Tokyo Sonata is a sort of odd little picture. Sort of funny, sort of serious, sort of sad… You come away feeling all of these, but in the end you never really get that… punch that you’d like to have. Salaryman Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job to downsizing. Rather than suffer the shame [...]
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 [...]
Nobody Knows | 誰も知らない (2004) Nobody Knows is a sad movie. Just getting that part out of the way right now. Supposedly based on real events (which makes it that much sadder) it’s definitely got potential as a real tear-jerker. When the incredibly annoying and daft Keiko (“You”) relocates yet again to a new apartment, [...]
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 [...]
US Title: Marebito Japanese Title: 稀人 (“Rare Person?” Makes sense I guess… Better would be “Barely Human” I think…) Take a dash of Dante’s Hell allusions, some modern surveillance tech, creepy myths about subterranean underworlds, vampirism, phobias, throw it all together, and you get Marebito. After freelance videographer Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) captures a guy knifing [...]
US Title: Cafe Lumière Japanese Title: 珈琲時光 (rough trans: Coffee “Light Time? Time to Shine?” Guessing that its a representation of “Lumière”, from the French, “light.” See note below.) Alright, so I’ll break away from the opening “horror” theme for a bit. Can’t go getting all typecast or anything. Cafe Lumiere is not a particularly [...]
