Category: Rating 3

L Change the World

Horror, Thriller, Japan 2008
Director: Hideo Nakata

Cast
Kenichi Matsuyama - L
Shunji Fujimura - Watari
Mayuko Fukuda - Maki
Sei Hiraizumi - Dr. Koichi Matsudo
Renji Ishibashi - Shin Kagami
Yuta Kanai - Tamotsu Yoshizawa
Youki Kudoh - Dr. Kujo
Bokuzo Masana - Asao Konishi
Kiyotaka Nanbara
Megumi Sato - Hatsune Misawa
Masanobu Takashima

L saves the world again on a separate mission...

Building on the Character "L" from Death Note, this is a story about the last 23 days of L since he signed his own death warrant by writing his name into the "Death note".

Shall we kiss? Un baiser s'il vous pla?t

Romantic comedy, France 2007
Director: Emmanuel Mouret

Virginie Ledoyen ... Judith
Emmanuel Mouret ... Nicolas
Julie Gayet ... ?milie

Micha?l Cohen ... Gabriel
Fr?d?rique Bel ... Caline
Stefano Accorsi ... Claudio

Story: Emilie was out of her home town and met a stranger Gabriel who gave her a lift. They ended up spending the day together and had dinner together, just when they were going to part and say goodbye for the night, Gabriel tried to kiss her and she resisted. She then tried to explain to Gabriel how something that happened to her friends made her very hesitant in kissing him. She told him the story of her friends - it was about Nicolas and Judith who started off as just very good friends and how a bizarre request of Nicolas has set them onto a dangerous emotional/physical journey, it has something to do with a certain kiss between them ...

My review:
We were given free tickets of this movie at the premier of the Hong Kong international film festival in March 2008. Tickets were provided by French Tourism board to French alumni association of Hong Kong. The director/leading actor Emmanuel Mouret was there too.

A nice and wonderful comedy that makes fun of friendship, love, husband, wife, lovers, kisses and sex. Sounds like all the good ingredients for a romantic comedy. There were no shortage of funny situation and carefully crafted script

Love and Honour - Bushi no ichibun

Drama, Japanese 2006
Director: Y?ji YamadaDirector: Nobuhiro Doi

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Takuya Kimura ... Shinnojo Mimura
Rei Dan ... Kayo Mimura
Mitsugoro Bando ... Toya Shimada

Story:
Shinnojo Mimura is a low ranking samurai whose job is to taste/test the food prepared for the Lord for poison. During one tasting, the ill-prepared seafood become poisonous and as a result, Mimura becomes blind. Life becomes very hard for the blind samurai and his wife Kayo was cheated by the chief of staff who pretends that he would help Mimura to secure his stipend despite his blindness. When Mimura found out about this, he decided he should defend his own name by challenging the chief of staff who is a well trained swordsman.

My review:
This is the last of the samurai trilogy by the great director Yoji Yamada, the other two films being The Hidden Blade and the Twilight Samurai. Yamada likes to portray samurai as a down to earth person who has many real things to worry about in life and the fact that they have a family and problems of their own just like everyone else. This is very different from most other films where the samurai somehow has unlimited money, meals are always cooked for, ends are always met and so they do extraordinary things.

Though all 3 samurai movies are well made (just as you would expect from Yamada), it is getting a bit plain watching the same ideas again. Nonetheless, this is still a good movie to watch and especially, we don't get to see Takuya Kimura acting in an ancient setting.

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The Hidden Blade (buy from Amazon)

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The Twilight Samurai (buy from Amazon)

Sinking of Japan - Nihon chinbotsu

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Sinking of Japan (Standard Edition) DVD (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Fantasy, Adventures, Japan, 2006

Director: Shinji Higuchi

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Tsuyoshi Kusanagi ... Toshio Onodera
Kou Shibasaki ... Reiko Abe
Etsushi Toyokawa ... Yusuke Tadokoro
Mao Daichi ... Saori Takamori

Story:
Volcanoes are erupting, earth is shaking, Japan is sinking. What can the government do?

My review:
Interesting plot, an idea that has been hanging at the back of the mind of many Japanese. Long overdue earthquake, Fuji volcanoes eruption. Sinking country.

The question of staying or leaving, survival, and love.

Dororo

DororoType, Country, Year: Action / Fantasy, Japan, 2007

Director: Akihiko Shiota

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Satoshi Tsumabuki ... Hyakkimaru
Kou Shibasaki ... Dororo

Story:
Hyakkimaru is a young man who has 48 body parts missing since he was born, because his father Kagemitsu Daigo made a deal with 48 demons, the demons take the body parts and materialize on earth and Kagemitsu gets to win his war and tries to conquer the whole of Japan. When Hyakkimaru was born, his parents were horrified and throw him to the river, he was raised by a wizard who made fake body parts for him. When he grows up, he wants to kill these demons to reclaim his body parts. Along the adventure he met a thief, Dororo.

My review:
I have always like Japanese fantasy movies, this one is pretty interesting. It is based on a comic book by the Japanese master Osamu Tezuka in the late 1960s.

Nana

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Nana (Single Disc Edition) (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Drama, Japan, 2005

Director: Kentar? ?tani

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Mika Nakashima ... Nana Osaki
Aoi Miyazaki ... Nana Komatsu
Hiroki Narimiya ... Nobuo Terashima
Ken'ichi Matsuyama ... Shin
Saeko ... Sachiko

Story:
Two girls both called Nana met by chance on a train and become good friends even though they have such different personalities. Incidentally they also end up renting a flat together. One of them is a rock singer who is deeply troubled with her relationship with her ex-boyfriend who is also a rock artist, he left her band to join another and pursue something bigger and indeed became very famous. The other Nana dreams of marrying her boyfriend and would do anything for him, only to find that they are too young and not ready for marriage, especially when she discovers that he has a new girlfriend.

The two girls have a lot to learn from each other...

My review:
Not supposed to be an exciting firm but nice in its own way to tell two stories of young girls in their early 20s who pursue very different lives and face with different problems and issues with people around them.

Death Note 2 - The last name

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Death Note: The Last Name (The Live Action Movie) DVD (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Fantasy, Japan, 2006

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Tatsuya Fujiwara ... Light Yagami
Takeshi Kaga ... Soichiro Yagami
Shido Nakamura ... Ryuuk (voice)
Erika Toda ... Misa Amane

Story:
This is the sequel of Death Note. Genius Detective L is trying to find proofs that Light is Kara. At the same time, a second kara appears which complicates the matter. Would L be able to catch them all or would he fail and pay the ultimate price for going against Kara?

My review:
I have read the comic book and the story is a lot more complicated. But the adopted movie version is not bad but a bit rush and the plot is less cunning. Nonetheless, it is a interesting story.

Azumi 2

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Azumi Uncut 2 Disc Limited Edition (buy from Amazon)
Type, Country, Year: Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Thriller, Japanese, 2005

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Aya Ueto ... Azumi
Yuma Ishigaki ... Nagara

Chiaki Kuriyama ... Kozue
Shun Oguri ... Ginkaku
Kenichi Endo ... Kinkaku (as Kenichi Endou)

Kai Shishido ... Hanzou

Story:
Continuing the story from Azumi 1, having killed 2 out of 3 of the warlords, Azumi and one remaining assassin must complete their mission to kill the last warlord but he is not going to sit and wait for their attack, in fact he has his own protection and attack team in the form of ninjas. He proactively launch attack on the buddest monk and on Azumi and her friends...

My review:
Yet more killing scenes and Azumi struggles on whether she should continue her mission and to understand the meaning of mission.

Though a bit repeatative, nonetheless the movie is pretty entertaining, especially if you like assassins vs ninja type of movie.

Azumi

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Azumi (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Adventure/ Drama/ Fantasy/ Thriller, Japanese, 2003

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

My rating: 3

Key actors/actresses:
Aya Ueto ... Azumi
Shun Oguri ... Nachi
Hiroki Narimiya ... Ukiha
Kenji Kohashi ... Hyuga
Takatoshi Kaneko ... Amagi
Yuma Ishigaki ... Nagara

Story:
At the end of the war, the Buddist monk of the country fears that in order to have long lasting peace, he must eliminate all the warlords, he asks the General to hide and secretly trains 10 kids to become assassins. Years later these assassins are ready to take on their mission to kill the three warlords who threaten peace. But their first mission to test their readiness is to kill their best friends who they have known and trained together since childhood. Azumi the only girl in the group (and the strongest) has to kill her boyfriend to prove her loyalty. The remaining 5 follow their master and try to accomplish their mission, but they soon find out that it is not as easy as they think...

My review:
I must say I find the master of the assassins very stupid, I mean halving your resource before you start and inducing doubts and questions in the surviving assassins as a result is hardly a smart move. This also contribute to the difficulty they have later. Too much repeatitive and senseless killing in the movie. Azumi's much exaggerated killing ability is hardly convincing.

The Girl from Paris

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The Girl from Paris (Une hirondelle a fait le printemps) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] (buy from Amazon)

Director: Christian Carion

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Michel Serrault ... Adrien
Mathilde Seigner ... Sandrine Dumez

Story:
Sandrine is a Parisien who wants to become a farmer. Adrien is an old farmer, widower who is selling his farm. Sandrine bought Adrien's farm and turn it into a resort/farm, she has much to learn to be a farmer, Adrien also wants to train her, but he is keeping this cold face because all the farmers are skeptical about Parisien turns farmer... Indeed, it is a lot more difficult than Sandrine has anticipated but she is not giving up!

My review:
Though the plot is not really my cup of tea, but it is a nice simple story that is peaceful and positive. It presented some hardship that is not readily understood by people who live all their lives in the city.

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