Kenichi Yajima Movies

Four very different women search for love and meaning in their lives in the hustle and bustle of downtown Tokyo in this comedy-drama. Satoko (Chizuru Ikewaki) is a bright woman who has somehow ended up working as the front desk clerk at an upscale bordello. While she's bubby and optimistic, Satoko doesn't meet many eligible men at work and she longs for a husband. One of the prostitutes working at the bordello is Akiyo (Yuko Nakamura); while she's still pretty, she's not as young as she once was and has grown jaded, and in her spare time she cultivates her friendship with Kikuchi (Masanobu Ando), who she's secretly loved for years. Toko (Toko Iwase) is an artist living on the other side of Tokyo; she's obsessed with her work and suffers from an eating disorder aggravated by her growing isolation. And Chihiro (Noriko Nakagoshi), who shares a flat with Toko, is an office girl who wants nothing more than to settle down with her boyfriend Nagai (Ryo Kase) and become the ideal housewife, though it becomes increasingly obvious that he's never going to marry her. Strawberry Shortcakes was adapted from a popular manga by Kiriko Nananan; Toko Iwase, who plays the artist Toko in the film, is also a noted manga artist, publishing under the name Kiriko Nananan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Masato Harada, who directed such critically acclaimed fare as Bounce Ko Gal and Kamikaze Taxi, rides the wave of Japanese horror flicks that followed the mega-success of Ring with this supernatural tale about moving to the wrong town and falling for the wrong girl. Akira Nutahara (Atsuro Watabe) is a young, attractive grade-school teacher who gets transferred to a remote school high up in the mountains of Kochi prefecture in Shikoku. There he promptly falls for fortyish spinster and paper maker Miki Bonomiya (Yuki Amami). Akira soon learns that Miki's family is reviled in the village because of its long-rumored association with a fearsome and bloodthirsty deity named Inugami. He also learns that she and her evil, thuggish brother, who runs the local paper mill, are having a continuing -- though nonconsensual -- incestuous relationship. When Akira tries to escape with her from the village, he quickly learns that her connection to the burg goes beyond normal, material bonds. This film was screened at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Actor and auteur Takeshi Kitano (who in Japan also uses the stage name "Beat" Takeshi, primarily for his work as a television comedian) wrote, directed, edited, and starred in this unusual crime drama. Nishi (Takeshi Kitano) is a policeman whose emotions seem to run only on two extreme paths -- either quiet contentment or brutal rage. Nishi's life is falling apart around him; his daughter was murdered, his wife, Miyuki (Kayoko Kishimoto), is dying of leukemia, his partner, Horibe (Ren Osugi), was ambushed by thugs after Nishi left him to visit his wife in the hospital and will now spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, and another cop was killed coming to Horibe's rescue. Nishi desperately wants to quit his job so he can spend more time with his dying wife, so he borrows a large sum of money from the yakuza (the Japanese mafia) and takes up a career as a painter while he cares for Miyuki. Not wanting to stay in debt to the gangsters, Nishi engineers a daring bank robbery (using his police uniform and an old auto disguised to look like a squad car) and uses the loot to pay off the yakuza and take his wife on a final vacation. However, the loan sharks are not eager to have Nishi off the hook, and they begin complaining that he still owes them interest on their loan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A former cop starts a new business that finds him walking a tightrope between both sides of the law in Torabu Tumata. Nango (Koji Matoba) is a one-time police officer who left the force after getting involved with a gangster's girlfriend; he's now struggling to make a career as a singer. His uncle Shozo (Leo Morimoto), who isn't terribly bright, needs work as badly as Nango does. The pair make the acquaintance of a youthful Yakuza who suggests they start a problem-solving business that would make use of Nango's excellent abilities as a negotiator. While their first assignment doesn't go well (while helping a mother talk to her drug-addicted son, Nango starts to beat him up), the trio keep at it, and are eventually hired by Miyata (Tatsumi Nikamoto), a gangster who wants them to help out a friend of his. Koran (Hiroko Fukada) is a madame, and two of her girls were brutally raped; Nango and his partners do some investigating and find, to their distress, the attacks can be traced back to a bar where Miyata's men hang out. Torabu Tumata was made in 1995, though it didn't receive screenings outside Japan until 1999. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi