Shinji Sômai

Renko is still a young girl when her parents decide to divorce. At first, she isn't too worried, but Renko starts to panic when her friends remind her of the practical implications of such a divorce. When her father moves out of the house, she comes up with a plan to bring her parents back together.

Tabata does pretty well for her age, the setting is pleasant and the tone is light. The first half of the film is nice enough, but not all that notable. When Somai adds a bit of couleur locale to the second half things get noticeably better. The cinematography and soundtrack stand out and there are quite a few memorable moments. Another good Somai.

Yuu is a young pop talent who wants to make it big in the entertainment business. When she is forced to suck up to a wealthy mogul, she gets involved in a traffic accident and dies on the spot. In heaven, she negotiates another chance and is sent back to Earth, where she finds herself with the man who needs to cover up her death.

It's a fun setup (not entirely unlike Kon's Perfect Blue, there's even some imagery that matches) which allows Somai to work in some dreamy, fantastical scenes. These are the moments when the film shines and it becomes a little more than a simple, amusing narrative. A very pleasant surprise.

A rugged mountain man travels from Hokkaido to Tokyo to reconnect with the woman he loves, once there things go differently than he expected. He discovers she has fallen for a shady club owner. Meanwhile, the man encounters a pop singer who wants to make it big into the opera scene.

Interesting characters, solid performances, and superb cinematography make Luminous Woman quite the treat. It's a tad too slow and long to be a true personal favorite, but some of the scenes are absolutely stunning and will be burnt on my retinas forever. This film puts me halfway through Somai's oeuvre, I'll be making sure to get through the other half too.

Hiroshi's life is turned upside down when his father suddenly arrives on his doorstep. His mother told Hiroshi that his father had died when he was five. To add to the emotional turmoil, Hiroshi's company is about to go bankrupt. He tries to cope with this new situation as best as he can but finds himself way in over his head.

The performances are decent but a little rough, the drama is a tad predictable and while the presentation is nice, it never really stands out. The film is on the shorter side though, which helps. Ultimately, this felt like a safer entry in Somai's oeuvre, but it's definitely not a bad film. Just a bit of oldskool Japanese drama filler.

When Muraki's company goes under, he ends up in a whirlpool of trouble. His plan to lend money from the Yakuza is a bust, and when he can't pay them back they rape his wife. Muraki feels defeated and checks into a hotel, planning to kill himself. There he meets a prostitute, who he falls in love with.

The performances are good, the cinematography is decent (but somewhat unremarkable), while the drama covers familiar territory, (though admittedly, mostly covered by more recent films). It's a perfectly fine film that doesn't overstay its welcome, fans of Japanese dramas will feel right at home, but it lacks something to make it a bit more memorable.

Three kids are fed up with the class bully. They make a pact and want to get back at the kid. But out of the blue, he is kidnapped. The police are stumped and aren't too eager to invest too much effort into the kidnapping, so they decide to save their bully, so they can hand him a proper punishment themselves.

Some kids taking on the Yakuza isn't the most believable of plotlines, then again, this film doesn't take itself all that seriously. The performances are decent, the mood is light and pleasant, and even though it's quite a long film, it never bored me. It doesn't really stand out too much, then again, it's hard to stand out next to Obayashi. Cute.

Shunichi is a young kid who falls in love with the daughter of a fisherman. He wants to marry her and learn the trade, as he loves the ocean, but her father is against the idea. He knows how dangerous the sea can be and he's afraid Shunichi won't be able to give his daughter the life she deserves. But Shunichi won't give up that easily.

The pacing is deliberate, the setting quite grim and Somai's choice to register rather than narrate is a solid one. The performances are good too, but the drama is pretty basic and predictable, and the runtime is pretty hefty for a film that holds few surprises. It's a good drama, but it lacks that little extra to distinguish itself.

When a Yakuza boss dies, he carries over his gang to his nephew. What he doesn't know at that time is that his nephew isn't alive anymore. In that case the responsibility is carried over to the next of kind, but that turns out to be Izumi Hoshi, a young school girl who has never seen a Yakuza member up close.

Sailor Suit and Machine Gun has its share of genre elements (yes, at one point Izumi empties a machine gun in a room full of gangsters), but most of the film is a lot slower, reminding me a bit of Kitano's crime oeuvre, with people just hanging around. The cinematography is pretty nice too, the only thing that bothered me was the mediocre performance of Hiroko Yakushimaru as Izumi. An interesting film though, well recommended.

The setting is a small rural school building. A typhoon is coming and everybody is asked to return home, but several kids get stuck at school and with the storm raging outside, they have no other choice to spend the night there. There's little else to do than loiter and get up to some good old-fashioned mischief.

Performances are pretty decent and I do appreciate the concept, but the film's a bit rowdy and the characters feel somewhat generic, which makes it exceedingly tough to spend two hours with them. There are some moments that stand out, but not enough to keep me engaged all the way through.