Kenichi Hagiwara Movies

Satoshi Isaka follows up on his taut media thriller Hasen no Marisu with this comic thriller about the perfect crime gone horribly wrong. A hard-up locksmith (Kenichi Hagiwara) and a vengeful computer nerd (Kazuma Suzuki) meet online, adopting the monikers Key and Gun respectively. Together they hatch a perfect heist against a consulting company -- Gun's former employer. At first everything goes perfectly. Gun's expert hacking from his laptop and Key's veteran touch quickly open the safe. Unfortunately, an overzealous security guard makes an unscheduled visit. After dispatching him, the two flee to the closest elevator, only to get stuck between the eighth and ninth floors. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Many may not be aware that during the 1930s a very covert civil war was going on in Japan and no government minister (and almost no military general officer) was safe from it. The conflict was chiefly between those who wanted to take over and exploit whatever parts of Asia could be conquered, and those with some sense of the limitations of this policy (whether they approved of it or not). One of the key moments in this battle was the 1936 assassination of several government ministers by a cadre of junior officers. They were distressed about the continued existence of dire poverty and unemployment in Japan, despite their country's recent and successful conquest of Manchuria. This film follows those young officers and takes the story up to the crucial day of February 26, when the attempted coup took place. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this romantic and erotic drama, Oda has achieved a place in the world which makes him think that it would be appropriate for him to find a mistress. He is a well-known poet and is married. He selects Yuko, a girl still in school, and duly finds an apartment for her. However, he is seldom around, and she spends a lot of her time waiting for him to come around and make love to her. Their relationship is very uneven: she is not allowed to play around, while he carries on with a divorced woman next door. They almost have a child, but he insists on an abortion. Later, when he dies, she shows up at his funeral. Her presence there is unwelcome, though everyone knows who she is. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this thriller, the authorities must try to find the murderer of a body found in a lake. Unfortunately, there is a problem with mistaken identities. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Just as many American studio-era directors found acclaim abroad that was denied them in their home country, by 1980 Akira Kurosawa's reputation outside Japan exceeded his esteem at home. As uncompromising as ever, he found considerable difficulty securing backing for his ambitious projects. Unsure he would be able to film it, the director, an aspiring artist before he entered filmmaking, converted Kagemusha into a series of paintings, and it was partly on the basis of these that he won the financial support of longtime admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Set in the 16th century, when powerful warlords competed for control of Japan, it offers an examination of the nature of political power and the slipperiness of identity. For some time, Shingen Takeda Tatsuya Nakadai has been able to stay removed from the heat of battle by using his brother Nobukado Tsutomu Yamazaki as a double. As the film opens, Nobukado offers another option, having discovered a condemned thief (also played by Tatsuya Nakadai) bearing an uncanny resemblance to the warlord. After he insists on witnessing the fall of an enemy in person, Shingen falls victim to a sniper's bullet, forcing his advisers to present the thief as the fallen warrior. At first awkward in his new position and plagued by dreams in which the spirit of his double confronts him, he slowly grows into the role even as his enemies begin to advance on his kingdom. The winner of the Palm D'Or at Cannes, Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior has also been released as The Double. ~ Keith Phipps, Rovi

This sad Japanese romantic melodrama tells the brief love story of a very alert young man and an extremely beautiful woman who meet, fall in love and part during a train ride. The woman (Keiko Kishi) is a criminal who has broken her parole agreement and must return to jail. The man (Kenichi Hagiwara), himself a robber and murderer, will never see her again. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi