 10 Best Japanese Films of 2010. The astute viewer may note that Koji Wakamatsu’s Caterpillar, one of the most lauded of Japanese films this year is missing from this list. OK, OK, I missed any screenings of it, missed the theatrical run and haven’t seen it yet on DVD. Apologies.

Also, a couple of films that I saw this year, Live Tape and Bare Essence of Life / Ultra Miracle Love Story, by any measure should be on this list, but were actually released in 2009, so I made a somewhat arbitrary decision to leave them off. My apologies to Tetsuaki Matsue and Satoko Yokohama, the fine filmmakers who crafted those two films.

Unfortunately, many of these movies may never cross the pond to the USA, but a positive trend is that over the last year more and more Japanese DVD releases are featuring English subtitling. However, wherever and whenever you can catch these films, by all means do, subtitled or not.

Haru to no tabi / Haru’s Journey

Tatsuya Nakadai’s performance as a cranky proud old man hitting the hard roads of Japan, humbling himself before his brothers and sister in hopes of one of them taking him in, shows an actor hitting new heights. Sure, he was brilliant in Harakiri and transcendent in Ran, but in Haru to no tabi he becomes sublimely human. Director Masahiro Kobayashi’s cold-eyed look at family dynamics and the current state of Japan finds him moving away from his strong formalism into a less austere style. He’s still austere here, but there’s not a single shot wasted in this heartfelt journey.

Website (Japanese)

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Kaitanshi Jokei / Sketches of Kaitan City

This has been a year for directors trying to make their marks with big sprawling Babel-esque sagas. Kazuhoshi Kumakiri’s beautifully shot and moving Sketches of Kaitan City takes a similar scenario, but the 5 stories don’t so much intersect as they fall on the same plot of ground, the fictional Kaitan City. The stories do build upon and against each other, though, weaving a tapestry of frayed and embattled lives. Sketches of Kaitan City is downbeat, near despair, but ultimately on the side of the survivors.

Website (Japanese)

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Nudo no yoru: Ai wa oshiminaku ubau / Night in Nude: Salvation

Night in Nude: Salvation is the ostensible sequel to the 1993 film of the same name. Starring Naoto Takenaka (the funny bald guy in Shall We Dance) as a hard-boiled everyman caught in a blood-soaked and perverse chain of events. Director Takashi Ishii, a sort of psychotronic Hitchcock-channelling prankster, puts Takenaka through a dark night of the soul that’s grisly, crazy and way fun. Standout performances abound from Takenaka himself, a trio of avenging hostess bar angels (Shinobu Otake, Harumi Inoe and Hiroko Sato) and good old Joe Shishido, mumbling through a role as a perpetually drunk incestuous mobster.

Website (Japanese)

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Torso

Kore-eda’s longtime cinematographer, Yutaka Yamazaki, made his directoral debut this year with Torso. Following in the footsteps of Air Doll, Yamazaki takes on a story of a human loving a sex toy with a much different outcome than Kore-eda’s opus. Makiko Watanabe aces the role of a alienated woman “in love” with a blow-up male torso. Rising star Sakura Ando, playing her sister adds to the tension when discovers her secret desire. All in all, a taught and forgiving drama that makes loving an armless, headless, legless torso make sense.

Website (Japanese)

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Peace

Kazuhiro Soda expands his vision of observational documentary with Peace. Taking on the big issue of peace, Soda finds his metaphors and images in the quotidian. Following his parents-in-law through their daily routine – dad taking care of stray cats and driving physically-challenged townsfolk in the back of his van to appointments, mom making visits to housebound retirees to make sure they’re taking care of themselves – Soda slyly coaxes out the big picture of what peace means to the humans and felines in question. Peace is filmmaking without a net, taking chances, going to unexpected places – and succeeding.

Kazuhiro Soda’s Blog (Japanese and English)

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nude

Yuichi Onuma, at last count, made no less than 3 movies this year, nude being his best realized. Based on the best selling autobiography by AV (Adult Video) star Mihara, nude chronicles a classic story of small-town girl coming to the big city, taken in by a tout, becoming an idoru (idol), and working her way through pinku to hard-core roles. nude works in not sensationalizing, but in drawing out the inner drama of a woman making adult choices and exploring the emotional cost of those choices.

Website (Japanese)

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Kawa no soko kara konnichiwa / Sawako Decides

Sawako Decides plays it broad and slyly at the same time. Yuuya Ishii’s comedy is full of stupid funny bits, but ultimately builds a subversive theme where the heroes of the story find their transcendence and their inner peace through their mediocrity. While laughing one’s way to the decidedly depressing denouement, Ishii builds a perverse case for Japanese unexceptionalism through an exceptional person who just doesn’t realize it.

Website (Japanese)

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Ichimai no hagaki / Postcard

At 98 years old, Kaneto Shindo still shows he’s got the chops and the smarts to pull off an incisive anti-war film, Postcard. The acting is expressionistic, the situations stilted, theatrical and broad, the pacing delirious – everything that modern entertainments are not. With strong central characters played by Etsushi Toyokawa and Shinobu Otake, the tragedy of a woman who loses one, then a second husband to the war  (then her step-parents!)  builds to a magical reconciliation – all the while keeping strong in its anti-nationalistic and pacifistic stand. Shindo has said that this will be his last movie. Let’s hope not.

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Noruwei no mori / Norwegian Wood

Ahn Hung Tran’s long awaited adaptation of Haruki Murakimi’s novel Norwegian Wood was all the big buzz in Japanese cinema this year. No matter the director is Vietnamese, now based in Paris. The adaption is solid. The acting is top-notch. The cinematography and production design evocative of a time where thing were not necessarily simpler. There are standout performances by Kenichi Matsuyama and Rinko Kikuchi, but particularly by newcomer, Kiko Mizuhara.

Website (Japanese)

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Heaven’s Story

The first 2 hours of Takahisa Zeze’s Heaven’s Story are brilliant – as are much of the remaining 2 and half hours. Unfortunately the film eventually implodes while tying up it’s many loose ends. It’s added to this list, not because it’s necessarily a great film – it’s not – but for its consistently great acting and moments, and dare I say a few hours of truly incredible filmmaking.

Website (Japanese)

Torso / トルソー

Longtime Koreeda cinematographer (Nobody Knows, After Life) Yutaka Yamazaki’s first directorial effort, Torso, plows some similar ground to Koreeda’s Air Doll, but to much different effect. Torso covers the relationship between 2 half-sisters. The older one, Hiroko (Makiko Watanabe) is an uptight, disengaged urban survivor, whose only relationship is with an inflatable male torso. Her secret life of bathing, frolicking and having sex with this headless, armless and legless prosthetic is rudely interrupted when her half-sister, Mina (Sakura Ando) – all extroverted enthusiasm and blabber – appears at her doorstep running from her abusive boyfriend, the one person, or rather body, that never physically appears in the film. The torso and continuing variations of objectified bodies – perfume bottles, pillows, a dress-making mannequin and a gravure idol – becomes the underlying leitmotif of this sensitively rendered portrait of how individuals come to terms with their issues and problems.  The “strange” sexuality of blow-up doll attraction is rendered somewhat positively. Watanabe and Ando are perfectly cast and directed with a strained chemistry that once binds and separates them.

Originally published in EL Magazine, July 2010

SR: Saitama no rappa 2 – Joshi rappâ Kizudarake no raimu / ＳＲサイタマノラッパー２ 女子ラッパー☆傷だらけのライム / SR: Saitama Rappers 2: Chick Rappers’ Hurtful Rhyme

Last year, SR: Saitama no rappa (AKA 8000 Miles), a downbeat and quirky comedy about hip hop nerds trying to make their mark in the wastelands of Saitama. Directed by Yu Irie, with the imprimatur of being the grand prizewinner at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, the film deservedly became a small cult favorite. With Saitama no rappa 2 (AKA 8000 Miles 2 – Girls Rapper) Irie breaks no new ground and in fact, basically retreads 8 Mile and the sort of self-effacing dysfunctional rap boasting that Eminem pioneered. In this case it’s a crew of decidedly amateur girl rappers who dream of a small big-time.  The film opens with Saitama 1 B-boys, Ikku and Tom coming to town. They run into young Ayoma (Maho Yamada), inspiring her to gather her girlfriends and work up their rap routine. There are some hilarious moments, particularly when the boys and girls meet up for a freestyle put down – the boys building a rap around “fuck Gunma.” Yamada shines in a fun, but clichéd, sequel. Watch out for #3!

Originally published in EL Magazine, July 2010

Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni / ケンタとジュンとカヨちゃんの国 / A Crowd of Three

A Crowd of Three begins follows the story of Kenta (Shota Matsuda) and Jun (Kengo Kora), two brutalized and brutal buddies who decide to break free from their dead-end jobs and hit the road in a stolen truck to find Kenta’s imprisoned brother. A pivotal scene when they decide to make their getaway frames them amidst unfinished expressways, telegraphing their fool’s errand. Though Matsuda and Kora are uniformly good in their roles, the machinations of the story, unconvincing psychology and an unrepentant misogyny begin to the cripple the film. Even the usually brilliant Sakura Ando as the simpering and continually abused girlfriend, Kayo-chan is left only with a set of mannerisms to carry her role. As the film unravels, moments of downbeat sentiment surface, particularly when they finally make it to see the prison-broken brother. However, director Tatsushi Omori (Whispering of Gods) throws it all away with not one, but two endings. This plot device, popular among many young Japanese directors, rarely works and certainly doesn’t with A Crowd of Three.

Originally published in EL Magazine, May 2010