In the year 2199 the earth has been under attack for 5 years by the evil aliens the Gamilus, and they have turned the Earth into a irradiated planet without a chance for life, and humans have moved underground to live. An Earth Defense Force Fleet led by Captain Jyuzo Okita (Yamazaki Tsutomu). His fleet is destroyed, and he is saved by another captain Kodai Mamoru (Tsutsumi Shinichi) who dies to save his commander. Fighter pilot Mori Yuki (Kuroki Meisa) also survives. On Earth former Ace Pilot Kodai Susumu, Mamoru’s younger brother works searching for hidden metals on Earth’s surface, but while out, something crashes, and he finds a probe, but is badly irradidated, and should die. He is saved by Okita’s ship, but blames the captain for his brother’s death. The doctor Sado (Takashima Reiko who is OK, but not as good as the older male character from the Anime) thinks Kodai should die. The message contains plans for a new engine, and space coordinates. Okita gets the Earth defense to let him have the Earths last Battleship the Yamato with the new engine, to instead of evacuate Earth with the best and brightest to follow the plans to give Earth Hope, and they ask Civilians to volunteer.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Kodai volunteers, and gets back his position as Black Tiger Commander, though pissing off Yuki. His old squad happily join him, though Yuki hates it. They are taking the former Japanese battleship Yamato, which has been refurnished with the new specs, and which destroys a Gamilus missile as it about to destroy them.

The Yamato makes it’s first warp thanks to it’s pilot, and Yuki is almost killed, but Kudai goes out saves her, but Okita has Kodai locked up for disobeying orders. Meanwhile the crew is allowed a minute to contact their families, though Kodai has no one to talk to.

After a warp they find a lone Gamilus ship, and take it in, and the Alien attacks, and when they shoot it, a crystal forms and the ground commando Saito Hajime (Ikeuchi Hiroyuchi) is possessed by the Gamilus leader Dessler (Ibu Masato), Kodai stuns Saito, and kills the alien.

Okita passes out, and hands command to Kodai. THe fighter they took in has a homing beacon, and they are attacked. A Gamilus ship is locked onto the 3rd bridge, and Kodai orders Yuki to shoot it and save the ship, killing the 6 crew members. Yuki is crushed, and Kodai goes to apologize and they kiss.

They are attacked again as they arrive to Iskandar, and their main weapon the Wave Motion Gun is plugged up, so they can’t use it. They have to randomly warp, and end up on the far side of Iskandar, seeing it looks just like Earth after the radiation attack. They go down to see the coordinates they were given with Kodai leading the way in his Cosmo Zero fighter.

Most of the fighters are destroyed, but Kodai, Yuki and the ground forces make it in, and go in a tank. They are mostly killed, and Yuki is taken over by the Iskandaran’s, who are a branch of the same race as Gamilus, but they want peace, and are willing to die instead of killing another race to save themselves, and they go in Yuki to save Earth from the Radiation. Sanda (Yanagiba Toshiro) and Saito (Ikueuchi Hiroyuki) go to destroy the Dessler power source and die, but destroy it, while Kodai and Yuki make it back to the Yamato with the Gamilus defeated.

The Yamato arrives back at Earth, but a Gamilus ship arrives and sends a missile to Earth. The Gamilus leader shows up on the Yamato to tell them that he has defeated them, and Kodai sends the crew off to Earth with Yuki to save the Earth. Yuki does not want to leave, but Kodai makes her go, and he crashes the Yamato into the missile as he fires the blocked wave motion gun, destroying the enemy, the Yamato and himself, but saving Yuki and the Earth.

•••

I hate the changes. They are pointless. I am OK with Yuki being an ace pilot, but they gave her bridge stuff to another woman for no reason. Dr Sado is a younger woman for no reason. And the Dessler are nothing like themselves in the Anime, and there is no twin planets with Lady Starsha saving humans and Kodai’s brother being alive. And Kodai killing himself to save the Earth is horrible, and is like the horrible Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato.

This could have been much better if they just followed the original great story, instead of changing it for no reason whatsoever.

Ichi (Ayase Haruka from Cyborg She) is a poor homeless goze singer, a blind singer and entertainer who has been cast out of her home. We know this happens when a goze singer has relations with a man, but we are not shown exactly what happened to her, but she is not an ordinary goze singer, she is also a master swordsman who uses a unique underhand sword style, and the power of her amazingly trained ears to dispatch any opponent. She is taking shelter at the house of another cast out goze, this one now now working as a prostitute. The gangster who sleeps with her does not pay though, and she is beaten by him and his two men. Ichi does nothing, but then they see her, and she is much more beautiful than the other, so they begin to bother her. She is about to draw her sword, when the slightly bumbling Toma (Osawa Takao) shows up and challenges them, but then starts shaking when he tries to draw his sword, so he tries to buy them off. They take the money, and then plan to kill him anyway, but Ichi quickly dispatches all three. Toma is blown away and starts following her, and he says he lost all his money because of her (it was cut in half when she killed the Yakuza). They run into a kid while going into town, who takes them to a gambling house. Toma tries to earn some money, and Ichi gives him hints, using her exceptional ears, earning back his 10 ryo. As they leave some gangsters come on them and are going to kill them for the money, but Ichi quickly kills them all. The local town chief’s son comes upon them, this is Shirakawa Toraji (Yosuke Kubozuka) who thinks that Toma has done it, and hires him as the family bodyguard to protect them from the evil Banki (Nakamura Shido) and his henchmen.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ichi sticks around as she has heard of a rumor of a blind master swordsman coming to town to entertain an official who will be arriving, and she hopes it is her master. We learn that she was raised by a blind swordsman (I am assuming this is Zatoichi) who trained her in the ways of the sword, and then had her installed as a goze. He still came and visited her, and taught her the sword though, but she has not seen him in years, and especially since she has been cast out, and wants to find out if he is in fact her father.

At the goze she was raped, and when she confronted the man, he attacked her and she killed him, so she was cast out of the one place where she was truly happy.

Toma is held up highly by Toraji and his men, but when the battle comes he can’t draw his sword, and causes more harm than good, and Toraji’s father is killed.

He goes out and finds Ichi, and ends up dueling her with a wooden stick, with which he bests her. His father was a master swordsman who ran a school, and as a child he accidentally blinded his mother with a sword, and has not been able to draw a sword since. His father ended up adopting his best student as his son and heir and Toma has been wandering for the last 5 years trying to be able to draw his sword again.

Ichi ends up learning that Banki knew the blind swordsman, so she goes to confront him, but is captured by his men, and locked up. Banki wants to break her and make her his woman, and he says he knew her father, who died of a sickness.

Toma comes and with the kid and his father manages to escape with the wounded Ichi. Ichi realizes she has feelings for Toma for the first time, and this may be a reason to live, as her only previous one was to find her master and see if he was her father. She awakens to find Toma is gone.

Toma is with Toraji in town at the final big battle between the two gangs. Toma still is having trouble drawing his sword, but finally manages when he goes to fight Banki, and the two strike each other down.

Ichi rushes to Toma and holds him as he dies, and he tells her to please live, for him, and then dies (this is the point I figured out early, that he must die, so she can wander at the end, or this could only be a one shot). Banki is not dead though, and he gets up, but Ichi cuts him down.

She leaves the town taking Toma’s robes to his family, to prove he was a true warrior, but she tells the child she will return, because she now has the will to live.

•••

I have heard many bad things about this film, but honestly I really enjoyed it.

Sure Ichi is distant for most of the film, but that is the character. She does not want to get close to anyone, nor help anyone, she just has her quest, but is slowly drawn out, and begins to care again, and that is what makes her human. And Haruka is gorgeous to watch, and plays the character very well.

And the film has some great action, and looks absolutely gorgeous so is really worth checking out. A really good film.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Interior Design

Directed by Michel Gondry.

A young couple moves to Tokyo with all their possessions in there beater of a car. This is Hiroko (Fujitani Ayako) and Akira (Kase Ryo) and they go to stay with their college friend Akemi (Ito Ayumi) in her microscopic apartment, promising to find their own place. Akira is a filmmaker, who makes really low budget, strange films, and his film is going to be screened at a local porn theater, and gets a job wrapping paper at a local store. Hiroko does not do much, sitting around and cutting out photos from magazines and making collages, and halfheartedly looking for an apartment, though there is nothing good that they can afford.

Akira shows his film, which gets some seemingly good response (though it seems that most people are just trying to be nice), and starts questioning if Hiroko has any drive.

Hiroko starts to question her relationship with Akira, and when out on a walk around the city, begins a literal transformation into a chair. First changing part by part, then fully into a chair, and changing back into her naked self, only to change again into a chair.

Hiroko as a chair gets taken to a cute guys apartment, and starts to live her life as his chair. Looking over his shoulder as he works. And his chair does keep moving, even being found in the bath.

Hiroko writes Akira a letter, telling him about how happy she is with her new life.

•••

So very very strange, but enjoyable, and the effects are great too. It seems like a normal story, then just goes nuts with her turning into a chair. Really fun.

____________________________________________

Merde
Directed by Léos Carax.

Tokyo is invaded by a strange sewer dwelling creature named Merde (Denis Lavante). He comes out of his sewer and causes mayhem, stealing money and eating it. Taking cigarettes and phones, and whatever he can. He licks women, and causes chaos before going back into the sewers. This causes an uproar in Tokyo, and they send police underground to find him.

Underground Merde finds a cache of grenades from World War 2 and comes up and starts throwing grenades everywhere, killing many innocent bystanders. Merde is finally captured and taken to prison, but no one can speak his strange language.

A lawyer from France named Maítre Voland (Jean-Francois Balmer) who has a very similar look to the sewer creature and seems to be able to speak the creatures language. He represents Merde in court.

The court obviously does not like Merde, and he tells them that he does not like them, and he always awakes living in the place with the people he hates he most. He is found guilty and set to be killed.

Merde is hung, bu then the lights go out and when they come back on, Merde has escaped!

••••

Just plain weird, and not at all enjoyable. I am sure there was a message about media in there, but it was so covered, literally in Merde that I don’t even want to think about it.

____________________________________________

Shaking Tokyo

Directed by Bong Joon-ho

The story of a Tokyo shut-in or hikikomori (Kagawa Teruyuki) who has not left his apartment in a decade. He lives off of money sent by his father, and orders everything in, leaving stacks of his pizza boxes. He even falls asleep on the toilet next to the stack of toilet paper rolls. And he never watches TV, just reads and rereads old books.

Then one day is different when a beautiful young pizza deliver girl (Aoi Yu) with tattoos manages to catch his eye.

An Earthquake then happens and the girl faints into his apartment, and the hikikomori is stuck. He has to help her, but doesn’t want to touch her. He gets her water. Then sees that she has tattoos, and finds one for coma, and pushes it, and she instantly wakes up. Asking if he pushed the button. She walks around his apartment, declaring it perfect, except one of his stacked pizza boxes is upside down, which he fixes. She then leaves, but he is totally and utterly in love with her.

The hikikomori excited calls to get her to deliver pizza again, but finds a gruff older man (the great Takenaka Naoto) who barges in and uses the phone, scaring the man badly. It turns out he is the owner, and the girl just quit, leaving him to deliver Pizza by himself.

The hikikomori realizes that she is a new Hikikomori, and is becoming a shut in, and decides he must go see her, and save her from a life of lonliness.

The man slowly heads out across the city, scared of his own shadow and the sunlight, but he manages to find her place, just as another Earthquake hits.

He manages to get her to open the door, but she won’t come out, until he grabs her arm, and hits her tatoo for love. Leaving them both hopelessly in love.

•••

Very strange, but enjoyable. Amazing that people like this exist, and a cute love story using these trappings. fun.

____________________________________________

Overall a very strange set of films. You might want to see them, but don’t expect to be blown out of the water, and I would recommend skipping Merde all together!

Rin (Shibasaki Kou) has just completed her 3000 days of training at Shaolin in China, and she is to return to China, though her teachers worry that she could turn to the dark side. She returns to China, and with her enthusiasm tries to recruit every person she can find to do Shaolin Kung Fu, but no one is interested. She returns home to her dojo and finds it closed and completely run down, and goes to seek out the old students to find out what happened to the dojo, and no one seems to know exactly. At a restaurant she finds Fatty (Lam Chi Chung) and Tin (Tin Kai Man) and she finds her former Sifu Iwai (Eguchi Yosuke) is the chef, and a Chinese student named Minmin (Kitty Zhang Yuqi) works there. Minmin is the only one interested in Shaolin Martial arts and makes a deal with Rin to teach her martial arts if she goes to join the lacrosse team. There is a cross story going of the evil university president (Nakamura Toru) who is using the university to make money and train students in a special facility, but it doesn’t really intercross. Minmin introduces Rin to the other girls, and she shows her strength, though it doesn’t make her accurate with a lacrosse ball, and she gets permission to join the team.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

Iwai seems to want to keep Rin from playing though, and he becomes the girls lacrosse team coach, and starts teaching the spirit of Shaolin Martial arts, but not the actual martial arts, and doesn’t let Rin participate. Then at their first practice game, he won’t let Rin play, and they tie before the first quarter, but someone is injured, so the girls let Rin in, and she keeps hogging the ball and not passing, and every shot of hers misses in some way, so she loses the game for them, and they kick her off the team.

Rin starts to learn about team work playing with some of the people from the Dojo and their kids soccer team, and she learns to pass and be good, and the girls watch, and slowly they start doing martial arts with her and Minmin, and fixing up the dojo, and eventually they get Iwai to let her back on the team, and once Rin is a team player, they can’t help but win.

Iwai then makes Rin promise not to fight, that he will protect her, and instantly she is attacked by the Presidents dark armored warriors, but she runs, and Iwai goes and confronts the President, but won’t fight him. The President wants to fight Rin because she has so much Martial Arts potential, and he wants to see who is the best, and will do anything.

Rin finds Iwai, and the fighters light the dojo on fire, and they take Minmin and blow up the restaurant.

Rin goes to fight the President against Iwai’s wishes. She goes and must fight the whole school it seems, but Fatty and Tin show up to help, and she goes through a series of CG rooms and some fights to finally get to the President and Minmin.

Rin and the President have a huge CG fight, mostly on CG water that works really bad, and it is a toss up if he wants her to become evil, or just fight her, but eventually her good energy comes out and she hugs him and makes him remember the good things in life, like when he used to train with her at the Dojo, and it seems he is good now, and Minmin is OK.

Under the credits we see the girls lacrosse team, dressed in Shaolin outfits winning match after match, now all with Shaolin skills, and going to the world championship, this all being the fun that the film should have been, but wasn’t.

•••

Really a waste. So much potential, but the film really does not hold together at all. Really overall a waste of time.

Kitamura Jiro is a lonely guy living in Tokyo, without any family left, left to fend for himself on his birthday. At a store he buys himself a present, and while there sees a strange but beautiful girl (Ayase Haruka) stealing clothes, and following him and smiling with him, and finally joining him for a birthday dinner, where she eats like a pig, and then has them run out and get chased by the owner and a cop. Jiro keeps following her, and they end up at his rooftop apartment, and she gets serious, saying that this is where a guy broke up with her, telling her he didn’t even want to see her walk anymore, and she throws a walk through a window. He calms her down, but she takes him to a staircase, before telling him to close his eyes while she leaves, but she stops, and tells him she time travelled from the future, and gets him to open his eyes, before she leaves. A year later Jiro is again alone on his birthday, and buys himself a watch, but the strange girl shows up again, but this time she is a bit different. She goes with him to dinner, and ends up saving him from a madman with a machine gun, and then goes home with him. There her eyes light up, and Jiro is shown a hologram from the future of himself 63 years later. He is crippled, but rich, having won the lottery, and spent years making his dream girl to send back and protect Jiro so he wouldn’t become like him, and that the cyborg can get a soul by living with him.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Region 2 Disc is available at YesAsia though is not cheap!

Jiro is of course in love with her, and her craziness, and even more when she starts using her amazing strength and speed to save people, that Jiro in the future had been saddened by. She saves some kids at soccer camp, a kid from being hit by a truck, stops a hostage taker at a girls school, and she also takes Jiro back in time to see his hometown, which was destroyed in an Earthquake. And he is able to see his dead Grandmother who was actually his mother who died in the quake.

Jiro loves her, and wants to make her love him, though she can never say it. He goes dancing with another girl, but the cyborg just makes him sad, especially when she dances the robot. Then when he is making out with the girl she slaps him, and the cyborg throws her. Jiro freaks out and ends up telling her all the nasty things that the girl originally told him when he met her, and makes her swear to stay away form him. Of couse she still tries to protect him, even bringing him his cat back from the past to live with him.

Then the big Tokyo earthquake happens, and the cyborg shows up to save Jiro again and again, but finally she crushed and must rip herself in half to save him again, and then she is really crushed.

After the quake Jiro digs her out, but she is dead. We then go to 63 years in the future, with Jiro an old man, that has finally managed to rebuild his love, the cyborg, and she has her memory, and he is able to die with her.

We then go further in the future, when a schoolgirl (Ayase Haruka) sees the robot in a museum, and sees it looks just like her, so she buys it for her birthday. The robot is broken, but has all it’s memories, and she implants the vivid memories in herself, falling in love with Jiro in the process. So she travels back in time just to see Jiro, but in actually goes to see him, and this was the first meeting, where she left saddened.

We then see Jiro digging the cyborg out of the rubble, and there is another flash, as the girl comes back to live with Jiro who she loves!

••••

Silly fun, with some good effects.

As I said the time travel doesn’t always work though. Like the girl sees someone getting their face pushed into a cake on their birthday, and then that is what the cyborg does, but that can only be because Jiro programmed her, because she was not the original girl, but he doesn’t like it so… And of course we have alternate timelines being created by each event, but this is a romantic comedy after all.

Cute.

The film follows 4 different women living in Tokyo, Satoko (Ikewaki Chizuru) who works as a receptionist at an escort agency, and Akiyo (Nakamura Yuko) who works as a prostitute. And an OL or Office Ladey named Chihiro (Nakagoshi Noriko) and her freelance artist roommate named Toko (Nananan Kiriko). And these girls are all out in their own ways to find love and hope and happiness, but they have to find themselves first.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The film starts with Satoko literally being dragged by her boyfriend who dumps her, and she just can’t move on, but is disgusted by the lecherous advances of the married escort agency owner.

Akiyo lives her life as if she is dead, living in a coffin, and doing anything for her clients, even being brutalized, because she has one spark of hope in her life. She loves a man she went to college with, and sees him every chance she gets, and it is the only time she is alone, but she really starts to fall apart when she finds he has a girlfriend.

Chihiro envies the success of her roommate, and will do anything to be love, sticking to one man who obviously just wanted sex from her, when she wants love and marriage and to be wanted.

Toko lives for her artwork, as she paints her representation of god for a manga cover, but when a careless courier leaves her painting in a noodle shop owned by a Korean, she loses it, and her total bulimia acts up, so she does nothing but throw up.

Eventually Satoko strands up for herself and leaves the escort service, and actually gets a job at the noodle shop, and finds Toko’s painting, which she plans to give to Akiyo.

Akiyo seduces her friend, and gets pregnant, and leaves her life of prostitution. She may not have the ones she loves, but she finds a reason to live.

Chihiro realizes she isn’t wanted, and gets him to tell her to her face so she can move on.

Toko sees Satoko and Akiyo at the beach, and finally finds her painting, and can finally start living again.

•••

A really interesting film. Slow paces, but with great character development. Really well done and I look forward to seeing more films by this director in the future.

A young japanese expat from New Zealand named Mayumi (Hoshino Aki) has returned to new Zealand to attend the Mangriffon School for young Journalists, but is having a hard time because she does not know Kanji. The teachers are in fact sadists who use a torture room in the basement to punish their students. Mayumi is soon tortured, but is saved by a naked superhero named Kekko Kamen (Mori Misaki).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The students are turned against each other when a female journalist comes with an offer for a job, and they start to turn against each other. And one new student whose mother pays her way in, has her breasts sucked by a teacher and becomes a boy who turns against the girls. They use Mayumi to try and kidnap Kekko Kamen, but of course it doesn’t work, and the good save the day, and Mayumi is supposed to get the job, but Kekko Kamen is shown on camera, so the anchorwoman loses her job, and Mayumi doesn’t get one, and has to stay in school.

•••

RIDICULOUS!!! But Kekko Kamen certainly has nice tits.

In the year 1162 the Mongolian tribes are not united, they all fight with each other, and even steal women from each other, and the leader of the Borjigin tribe Yesugei-Baatar (Hosaka Naoki) steals Houlun (Wakamura Mayumi) from a man of the Merkit tribe, and makes her his wife, though she hopes that her husband will return for her, though he doesn’t. 9 Months later she has a boy and her husband names him Temujin (when grown he will be played by Sorimachi Takashi) and though people think he is Merkit, he takes him as his son. When the boy is 14, and he and Houlun have had more children, he takes Temujin to go and find a wife, and ends up getting engaged to the daughter of a friend of his named Bolte (Kikukawa Rei). He then makes friends with her childhood friend Jamuqa (Hirayama Yuskue), and they make a bond as brothers for life, but then Temujin gets a message that his father has been killed by a poisoned arrow, and he must return home quickly.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Temujin returns to find his tribe leaving, and finds his mother and family, an they set out on their own to make a life for themselves. Temujin’s brother taunts him that he is a Merkit, and he and another brother kill him because he will drive the family apart, breaking Houlun’s heart, but holding the family together. As Temujin grows, more people are drawn to him, and he tries to protect his people. He returns to go find his fiancee, but it has been 7 years, and they thought he was dead, so she is now engaged to his friend Jamuga. Temujin is going to leave, but Jamuga says to let Bolte decide and she decides on Temujin, though she will be poor. They are happy for a bit, but then the Merkit attack and take her. It takes 6 months for Temujin to go to the Khan and get help from Jamuga to go to war and get his wife back, but he finds out that she is pregnant, and he doesn’t think it is his son. She gives birth to a boy, and he wants to kill the child, but Houlun stops him, and he names the boy Jochi (Matsuyama Ken’ichi), though he never treats him right.

Eventually Temujin gets more and more powerful, and he is asked by Toyril Khan (Matsukata Hiroki) to help him join with the Qin to fight the Tartars, and he agrees, and they clean up, but the Khan then tells Temujin that he should take out his friend Jamuga, because he will not honor his agreement, and wants to be the Khan himself, but Temujin will honor his pledge. So the Khan goes to Jamuga to use him to defeat Temujin.

On the way home Temujin runs into some stranglers that they have fought before, and he meets a female warrior named Kulan (Korean actress Ara), who he does not treat as a woman, but as a warrior, and she joins him as a warrior, and because he treats her so well, she gives herself to him, and becomes his second wife.

Temujin sends his son off to fight in the North, and then gets his army together to go fight the Khan and Jamuga, but is badly defeated, and hit by a poison arrow and almost killed, but just before he dies he is saved by his friend, and they go back and defeat their enemies. Jamuga killed the Khan himself, and Temujin takes him, and he wants to be killed by his own hands, so he kills Jamuga and makes himself the Khan.

Temujin becomes Genghis Khan, and he declares that he will go to war with the Jin, but he wants his son to return, but his son begs off sick, so he heads of to kill him if he is faking. He finds his son dyeing, and blind, hit by a poison arrow, and he dies making his father proud, and Genghis Khan heads off to take on the Chinese, sending an arrow in the name of his son.

••••

An enjoyable epic, but it could have been better, and though their is a cast of thousands and thousands, it does not seem like it should be the most expensive movie ever made!

The movie starts with a Japanese High School student Ryugasaki Momoko (Fukada Kyoko) who is a Lilita girl, or as she say it a Roccoco girl, who dresses in insane frilly clothes, that she spends all of her money (well her father’s money) on. She is riding a scooter, and crashes into a truck, and is thrown through the air, and then cuts back to tell her story and why is rushing to meet her friend Shirayuri Ichigo “Ichiko” (Tsuchiya Anna) who is a Tanki or bad ass biker girl. First we get Momoko’s story, how her father was a low level Yakuza (Miyasako Hiroyuki) who met her mother (Shinohara Ryoko) at a club and had Momoko, but was already cheating with the obstetrician. The Father sold fake clothes, and they got so popular that he had to go on the lam, and his wife had already left in, with Momoko’s strange acquiescence. They moved the the country with his mother. Momoko has no friends, but is happy with it, and just always dressing her way, and going to her favorite story in Tokyo, but then she tries to make some money by selling her dad’s fake clothes an that brings the crazy Yanki girl Ichigo, who starts sticking around.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Momoko doesn’t want the Yanki girl hanging around, but though she acts tough, she seems lonely and enlists Momoko in a quest to get a famous embroiderer to embroider her gang outfit because her mentor is retiring and getting married. The two end up going to panchinko parlors and Momoko wins like crazy, and they get bullied, but a guy named Dame Oyaji (also Miyasako Hiroyuki) helps them and steals Ichigo’s heart. Eventually though Momoko uses her skills to make the embroidery.

Eventually though Momoko gets hired by her favorite designer to embroider, and though she finishes, when it is due Ichigo is being challenged by the new bike gang leader, so Momoko goes to help her one and only friend, and that is when she gets hit by the car, but her friendship helps her, and she keeps on going and shows up to the gang fight. There she loses it and pretends to be the daughter of a legendary gang leader, and the two kick some ass, and go out together as friends. And Momoko becomes a part time designer, and Ichigo goes out on her own, and their legend grows.

••••

Ridiculous fun, with animated scenes, and the most ridiculous modified scooters and clothing I have ever seen. And it is also a great story of friendship. Well worth checking out.

The film strangely is set in the future while the manga was set in the Ancient Songoku period, and that is where this seems to be, except in a magical version of the past. The world is at constant war, and one clan is losing badly, so its surviving leader Kagemitsu Daigo (Kiichi Nakai) spends the night in a temple filled with the depictions of 48 demons, where the monk who carved them went mad. Daigo makes a deal with the demons that he will give them his unborn son, so they can carve him up and use his body parts, and they will grant him the world, and Daigo agrees, getting a lightning burned cross shaped scar in the process. We then cut 16 years into the future, and a female thief dressed as a boy and living with no name (Kou Shibasaki) steals some guys purses and runs into a bar, where a warrior who pulls off his hands and has swords under them is battling a spider demon. The man is Hyakkimaru sometimes know as Dororo (meaning little monster) [Satoshi Tsumabuki] and once he defeats the demon, his leg falls off and cumbles to dust, and then causing him great pain his leg grows back. The girl follows him, and talks to a story teller he knows, who tells her Hyakkimaru’s story.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

A wizard named Jukai (Yoshio Harada) who had discovered the ability to use dead limbs to recreate new limbs for the injured found the child in a basket going down the river, and saved it, realizing it was alive though it had no limbs or eyes or organs, and he collected the bodies of many dead children and used them to create the body for Hyakkimaru. And he taught him to use his mouth when he spoke, and look around when he looked, because the new organs were functional, but did not help him speak or see. And Jukai placed a demon fighting sword that he got from the storyteller inside one of his arms, and covered it with the replacement hand, and put another blade in his other arm, so he could defeat demons, and he trained him in martial arts. When Hyakkimaru had gotten older he came home one day to find the man he called his father, Jukai, wounded and dieing, and Jukai made him promise not to ever use the healing powers he has learned, and to destroy the house so that the magic could never fall into the wrong hands, and he also tells the boy he is not his father. Hyakkimaru then set out to defeat the 48 demons that had taken his body parts, and when he killed them, his original parts would be returned, and while he has the demon parts he regenerates from his wounds, though his original parts can be damaged once they are returned.

The thief then runs after Hyakkimaru and decides to join him, and even steals his name Dororo for herself. She wants to stick with Hyakkimaru until he defeats the demons and drops his demon killing sword, so she can take it and kill the evil Daigo who murdered her Father and Mother and her whole village, and whom she has sworn revenge on. Hyakkimaru doesn’t want to take this woman dressed as a man who is now called Dororo with him, but eventually he agrees, and the two go out and slay more and more of his demons, gaining back more of his humanity, until they come upon Daigo’s land.

The two split up and head into the city, and Hyakkimaru ends up in a fight and catching the eye of a well to do young man named Tahoumaru (Eita, wow some Japanese have only one name too?!??!?!?), who decides to take him back to Daigo castle and introduce his family. At the Castle Hyakkimaru meets Tahoumaru’s mother, who freaks out and calls him Tahoumaru, Hyakkimaru touches her and in his mind sees the whole story of how she is his mother, and how his father gave him to the demons to be ripped to pieces, and Hyakkimaru quickly leaves. He goes to find Dororo, and he tells her that they can no longer travel together because he is the son of her mortal enemy, even if he hates his father for what he did. Dororo leaves, but is obviously upset, but she can’t go, and returns because she cares for Hyakkimaru, and says that she will give up her revenge if he also gives up his.

Hyakkimaru’s mother tries to go find him, but Tahoumaru stops her, and sets out to kill his brother who has his own name. Hyakimaru doesn’t want to hurt him, but a broken sword goes into his neck and kills him. Then the mother and Daigo show up, and the mother tries to stop her husband from killing her only living son Hyakkimaru, but instead Daigo kills her and tries to kill his son, but he is outmatched. Daigo them makes a deal with the demons to resserect his son in exchanged for giving his whole body to the demons, and he agrees. The demon takes over Daigo, but he fights it and stabs it, allowing Hyakimaru the chance to kill him and gain back his heart.

The now living Tahoumaru wants Hyakkimaru to become king, but Hyakkimaru must finish his quest first so he takes off, and meets up with Dororo who is running away, and tells her that they will go together to get the last 24 demons. She starts to cry, but then attacks him and tells him she will not be a woman yet (though she obviously loves him) and they head off and see the ocean together for the first time.

••••

A really enjoyable popcorn action film, with some good characters and some sometimes cheesy effects, but for this film I think they work. I rate this film highly and think it should be watched, and the Chinese DVD is inexpensive and looks pretty damn good.

Shimura Takashi plays Doctor Sanada, an excellent doctor, and voracious drunk living in the slums outside Tokyo with his grandmother and a nurse named Miyo (Nakakita Chieko) who he looks after (and likes) since her Yakuza husband went to prison. The doctor speaks his mind on everything, and people think he is mean, but that is just how he is. And when he wants to help someone, he will give his all. Matsunaga (Mifune Toshiro) is a punk who runs the local market comes in because he has a bullet in his hand. Sanada fixes the hand with no anesthetic, and quickly diagnoses Matsunaga with tuberculerosis, and Matsunaga ignores him, and attacks him, but is stopped by Miyo. Eventually Matsunaga realizes that Sanada is right, and he must do something, but he still doesn’t want to go get an X-Ray from the successful doctor who is Sanada’s old classmate, as Matsunaga doesn’t want to seem week in front of his men.

Miyo tells Sanada that her ex has just gotten out, and will probably come for her, and maybe she should go to him, but Sanada scolds her.

Matsunaga keeps to his old ways, and gets sicker and sicker, but he does get an x-ray and Sanada’s old classmate tells him he took it, so Sanada goes to look Matsunaga, but he won’t come, or at least not until he is drink. As Sanada and Miyo take care of the drunken Matsunaga, Miyo hears someone different playing guitar, and realizes it is her ex Okada (Yamamoto Reisaburo) and is scared.

Finally Sanada, who we learn was once a punk like Matsunaga, gets Matsunaga to except that he must take treatment, but then he runs into Okada, who makes him go out drinking and smoking with him, and even starts sleeping with his girl Nanae (Kogure Michiyo). And things keep going downhill for Matsunaga until he coughs up blood, and Sanada must come to get him, and realizes his woman has left him.

Okada has taken over from Matsunaga and even learns who Miyo is from Matsunaga’s minions, so they go to get her, but the sick Matsunaga goes out to stop them, and they agree to talk tomorrow. In the morning Sanada goes to talk to the police, but thinking that the Yakuza have honor Matsunaga goes to see the big boss, where he hears him telling Okada that they will use him and have him killed, and he is crushed, so he goes to attack Okada in Nanae’s apartment, but his TB gets the better of him and he is killed, but at least Okada is sent to prison for good this time.

We end with Sanada talking to a woman who has Matsunaga’s ashes and wants to take them to her home in the country as she wanted to take him before he died, and Sanada won’t be sad because he is so angry he couldn’t change Matsunaga and make him realize how stupid he was being. A 17 year old TB patient of his comes up and shows him her X-ray and she is cured, so he takes her to get a sweat.

•••

A very enjoyable film, and an early look at what it was like in Tokyo after the war, with young Yakuza running things, and living a life of luxury, while normal people lived in absolute filth.

3 Friends in high school in Japan have decided to start a band for the school festival, these are the headstrong Kei Tachibana (Yuu Kashii), the cute drummer Kyoko Yamada (Aki Maeda) and the very shy bass player Nozomi Shiroko (Shiori Sekine). Kei has gotten in a fight with the singer though and the guitar player player has broken her finger, so she has borrowed her guitar and is learning it. When Kei sees the singer she is fighting with she decides to pick the next person they see to be the singer of the band, and the next girl they see is the Korean exchange student Son (Bae Doona). Son doesn’t have many friends, and she instantly agrees, though her English is not too good, but she will work hard.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…

The girls have only 3 days, and they decide to learn the song Linda Linda Linda and My Right Hand by the band The Blue Hearts, but they don’t have enough time to practice at school.Kei then brings the girls to the studio where her ex boyfriend works, so the girls can practice there. The girls start really all bonding as well.

Son gets a visit from a boy who has learned some Korean and believes he loves her, but she has no feelings for him, so she returns to her new friends. Kyoko actually does like a guy at the school, and wants to tell him.

The girls practice and practice, and in fact they practice so much that they fall asleep and are later for their own gig. They rush to the school in a rain storm, getting soaking wet, and Kyoko runs into the guy she likes, but doesn’t end up telling him. And finally the 4 girls make it to the school, and they sing, and in the rain storm all the kids have come into the gym, and the girls rock out.

••••

Enjoyable, and fun, though a little slow. The girls are all great through.

Mimura Shinnojo (Kimura Takuya) is a low level samurai working for a lord. He is happily married to a beautiful and loyal wife named Kayo (Dan Rei) and they are helped by their servant Tokuhei (Sasano Takashi). Mimura is a food taster for the lord, which he thinks is mostly a ceremonial position, where the tasters sit in a dark room next to the kitchen and must take a bite of each food before it is taken to the lord. The thing is, Mimura has some shellfish, and is poisoned, and gets very sick, and the lord is barely stopped from eating it. Mimura is put unconscious and very sick, and it is thought he might die, even his annoying aunt comes to see her sick nephew. Mimura does awaken though, but he has a problem, he can’t see. They tell him he will recover, but the doctor tells Kayo he will probably never get his vision back, and Kayo tries to keep it from him, but he finds out from Tokuhei, who can’t lie to him.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Just after this on her way home Kayo runs into the head clerk Shimada Toyo (Bando Mitsugoro) who tells her if she ever needs help that he will help her. She knows what that means, so doesn’t want to do anything, but when all the relatives get together to figure out what to do with Mimura who will no longer have an income, they convince her to go to Shimada for help.

Mimura notices that Kayo has come home late a few times, and then his aunt comes to tell him her husband saw her out with another man. He doesn’t want to believe, but sends Tokuhei to follow her, and he sees her going to the hotel with Shimada. Mimura freaks out, even though she was doing it to help him, and declares his divorce, and kicks her out, refraining from killing her as she wanted.

Mimura’s friend then comes over and tells him, that in fact it was the mostly senile lord who ordered the full stipend for life for Mimura, and that Shimada didn’t do anything to help Mimura, so he basically raped Kayo. Mimura’s honor is tarnished, and he starts to train with his sword again, eventually getting to the point where he can sense where his opponent is, so he goes to his old master. Of course his master can best him, but he helps him, teaching him that if he is ok with death he can take out his opponent.

Mimura has Tokuhei send out a challenge to Shimada for the next day, and Shimada shows up, and is surprised that Mimura is doing alright, so he cheats and gets on the roof of the building nearby to jump on Mimura, but Mimura is better, and severs Shimada’s arm, but leaves him alive.

Luckily though Shimada survives, he won’t tell of the challenge, because the dishonor of losing to a blind man would be too much, and he takes his own life, so Mimura is safe and he has fought for Kayo’s honor.

At home alone with Tokuhei he talks about how he was wrong, and never should have made Tokuhei follow Kayo, because he is destined to be alone, but Tokuhei has hired a new cook, and as soon as Mimura eats it he orders the woman in, who is of course Kayo, and he quickly embraces her, because he still loves her, and of course she always loved him.

•••••

Really just a lovely film set in the decline of the samurai era. Kayo is such a good wife, and Mimura just can’t realize it until he thinks it is too late, but luckily his servant is smarter than he in such matters, and Kayo is loyal no matter what has happened. It is very well shot with great production design, great acting, and just well done.

I can’t recommend this film more highly.

K (Matsuura Aya) is found with an expired visa in the US, with her mother being suspected as a spy, a Japanese cop is brought over to deal with the daughter, who has caused some serious damage. The cop is Detective Kira Kazutoshi (Takeuchi RIki) who worked with her mother when she was a secret agent. The Japanese use young girls as special agents, and they give K a deal to become secret agent Asamiya Saki with only a metal yo yo that doubles as a police badge, and the deal is that if they do it, they will get her mother released from jail and cleared from spying charges. Saki is sent into a high school to investigate a suspected terrorist web site known as “Enola Gay” and some rumors of explosions, and the last agent sent in exploded in central Tokyo with a bomb strapped to her. Another branch of the government has also sent an agent in as there is a 48 hour countdown and the police need to know to what.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Saki meets a super cute girl who is constantly bullied named Kono Taie (Okada Yui), who is being bulled by the school popular girl Akiyama Reika (Ishikawa Rika). And Saki goes after the chemistry club, who she finds are making bombs. One is taken by the cult leader, Romeo (Kubozuka Shunsuke) and the other taken by Kira, but he is released, and quickly taken by the cult.

Eventually Taie tells Saki her story, that a year before her best friend (Miyoshi Erika) a year before had lost it and tried to blow up the teacher at her school who had watched her being bullied. Saki finds out from Akiyama, who was the other undercover, but now works for Romeo, that she got the bomb from Romeo. Taie tells Saki the whole story, of how they were both outcasts, and they made a web site for outcasts, but when her friend was put away, someone else took over the web site and perverted the ideal, and is making a giant suicide club, which will culminate at a school meeting the next day. Saki promises to protect Taie

Saki goes to tell Saki what is going on and then gets picked up by Romeo, who along with his many followers, lock her up. And Akiyama tricks Taie and gets her to pretend to be Romeo and to go to the meeting strapped with bombs to blow up all the kids, though she doesn’t want to do it. Saki shows up to save the day, but Taie is taken by Akiyama, and Saki must go and get her as well as the chemistry students. This time she dress up in a bad ass leather outfit and goes to save her one true friend, but she must battle Akiyama who has a bladed yo yo and has obviously used it more, but is still defeated. Then Saki goes and defeats all the bad guys, and finally fights and defeats Romeo, who blows himself up, and saves her friend and the chemistry students.

At the end Saki talks to her mom, and finds out that Kira got his limp saving her mom (and we also suspect he is actually Saki’s father), and she goes to be with her friends, but she does take her yo yo.

•••••

Great silly and ridiculous fun!

This is the story from the Japanese perspective of the battle for Iwo Jima island in World War 2, the island that was so important to the American’s as a base for planes for hitting the Japanese mainland, so the soldiers were basically given the suicidal task of defending this barren rock in order to slow the advance of American soldiers. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) arrives on the island to take up his post, and finds the island in a dreadful state. The Army and Navy aren’t even coordinated, and the soldiers are being beatings from leaders who don’t know how to defend the Island properly.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

One of those soldiers who left his wife home when he was chosen to go to war is Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), he loses his best friend to dysentery, and then doesn’t trust Shimizu who he knows is from the Kempetai (though he doesn’t know he was kicked out for not killing a dog).

General Kuribayashi mostly abandons plans to defend the beach, except a few pill boxes, and instead has the soldiers dig tunnels not only only in the mountain, but also at the north end of the island where his headquarters are. He wants the troops to survive or at least not give their lives in useless suicide attempts, but his orders go unheeded, and the defenders of mount Suribachi are ordered to kill themselves, which many of them do. Saigo convinces Shimizu not to and they escape toward the north of the island, where the have a run in with the suicidal Lieutenant Ito (Ryo Kase), though they make it past him. The two then plan on surrendering, but only Shimuzi makes it out, and the Americans capture him, but the soldiers set to guard him kill him. Saigo is crushed, but he goes on, and ends up at the headquarters of the General, who saved his life from Ito, and on the beach, and does so again when they decide on a final attack on Americans, leaving him behind to burn the papers. Saigo instead buries the letters from Iwo Jima (which are found in the beginning and end of the film by modern archeologists), then heads and again finds the General, and helps to burry his body when he kills himself. He then attacks the Americans, but is taken prisoner, along with Ito who wanted to get run over by a tank and explode.

•••••

This is film is so powerful because we see the Japanese leaders like the General who spent time in America, and knows all the propaganda is not true. And Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) who was an Olympic horseback-rider in the Los Angeles Olympics, and has them treat an American soldier who they shot, and talks to him, and reads his letter to the troops, which makes them realize they are all the same. This aspect of respect for ones enemy is what makes this film so incredibly powerful, along with the incredibly moving performances of these men, who expect to die, and yet want to get home to their families and children that they have never seen.

Eastwood has really pulled it off here, and has made 2 incredible war films. He is really one of the greatest directors of all time, and films like this will help him be remembered that way for many many years in the future.

REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS…

Yes the action in this film is total anime, though shot live action, though nothing I haven’t seen before, but I was totally let down by this. I mean I didn’t think AZUMI was the best film, but it was better than this. It purports to be a love story about Star Crossed lovers, but doesn’t really work out, and I really don’t believe it. Not only that but the story has huge holes in it, like why don’t these hidden shinobi villages have look outs to see when the army approaches? Yes I did like the fights, but the movie overall was pretty lame, with under-powering performances and a lame as hell ending.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

This film blew my mind when I first saw it, as it was unlike anything I had ever seen. This combined genres I never thought I would see combined, Wuxia martial arts action and a zombie film with old fashion John Woo gun fights to boot. It has off the wall characters and a story that doesn’t really matter, and certainly doesn’t make that much sense, but it is just there for the action. Now watching it this time, and with my editors eyes I must say the film does drag a bit. It could easily have been significantly cut down without losing anything, like the 2 police characters that are totally pointless and superfluous, and aren’t as funny as the filmmakers seem to think. And some of the stuff with the Yakuza just drags on and really is not needed. Still an enjoyable film, and I love the shooting style (all moving cameras with canted angles) and the hyper kinetic action that takes this film totally over the top. One interesting note is that I don’t think they had any real guns, as the barrel flashes seem totally weird, and the automatic beretta one of the Yakuza is carrying bears a striking resemblance to my japanese airsoft pistol of the same make.

I have read that in Japan they went back extra action years later for a special edition, and added 10 minutes to the end of more action and gore. I would love to see it, but wouldn’t really want to see the film at 2 hours and 10 minutes! Ha, still would like to see it.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Instead of sitting through the entire academy awards by myself, I turned to watching this film, which is Yamada’s next film after the academy award winning TWILIGHT SAMURAI, and very much shares a similar feel. Again this film is set in the waning period of the Samurai in Japan, when guns are beginning to take over, and depicts a very realistic, non glamorous tale of that period. And in my opinion is a film of equal quality. In fact once I have some more work I plan collecting as many more of Yamada’s films as I can find with subtitles. This film is an incredibly well done period drama in a period where the whole country is changing and the lives of the people are in flux, they are used to the old ways, but can’t escape the new ways. I highly recommend this film if you can find it (I have the region 2 Japanese DVD).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

I have been on a real Kurosawa kick of late, and wish I could afford to get more of his films, but this is the last one for a while. This is an early film of Kurosawa’s before his first huge success with Roshomon, but already his flair is starting to show. This isn’t just a crime thriller because it delves into the psychology of the criminal, and we see the cop wavering in his conviction. And I have never seen Mifune Toshiro look so young, and while he does give a powerful performance, through most of the film he is so troubled and is just following in Shimura Takashi’s footsteps trying not to lose himself in his own guilt in the matter at hand. An excellent film, though possibly a bit slow paced compared to modern thrillers.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…