Naomi Nishida Movies
- 2002
From the Japanese cult-flick director known simply as Sabu, Koufuku No Kane (The Blessing Bell) follows Igarashi (Susumu Terajima) through the last 24 hours before the factory he works for closes down, leaving him unemployed. After a job hunt brings him no results, Igarishi ponders his fate at the banks of a local river. He isn't counting on an old man committing suicide right next to him, but that is precisely what happens. The problem gets further complicated when a policeman finds the body in the same vicinity as Igarishi, and sends him mistakenly off to jail. Rather than leaving Igarishi feeling even more persecuted, prison life gives the blue-collar young man a sense of purpose. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Susumu Terajima, Naomi Nishida, (more)
- 2001
- R
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One of an amazing seven features directed in 2001 by Japan's prolific shock auteur Takashi Miike, The Happiness of the Katakuris is a gleefully morbid musical comedy about a family of oddballs who open an inn in the mountains. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, none of their guests leave their rooms alive. In order to protect their business, the family resorts to burying the corpses in the backyard, but this only leads to a zombie problem. Meanwhile, the daughter falls in love with Richard, a mysterious British navy officer, who looks suspiciously Japanese but claims to be the nephew of Queen Elizabeth herself. Just when Richard bungles onto a clue that might lead him to uncover the string of disappearing guests, a nearby volcano begins rumbling to life. Propelled by musical numbers rife with movie and pop culture references, The Happiness of the Katakuris is a departure from Miike's famously gruesome thrillers. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, (more)
Following Roland Emmerich's controversial Americanization of the Japanese monster icon in Godzilla (1998), the Beast from the East comes roaring back in this sci-fi adventure tale. Yuji Shinoda (Naomi Nishida), a scientist devoted to researching Godzilla, is setting up equipment on a fog-shrouded peninsula with her daughter Io (Mayu Suzuki) and journalist Yuki Ichinose (Takehiro Murata) when everyone's favorite 180-foot-tall lizard appears from the sea and begins laying siege to a nuclear power plant. The military swings into action, but the monster's fiery breath soon uncovers an alien spacecraft; beings from outer space have come to take over the earth, and now Godzilla is our last line of defense against them. Hugely successful in Japan, Gojira Mireniamu (aka Godzilla 2000) was the first Japanese Godzilla movie since Godzilla 1985 to receive a US theatrical release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Takehiro Murata, Shiro Sano, (more)
- 1999
Made under the restrictions of "no zoom, pan, editing or post-sound," directors Shinobu Yaguchi and Takuji Suzuki skewer Japanese social conventions in 14 short episodes. In one segment a woman misreads an advertisement and arrives at a job interview dressed in a bunny suit. Another concerns a woman who hides to surprise her friends only to overhear their unkind appraisal of her hygiene. And another entitled "Grandpa from Hell" is a surreal yarn about a cult leader. Ranging from the humorous to the deeply bizarre, the film's static, minimalistic style makes such "Dogme 95" films as The Celebration (1998) look extravagant. One Piece! was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yoji Tanaka
- 1997
Shinobu Yaguchi -- who directed such comedies as Down the Drain and Adrenaline Drive -- spins this get-rich-quick caper comedy. Sakiko Suzuki (Naomi Nishida) is a shy, mousy lass with one unusual kink -- she loves counting money. Naturally, she is overjoyed when she lands a job as a bank teller. Yet she soon realizes that counting Yen loses its glamour when you can't keep any of it. She fantasizes about becoming a hostage in a daring bank robbery, if only to alleviate the tedium of her job. Then one day, her dream comes true, as she's spirited out of the bank by a pair of crooks and stuffed into the truck of their car. As luck would have it, the thugs prove to be remarkably bad drivers; during their getaway, they careen off a mountain road and into a valley. Just as the car explodes in flames, Sakiko and the suitcase full of money are thrown free of the wreck. Passing out as she clutches the suitcase, she floats down a mountain stream, and over a waterfall. She comes to by a surprised group of picnickers and quickly surmises that the suitcase -- containing five hundred million yen (about five million bucks) -- has been sucked into an underground grotto. If she some how managed to retrieve the loot, if would be the perfect crime. The police and bank assumed that the dough burned up with the crooks. Sakiko quickly transforms from a mousy oddball to a superwoman. She enrolls at a university expressly to study geology, rock climbing, scuba diving, and anything else that would get her the money. Along the way, she attracts the attention of a lecherous professor (Go Riju) and the ire of his jealous student girlfriend (Takako Kato). ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
