Japanese Movies/Discussion/Recommendations

gYoukame no Semih wins 36th Hochi Film Awards

Posted on November 28, 2011

The winners of the 36th Hochi Film Awards have been announced. Narushima Izurufs movie adaptation of gYoukame no Semih took the prize for Best Picture, and it also earned Nagasaku Hiromi the prize for Best Actress along with her other film gYoi ga Sametara, Uchi ni Kaerou.h

Sono Sionfs gTsumetai Nettaigyoh (gCold Fishh) also picked up two awards, including the title of Best Director. Special awards were given to 99-year-old director Shindo Kaneto for his final work and the late actor Harada Yoshio for his last movie.
¡Best Picture: Youkame no Semi
¡Best Foreign Film: Moneyball
¡Best Actor: Sakai Masato (gBushi no Kakeibo,h gNichirin no Isan,h gTsure ga Utsu ni Narimashiteh)
¡Best Actress: Nagasaku Hiromi (gYoi ga Sametara, Uchi ni Kaerou,h gYoukame no Semih)
¡Best Supporting Actor: Denden (gTsumetai Nettaigyoh)
¡Best Supporting Actress: Miyamoto Nobuko (gHankyu Densha: Katamichi 15-fun no Kisekih)
¡Best Director: Sono Sion (gTsumetai Nettaigyoh)
¡Best Newcomer: Sunada Mami (director of gEnding Noteh)
¡Special Awards: Harada Yoshio (gOshika-mura Soudoukih), Shindo Kaneto (gIchimai no Hagakih)

Sources:
Sports Hochi

Tu_triky wrote:Why? He doesn't eat in the film? :beaten:

He probably does: he wouldn't appear without guarantees. :mrgreen:

bmwracer wrote:
He probably does: he wouldn't appear without guarantees. :mrgreen:

Hopefully they give him enough booze so he can get sauced and run butt naked through the local park again to drum up some buzz for the film.

Tu_triky wrote:Hopefully they give him enough booze so he can get sauced and run butt naked through the local park again to drum up some buzz for the film.

Better yet, make it part of the film. :hehe:

bmwracer wrote:
Better yet, make it part of the film. :hehe:

:hehe: DVD extras.

Tu_triky wrote::hehe: DVD extras.

Back story. :mrgreen:

bmwracer wrote:
Back story. :mrgreen:

Well it'll be interesting to see how Ken Takakura figures in all this ;)

Katori Shingo, Hirosue Ryoko star in movie about comedian and popular TV dog Masao-kun

Posted on November 29, 2011

TV Tokyofs animal variety show gPet Daishuugou! Pochitama,h which was on the air from 2000 to 2010, will have its gMasao-kun ga Iku!!h segment turned into a theatrical film. The movie, titled gLOVE: Masao-kun ga Iku!,h will star SMAP member Katori Shingo, with Hirosue Ryoko as the female lead.

The movie is based on the life of comedian Matsumoto Hideki, who worked with the popular Labrador retriever Masao-kun before the dog died of cancer in 2006. Katori will play Matsumoto, an unsuccessful young comedian who one day meets Masao-kun and matures through their various experiences together. Hirosue will play the part of his girlfriend Satomi.

The story revolves around Matsumoto as he gets an offer to appear on an animal show. At first, he is enthusiastic about his work, but he is soon disappointed by the reality of being on a show where a dog is the star. Being used by Masao-kun, desperately trying to garner laughs from the audience, losing his comedy partner, and being dumped by his girlfriend whom he was living with, nothing seems to go right for Matsumoto.

One day, when Matsumoto gets injured on location, Masao-kun races to help him, and at that point he decides to form a duo with the dog. Things start going well for the show as they both rise in popularity. But one day, Masao-kunfs health turns poor, and he is diagnosed with illness. Around the same time, Matsumoto also hears a rumor that Satomi has returned to her home in the countryside and is about to get married.

The supporting cast includes Mitsuishi Ken as the showfs director, Narumi Riko as an assistant director, comedian Kinoshita Takayuki (TKO), comedienne Okubo Kayoko, Kanda Romu (Rome Kanda), Asano Kazuyuki, Hidari Tokie, and Terajima Susumu.

Otani Kentaro (gNANAh) is directing. Filming has been under way since last month and is expected to finish in December. Theatrical release is scheduled for June 23, 2012.

Sources:
Mantan Web
Cinema Today

Just watched Goemon. Despite historical inaccuracies and some unbelievable stunts, overall it was a really good movie. I enjoyed the action and the plot.

mrsmith10 wrote:Just watched Goemon. Despite historical inaccuracies and some unbelievable stunts, overall it was a really good movie. I enjoyed the action and the plot.

Visually it was very nice. The action was good too.

Abe Sadao stars in island survival movie gPaikaji Nankai Sakusenh

November 30, 2011

Shiina Makotofs novel gPaikaji Nankai Sakusen,h described as a gmodern-day Robinson Crusoe,h is getting a movie adaptation next year. Abe Sadao will take on the starring role, supported by Nagayama Kento, Kanjiya Shihori, and Sasaki Nozomi.

The story revolves around a cameraman named Sasaki who experiences a layoff and a divorce at the same time. He decides to try a fresh start by going to one of Japanfs southern islands, but after getting drunk with a group of campers, he wakes up to find that all of his money and luggage have been stolen. As a result, he begins living an odd life of survival on the island, along with the citified young man Okkochi (Nagayama), the Kansai-ben speaking Apa (Kanjiya) and Kimi (Sasaki).

This will be the first feature-length film directed by television writer Hosokawa Toru. The movie was shot entirely on the island of Iriomote between November 1 and November 27. Theatrical release is scheduled for the summer of 2012.

Source:
Eiga.com

Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins" Makes National Board of Review's Top Films List
Violent Period Piece Finds a Place in Top 5 Foreign Language List

Scott Green
December 02, 2011

The prestigious National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has named the recipients of its annual honors. Takashi Miike's hyper-violent samurai battle royale 13 Assassins joins Brazilian anti-crime special forces film Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, university based Israeli drama Footnote, Finnish illegal immigrant dramady Le Havre and French thriller Point Blank in the Board's Top 5 Foreign Language Films list.

sucigam wrote:Recently watched Still Walking . Bittersweet family drama starring a couple crowd favourites here (Natsukawa Yui and Abe Hiroshi). I recommend it, nice little film.

Watched this yesterday. Not bad, like you said, nice little film. Although the real star of the movie is Kirin Kiki as Abe's mom. She's the glue that holds it together and is the most interesting character in the movie.

Was also surprised to see "Dotch Cooking" idiot savant YOU as Abe's sister. She was pretty good, not nearly as ditzy as she is in real life.

gaijinmark wrote:

Watched this yesterday. Not bad, like you said, nice little film. Although the real star of the movie is Kirin Kiki as Abe's mom. She's the glue that holds it together and is the most interesting character in the movie.

Was also surprised to see "Dotch Cooking" idiot savant YOU as Abe's sister. She was pretty good, not nearly as ditzy as she is in real life.

Really worth-watching, IMO.

gaijinmark wrote:Was also surprised to see "Dotch Cooking" idiot savant YOU as Abe's sister. She was pretty good, not nearly as ditzy as she is in real life.

:rofl:

Guess that means she's a pretty good actress.

Tu_triky wrote:Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins" Makes National Board of Review's Top Films List
Violent Period Piece Finds a Place in Top 5 Foreign Language List

Scott Green
December 02, 2011

The prestigious National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has named the recipients of its annual honors. Takashi Miike's hyper-violent samurai battle royale 13 Assassins joins Brazilian anti-crime special forces film Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, university based Israeli drama Footnote, Finnish illegal immigrant dramady Le Havre and French thriller Point Blank in the Board's Top 5 Foreign Language Films list.

Congrats to Miike, but "hyper-violent"? C'mon now...

Mark Schillings' review of "Yubewa wo Hametai"

It has both Yoko Maki and Manami Konishi so I'll be on the lookout for it!

'Yubiwa wo Hametai (Looking For a True Fiance)'

You don't need to be concussed to get married, but it helps

By MARK SCHILLING

An average guy, I once read, could have a reasonably happy married life with any one of the thousands of single women out there on the streets of Tokyo. This, of course, is the opposite of the Platonic ideal embraced by Carrie, the heroine of the American series "Sex and the City," who, through dozens of dates and boyfriends, is relentless in her pursuit of The One.

Yubiwa wo Hametai (Looking For a True Fiancee)

Rating: (3 out of 5)

The befuddled hero of Yuki Iwata's quirky romantic comedy "Yubiwa wo Hametai (Looking For a True Fiancee)" shares Carrie's quest, but discovers, to his horror, that three women, all seeming strangers, are vying for the honor of being his bride.

Based on an Akutagawa Prize-winning novel by Takami Ito, the film begins as a dryly funny flight of fancy but takes a dreamily serious, poignant turn as the hero gains in knowledge, but can't give up his ideal of the perfect woman he thinks — or imagines? — he once knew.

He is Teruhiko Katayama (Takayuki Yamada), a 29-year-old salesman of drugs for the medicine boxes Japanese traditionally keep in their homes and businesses — a job that, in an era of big-box drugstores, has become comically quaint.

One day, Teruhiko falls and hits his head on the ice of a skating rink he services. Waking up in a clinic, he claims to remember everything — save the intended recipient of a diamond ring he was carrying in his bag.

Frantic, he goes in search of his one and only, aided by the tart counsel of Emi (Fumi Nikaido), a teen skater at the rink. In the course of his quest he meets Chie (Manami Konishi), a gorgeous but intimidatingly icy company senpai (senior); Megumi (Yoko Maki), a breezily friendly sex worker; and Wakako (Chizuru Ikewaki), a gently solicitous, if ditzy, street puppeteer.

When he realizes that they are all making goo-goo eyes at him, for reasons he can't recall, he decides to date them to figure out which was the one he'd actually proposed to.

An illustrator-turned-director who made her feature debut with 2007's teen drama "Remon no Koro (The Graduates)," Iwata evidences a surreal visual flair in the early scenes especially, as in the dreamy shot of revolving shadows resolving into spinning ice skaters to injured Teruhiko's woozy eyes.

She also has fun with the oddball characters and their absurd situations without turning them into total jokes. Instead she regards them with a certain tenderness.

Even Teruhiko, whose treatment of his three flames can be piggish, is sympathetically viewed as a hapless romantic who, like the director hero in Federico Fellini's "8½," can't find all he wants in a woman from a single person, but can't help searching.

The film's middle section slows as complications proliferate, including revelations about the hero's pretrauma love life; but as the fog clears, the film takes on the haunting, wistful atmosphere of a dream that ends with fugitive longing and regrets.

Yamada, who has played everything from the date-o-phobic nerd in 2005's "Densha Otoko (Train Man)" to the degenerate gambler in 2010's "Shisaido Moteru (The Seaside Motel)," mixes his trademark look of pop-eyed desperation and surprise with quieter, more reflective notes, as the hero clues in to his own cluelessness.

The women in this poor mope's life, we see, are all winners in their own sweetly flawed ways. But which is The One? How to decide?

Somehow Teruhiko has to, or decisions will be made for him, won't they? Romance is like that, whether you remember it or not.

^ Hmm, I'll have to be on the lookout for this at asiandvdclub... Hope it'll have English subs. :fingerscrossed:

EDIT: Official web site: http://www.yubiwa-movie.com/

DVD Beaver comparison of 13 Assassins: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_reviews55/13_assassins.htm

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bmwracer wrote:DVD Beaver comparison of 13 Assassins: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film3/dvd_reviews55/13_assassins.htm

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I recently saw Zatoichi: The Blindswordsman (1989), although I liked it I think 13 Assassins is a far better jidaigeki film.