Lost Paradise (1997)

Lost Paradise (1997)
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Veteran director Yoshimitsu Morita spins this romantic melodrama that was originally written by Junichi Watanabe and serialized in the Nihon Keizai Shinbum, Japan's answer to the Wall Street Journal. Kuki (Koji Yakusho) is a former magazine editor wunderkind whose star has dimmed as he slides into middle age. After corporate downsizing, he finds himself in an easily forgotten corner of a corporate conglomerate and, at home, in an increasingly chilly marriage. Rinko (Hitomi Kuroki) is an elegant calligraphy instructor who looks quite fetching in a kimono, and is similarly stuck in a nuptial dead-end. Both find solace in each other's arms, but their respective spouses are getting wise to their affair. Rinko's cheese-loving husband sics a private investigator on her, while Kuki's wife uses more intimate methods of divinating the truth. Given the forces that are pulling them apart, they resolve to take concrete measures that will insure they will be together forever. The film's ending features something rarely seen this side of a Monzaemon Chikamatsu play. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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Starring:
Koji YakushoHitomi Kuroki, (more)
Director(s):
Yoshimitsu Morita
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Lost Paradise

Veteran director Yoshimitsu Morita spins this romantic melodrama that was originally written by Junichi Watanabe and serialized in the Nihon Keizai Shinbum, Japan's answer to the Wall Street Journal. Kuki (Koji Yakusho) is a former magazine editor wunderkind whose star has dimmed as he slides into middle age. After corporate downsizing, he finds himself in an easily forgotten corner of a corporate conglomerate and, at home, in an increasingly chilly marriage. Rinko (Hitomi Kuroki) is an elegant calligraphy instructor who looks quite fetching in a kimono, and is similarly stuck in a nuptial dead-end. Both find solace in each other's arms, but their respective spouses are getting wise to their affair. Rinko's cheese-loving husband sics a private investigator on her, while Kuki's wife uses more intimate methods of divinating the truth. Given the forces that are pulling them apart, they resolve to take concrete measures that will insure they will be together forever. The film's ending features something rarely seen this side of a Monzaemon Chikamatsu play. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
120 mins

Complete Cast of Lost Paradise


Director(s):
Yoshimitsu Morita
Writer(s):
Tomomi Tsutsui
Producer(s):
Nasato Hara
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    Member Reviews
     
    Greg S.

    Unnecessary with the continuous soft core porn. Story is a conventional Romeo & Juliet "love conquers all" story; sexual attraction absolutely trumps all other values

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    Karl S.

    If you're into gratuitous high-minded porno, this is the film for you. The familiar story of a deadly extramarital affair is well prepared but it seemed to me that the male lead, Koji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance"), couldn't find the right reactions to the script's descent into a dead end. A longtime fan of Japanese cinema and Japanese traditional theater, I found this film more universal than Japanese.

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    Rick C.

    Adultry, strung out without eroticism, great acting and very interesting filming without a very good script. If you like Kabuki theatre and other Japanese traditional theater, you'll love it, the rest of us will be bored.

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