Nakamura's saving grace is that he manages to combine mainstream sensibilities with a signature style. While his oeuvre lacks a stand-out masterpiece, most of his films are more than distinctive enough and offer solid entertainment.
Movies
Like most Nakamura films, very amusing, but never quite masterpiece material. Mumon is fun, funny, well acted and it sports some pretty good action scenes. Yet it lacks something that makes it stand out. Great and enjoyable filler, but nothing more.
The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker
A decent but slightly underwhelming horror anthology. Six respected directors tackle 10 horror stories, but with a setup like this there simply isn't enough variation in style and themes. There are no real weak entries, on the other hand far too few shorts that make an effort to stand out. Solid filler, but nothing more.
Amusing tale about a village that comes up with an ingenious plan to lend money to its landlord in order to prosper again. Most of the film is spend getting the money needed to pull of the plan. There's little to dislike here, but it's not a very notable film and Nakamura only does the bare minimum in order to get the story told.
A decent, though somewhat unspectacular medical thriller that is slightly elevated by the joyous performance of Hiroshi Abe. Team Batista's TV roots are a bit too obvious at times, with Nakamura failing to make a true effort to hide them, but overall the whodunit aspects were pretty effective. Team Batista is a lauded team of surgeons who have a perfect track record performing the Batista operation, a somewhat experimental procedure that has a mere 60% success rate. But when three procedures in a row fail, people are becoming suspicious and an investigation is launched to find out what is going on. With Takeuchi and Abe in the lead the film has two serious assets, the rest is decidedly more pedestrian. These two actors manage to single-handedly drive up the tension and make the mystery elements work, other than that it's pretty decent, but a bit too long and not very cinematic. Solid filler in other words.Read all
A very pleasant but not so much notable little drama/comedy, the premise of the film makes it sound a little goofier than it actually is. A dad and his some go on a short retreat and dress up in their deceased grandmother's tracksuits, there they can come to their senses and oversee the choices they made in their lives. It's a somewhat typical "crazy urban to slow rural" setup that is easy to turn into a leisurely drama, luckily Nakamura's execution is quite dry and comedic, so it doesn't get too serious or overly dramatic. On the other hand, the characters could've used a bit more fleshing out, because they remain quite stereotypical. The actors do a solid job, but none of them really stands out. Nakamura makes good use of the setting to shoot some pretty pictures, though the cinematography itself is pretty basic. And the mix of comedy and drama works, but both genres don't really reinforce each other either. This was more than solid filler, but nothing too memorable.Read all
Time traveling film for kids, but with a surprisingly level-headed twist at the end. Nakamura's made for TV fantasy is quite plain and pedestrian, not helped by some questionable performances, but as time passes it gets more and more intriguing.
Dark Tales of Japan
A pretty tepid and uninspired hospital drama with light mystery elements. The plot is a little aimless and Nakamura's direction feels lazy, almost as if he was finishing up a temp TV project. Some decent performances and a little intrigue make the second half a bit easier to stomach, but this is one of Nakamura's poorer films.
