Hm. Kurosawa? Check. Toshiro Mifune? Check. Samurai action? Check. Humor? Check. Hm. Must be the sequel to Yojimbo, Sanjuro.
Yeah, but I didn’t get a lot out of this one. Once again Mifune returns as the nameless ronin, this time taking the name of “Tsubaki Sanjuro”…. And pretty much does the same thing here that he [...]
The Ramen Girl (2008)
No I suppose this isn’t a “Japanese Movie” per se. It does take place in Tokyo, and a great deal of it is in Japanese, so humor me.
Abby (the late Brittany Murphy) gets dumped by her boyfriend in Tokyo, and in a fit of desparation, gets taken in by a local Ramen [...]
Ping Pong (2002)
How in the hell can you make a decent, funny movie about ping pong? Well, they’ve done it. Ping Pong chronicles the exploits of two table tennis masters: The timid and reserved “Smile” Tsukimoto” (Arata) and the over-the-top “Peco” Hoshino (Yosuke Kubozuka) as they battle through life and their high school ping pong [...]
US Title: Big Man Japan
Japanese Title: 大日本人 (lit. “Big Japanese Person”)
If I have to pick one word to describe Big Man Japan, its “weird.” Another would be “funny”. Yet another would be “AWESOME!”
I guess you could say this is kinda-sorta the Japanese version of “Hancock.” Although without the crappy attitude and Wil Smith (or Charlize!) [...]
US Title: The Machine Girl
Japanese Title: 片腕マシンガール (One armed Mashin Gaaru)
Continuing on with the Halloween/J-Horror theme, I bring you… well, I’m not quite sure what to make of this. The Machine Girl is a twisted film spanning a few genre’s really, typical Tokyo “splatter” horror, comedy, and action.
Although it really doesn’t pull off any of [...]
