Leglessbird Movie Guide

Posted by Ryoko

Swimming Pool (Unrated Version) (buy from Amazon)
Swimming Pool

Type: Suspense, Britian 2003

Director:Francois Ozon

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Charlotte Rampling: Sarah Morton
Ludivine Sagnier: Julie
Charles Dance: John Bosload

Story:
Sarah Morton, a British popular mystery author, was tired of London. John Bosload, her publisher as well as her boyfriend, asked her to stay at his home in Luberon, in the south of France. She accepted his offer because she needed a kind of inspiration for her new novel. However, Sarah had to stay there with John?s French daughter Julie suddenly. Julie?s lifestyle was reckless, wild, and sexual, so Sarah could not stand it and her life in Luberon was disturbed unexpectedly.

My review:
There are not many characters (that?s one of the reasons I like this movie), so you may guess that this film is easy to understand?but my answer is ?No?; I still wonder how to understand the end of story, which was beyond my imagination. I like this kind of closing, because my imagination can go everywhere, and this story must let it go at that.

Iron Ladies (Sub) (buy from Amazon)
Type: Comedy, Thailand 2000

Director:Youngyooth Thongkonthun

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Jesdaporn Pholdee .... Chai
Sahaphap Tor .... Mon
Ekachai Buranapanit .... Wit
Giorgio Maiocchi .... Nong
Chaicharn Nimpulsawasdi .... Jung
Kokkorn Benjathikoon .... Pia
Shiriohana Hongsopon .... Coach

Story:
A true story of a Thai male volleyball team that won the national championship in 1996.

My review:
Very funny indeed!

Shinobi Heart Under Blade (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Japan 2005

Director:Ten Shimoyama

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Yukie Nakama .... Oboro (Iga)
J? Odagiri .... Kouga Gen-no-suke (Kouga) (as Joe Odagiri)
Tomoka Kurotani .... Kagerou (Kouga)
Erika Sawajiri .... Hotarubi (Iga)
Kippei Shiina .... Yakushiji Tenzen (Iga)

Story:
During the Tokugawa era, the two ninja clans Iga and Kouga have existed for over 400 years, always been opposing each other and separately have been helping different regimes in power. Under a cease-fire agreement, the two clans have not been fighting each other. The two future leaders of the clans, Oboro (Iga) and Gen-no-suke (Kouga) are in love with each other. Little did they know that the cease-fire has been uplifted by the Tokugawa regime because, he wants to exterminate the two clans by asking them to fight one another, because during the peaceful time, Tokugawa feels that the ninjas are themselves a threat to him. Each clans has to send 5 people to fight, Oboro and Gen-no-suke are the leaders of each team. Can the lovers escape their destiny or would they have to fight each other to save their own clan?

My review:
Even more tragic than Romeo and Juliet, a very sad story. Ninja stories are always facinating, Hollywood has tried to make its own version of Japanese ninja movies, but never quite capture the essence and its mystery. Glad to see a well film ninja movies from Japan, the land of ninja itself. However, I don't think there was enough, ninja fight scenes in the movie and the actions go so fast, leaving the audience the feeling of wanting more. Each ninja has their own secret weapon and it gets better and more powerful as the story unfolds.

It has an unexpected twist in the end! But I won't spoil it here.

Type: Drama Thriller, Japan 1996

Director:Shunji Iwai

My rating: 2
Key actors/actresses:
Hiroshi Mikami .... Feihong Chara .... Glico Ayumi Ito .... Ageha Yosuke Eguchi .... Ryou Ryanki

Story:
This is a story about "Yen Town", the name given to illegal immigrants in Japan who view Japan as a country of to earn big and fast money, they call Japan "Yen Town" and they themselves are being called "Yen Town". The film describes this illegal immigrants as criminals, gangsters who engage in various crimes.

My review:
The movie has multiple threads which was hard to follow. All in all, this is not my cup of tea.

The Hypnotist (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama Thriller, Japan 1999

Director:Masayuki Ochiai

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Goro Inagaki .... Toshiya, Saga
Miho Kanno .... Yuka, Irie
Takeshi Masu .... Jissoji

Story:
Several incidents resulted in numerous horrific deaths: a groom choked himself to death during his wedding; an athlete ran herself to death out of exhaustion and bone fracture; an old man jumped off the window on his birthday. The only clue the police had obtained was the connection to the "green monkey" which was linked to a TV hypnosis show. As the investigators were homing in to the people involved, more victims killed themselves, the signs now all pointed to a girl as the centre of the ordeal. Could the investigators solve the mysteries or would they fall victims themselves? What's the role of this poor, helpless girl?

My review:
I always find hypnosis a fascinating topic. Movies on crimes involving hypnosis have been made many many times. But "Saimin" is certainly one of the most scary ones. The director is able to grab your attention from the start and keep pumping fear and curiosity into your mind. At points you will find yourself breathless. The thought that you can be programmed to killing yourself is scary.

Type: Comedy Thriller, Japan 1998

Director:Katsuyuki Motohiro

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Yuji Oda .... Shunsaku Aoshima
Toshir?Yanagiba .... Shinji Muroi
Eri Fukatsu .... Sumire Onda

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Aoshima, a police detective working in the Bayside Precinct, is continually frustrated by the hierarchy and red tape that plague the system. His friend Muroi is climbing the ladder of the police bureaucracy. Muroi has made a pact with Aoshima that while Aoshima looks after the streets, Muroi would make life easier for the cops on the beat. One day in Bayside, a series of events turns the small station upside down. A corpse is found in the river, then the Police Commissioner is kidnapped, leading to the Metropolitian Police Department to take over the investigation which is led by Murai. Will he be true to his pact with Aoshima and co-operate with the local police? In the meantime, the murder investigation leads to a morbid web page and a deadly chat room in cyberspace...

My review:
This is an interesting film in which it made an action comedy out of crisis. The director made no attempt to hide his sarcasms towards authorities and high rank officials. The various incidents happened at the small station turned out to be all connected in someway. A movie that really grasps your attention from the very beginning and the sense of humour and suspense are well maintained through to the very end.

Type: Drama, Japan 1988

Director:Shusuke Kaneko

My rating: 4

Key actors/actresses:
Eri Fukatsu .... Norio
Eri Miyajima .... Yu/Kaoru
Hiromi Murata
Miyuki Nakano .... Naoto
Tomoko Otakara .... Kazuhiko

Story:
The time setting of the story is the last summer of the century (summer 1999). Vacation has emptied a Japanese boys' school of all but three boys: the junior Norio & the seniors Kazuhiko & Naoto. They have no families to return to for the summer, so they spend their days in the empty school. They are basically in charge of their own life during this summer. A darkness hangs over the three however: the suicide, three months earlier, of classmate Yu. Norio blames Kazuhiko for Yu's death, because it was well-known that Yu loved Kazuhiko; so Kazuhiko is cruel to Norio, and yet has bad dreams. This uneasy arrangement is exacerbated by the arrival of Kaoru, a student comes early for the fall - who looks exactly like Yu. Everyone is confused and a heavy sense of guilt is stirred up for Kaoru not only looks like Yu, he also behaves like Yu. Kaoru also has a dark side of his life that is untold.

My review:
The director has chosen a very interesting approach to this unusually sensitive topic of suicide and homosexuality, he chose 4 young female actresses to play the 4 male teenagers. Is it because that makes it easier for the audience to accept a story on homesexuality or is it a liberate twist that is so obvious. Could it be because of the sensitive emotional issues that the director is trying to communicate can only be expressed by the softer and more caring gender of the human species. Despite this gender confusion, I found I could focus on the delicate relationships between each pair of the characters in the movie.

Type: Drama Romantic, Japan 1995

Director:Shunji Iwai 岩井俊二

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Miho Nakayama 中山美穗

Story:
Hiroko Watanabe's fiance Itsuki died two years earlier in a mountain climbing accident. While looking through his high school yearbook, Hiroko in a fit of grief decides to write a letter to him using his old school address. Surprisingly she receives a reply, not from her dead husband, but from a woman also named Itsuki whom had known Hiroko's husband in school. A relationship develops between the two women as they continue to exchange letters and share memories of the dead Itsuke.

My review:
A beautifully made movie that reminds me of the French movie "Double life of Veronica". The story captures audience's attention and raises their curiosity about how a subtle and special relationship is developed between two classmates, a boy and a girl with the same name, Itsuki. And how this untold relationship is finally revealed through the correspondence between the female Itsuki and the fiance of the male Itsuki two years after his death. The director adopts a subtle approach when revealing the relationship through the many past incidents. I particularly like the scene when the female Itsuki finally realised the significant of her relationship with the now deceased Itsuki, the long bottled emotions overwhelm her and she burst into tears.

Type: Drama Thriller, Japan 1995
Director:Masato Harada

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Koji Yakusho .... Kantake
Kazuya Takahashi .... Tatsuo
Reiko Kataoka .... Tama

Story:
A young gangster in the yakuza whose prostitute girlfriend was killed during a session with a high-ranking Japanese politician with a taste for torture. He seeks revenge and sets out on a 'kamikaze' mission to kill his bosses and the politician, his gangster friends were all killed after a failed mission; along the way, he acquires the aid of a taxi driver who has recently returned to Japan after living in South America for several decades and is struggling to cope with poverty and the prejudices of native-born Japanese. The taxi driver maybe just what this young gangster is needed to aid his revenge

My review:
An action-packed movie to unfold the dark side of the link between powerful politician and gangsters while the silent majority is just minding their own business, until the line is crossed and the weak and exploited has to fight back to demonstrate that they are not so weak afterall and it takes real courage to be brave and selfless like the "kamikaze".

Type: Drama, Japan 2000
Director:Yutaka Osawa, Akihiro Yonaiyama

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Akiko Oshidari .... Asako
Minoru Tanaka .... Ryuichi
Ai Okazaki .... Ai

Story:
Unuttered love is all the more melodious. Asako is an ordinary housewife who takes care of her husband and daughter. However, when her daughter's schoolmates see her communicate not with sound but with her hands, she is immediately labelled as a handicap. Her calm world is suddenly filled with malicious whispers and sniggers. Even her daughter is mocked at school. She realizes that deaf-mutes, just because they communicate differently, are discriminated in society. Asako is asked by her friends to re-join their deaf-theatrical troupe - Hands, which tries to promote mutual understanding with the hearing people through drama and plays....

My review:
The First Japanese Film Made by a Hearing and a Deaf Directors. This is a movie you can only see with your eyes, yet the message is thundering. It is Beyond Silence with a social theme. Simple yet touching, it does not scream for recognition and respect. Instead, by sharing their lives, we come to share their dignity. There is no handicapped love, only souls crippled by prejudice and condescension.