Ren Ohsugi Movies

Director Hajime Kadoi examines the humanity of the folks whose job it is to serve and honor the law with this compassion drama concerning a middle-aged prison guard who is called on to assist a condemned prisoner in his final moments. Adapted from the novel by Akira Yoshimura, Vacation tells the story of Hirai (Kaoru Kobayashi). A solitary figure at work, where he tends to model death row inmate Kaneda (Hidetoshi Nishijima), Hirai is engaged to marry single mother Mika (Nene Ohtsuka). Unfortunately for the soon-to-be-married couple, Hirai's job as a prison guard doesn't permit him the luxury of planning a proper honeymoon. An unanticipated opportunity for a week off of work soon arrives, however, when the minister of justice signs Kaneda's execution warrant. There's no doubt that Hirai could use a break, if not just for his honeymoon than to try and mend bridges with his future stepson, but that reprieve comes at a particularly high price. Kaneda is preparing to meet his executioner, and it's Hirai's job to ensure that the condemned man is treated with dignity and humanity in his final moments. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

One young man's struggle to find happiness in a family and a city fraught with strife sets the stage for this coming-of-age drama. Shuji (Yuya Tegoshi) and Shuichi are two brothers who were born and raised in Hama, a city in Western Japan. Shuichi is an ambitious young man who is determined to make something of himself, while Shuji is a quieter sort who is willing to let his brother be the star of the family. Hama becomes an increasingly difficult place to live, as a resort project designed to economically jump-start the city proves to be a massive failure and it's discovered that the village priest, Father Yuichi (Etsushi Toyokawa), has a scandalous past. The tensions of life in Hama become too much for Shuichi, who begins setting fire to buildings to vent his rage. Shuji, meanwhile, has taken solace in a romance with Eri (Hanae Kan), a girl from his school who has become an outcast after her parents killed themselves. Shuichi is finally captured by the police for his string of arsons, and is sent to jail; his parents go missing shortly afterward, and Father Yuichi struggles to hold the family together by keeping Shuichi in contact with his brother Shuji. Shuji falls into a deep depression and contemplates suicide, but instead decides he needs to see Eri. However, she has moved to Tokyo, so Shuji sets out to find her. En route, he becomes friendly with a woman named Akane (Miki Nakatani), which puts him in great danger when he learns she's the girlfriend of a notorious gangster. Shisso (aka Dead Run) received its North American premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Internationally acclaimed director and Japanese media phenomenon Takeshi Kitano follows up his well-regarded Kikujiro with this straight-ahead gangster saga with a cross-cultural twist. The film focuses on Yamamoto (Kitano), a yakuza forced out of the country when a gang war all but wipes out his clan. Armed with a fake credit card, a forged passport, and a bag of money, he journeys to the strange and foreign land of Los Angeles to join his half-brother Ken (Claude Maki), who works as a low-rent street tough alongside fast-talking hustler Denny (Omar Epps). With brutal efficiency, the poker-faced Yamamoto starts staking out turf and organizing Ken's mob into one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the city. As his gang grows in number and power, he is joined by Kato (Kitano regular Susumu Terajima), his former lieutenant from Japan, who entreats Little Tokyo's pathological crime boss Shirase (Masaya Kato) to join the group. Yamamoto seems unstoppable until his gang runs afoul of the Mafia. Soon, all that he built quickly and bloodily starts to unravel as every member in his gang is marked for death. This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Following up on his kinetic action-comedies Dangan Runner and Postman Blues, actor turned director Sabu spins this tale about a bank robbery gone laughably wrong. Yamazaki (played by Sabu regular Shinichi Tsutsumi) has spent days plotting a hit on a local bank, but when the time comes to do the deed, he finds some other guy sticking up the joint. Yamazaki promptly flees, but after a series of improbable accidents, the bank's money is literally dumped into his arms. As he flees, he accidentally runs into a comely beautician. Unfortunately, he was carrying a knife at the time; the woman kneels over dead as the bank's rent-a-cop bears down on Yamazaki. Meanwhile, a pair of mid-level thugs -- Kamada (Hiroshi Shimizu) and Matsuda (Akira Yamamoto) -- are looking to join a rival gang after their boss was recently jailed. Things appear to be going swimmingly for them until their bumptious colleague Kaneda (Ikko Suzuki) bursts in sporting the ski mask worn by Yamazaki. A freak act of fate renders Kaneda dead on the yakuza boss' floor, and Kamada and Matsuda in a situation that requires some serious explaining. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi