Rentaro Mikuni Movies

Juzo Itami's Minbo no Onna -- a virtual textbook on how to beat yakuza harassment -- was a big hit and almost got its director killed in the wake of a gangland knife-attack. Itami's follow-up is a light-hearted meditation on death and dying, strongly recalling Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru. Buhei Mikai (Rentaro Mikuni) is a middle-aged film director afflicted with stomach cancer, though true to convention, he is not informed of his malady. Instead, the hard-drinking Mikai continues to direct and star in a maudlin tearjerker about, ironically, a couple stricken with cancer. Though married to his long-suffering wife (played by Itami regular and wife of the director Nobuko Miyamoto), Mikai is having an affair with his onscreen spouse (Haruna Takase). Mikai's feelings of health and well-being give way to anger and confusion when he is suddenly told that he needs an urgent operation. While in a hospital waiting room, a fellow cancer patient tells Mikai of how doctors conceal the truth from their patients. Just as Watanabe does in Ikiru, Mikai grows pale and quickly learns that he too has been a victim of the hospital's ruse. His wife -- who had cottoned on to her husband's extramarital dalliances and who was on the brink of leaving him -- rallies to his side. After a couple of desperate attempts at suicide Mikai awakes for the first time to the joys of life and family. Soon the director returns home to die, surrounded by friends and loved ones. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Most famous in Japan and in the West for his long-running Otoko Wa Tsurai yo series which totaled a record breaking 48 installments, Yoji Yamada has in his spare time made some of Japan's most beloved works such as the Siawasi No Kiroi Hankachi, which won best picture in the 1977 Japanese Academy Awards. In this go around, Yamada treads familiar territory about tradition and change. The film centers on Akio (Rentaro Mikuni), a family patriarch who maintains a traditional household in northern Iwate prefecture, while his three grown children live in various parts of Japan. On the one-year anniversary of his wife's death, they return home to pay their respects at the family altar. The last to appear is Tetsuya (Masatoshi Nagase), a barkeep living the high life in the trendy Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku. Akio voices his belief that his youngest son is wasting his life, the two argue, and part on harsh terms. As the film progresses, Tetsuya evolves from being a youthful layabout to an industrious metal worker under the approving eye of his gruff father. Later, the youth falls in love with a beautiful deaf woman (Emi Wakui) and soon Akio's prodigal son becomes a productive member of society. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In this good-natured comedy, Densuke (Toshiyuki Nishidin), the clerk to a Japanese construction company living in southern Shikoku, is no longer a young man. He doesn't have many things he cares about anymore, except his daily fishing expeditions. He is unhappy to learn that his loyal service now requires that he be "promoted" to the Tokyo office where such regular pleasures will no longer be possible. In the last few days before he must move, Densuke continues to enjoy his fishing expeditions. On one such day, he meets Suzuki (Rentaro Mikuni), an affable old man who is obviously very lonely, and he invites him to join him on his daily fishing trip. The old man does, and has a whopping good time, in part because on the first day he catches an enormous amount of fish. The old man figures out that Densuke works for the company he is president of long before Densuke gets wise, but after a few small disturbances, the natural harmony of the universe is pleasingly restored. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This comedy satire is the sequel to the third biggest box office draw in Japan during the 1987 season. Ryoko (Nobuko Miyamoto) is the diligent female tax collector who exposes a fake religious cult using their status to avoid paying their share of taxes. She sets out to collect the evidence that will prove the cult's culpability. Ryoko discovers the cult was set up by a shady real estate speculator to take advantage of their tax exemption. Director Juzo Itami takes satirical jabs at unscrupulous entrepreneurs, Tokyo University, and sexual exploitation. This sequel is even funnier that the original, which was the third biggest box office draw in Japan in 1987. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In the 12th century, Buddhism was still a relatively new religion in Japan. At that time, one school (Shingon) offered extensive training in complex and very demanding practices which might eventually bring about spiritual purification and realization. Various Zen schools offered students a lengthy path, literally composed of a blank wall and unceasing meditation. Yet another school (Tendai) emphasized complex metaphysics and the study of philosophical systems. Basically, all of them were designed to cater to the few who were able to give up everything else in their lives and focus on liberation, such as scholars and noblemen. In this historical and biographical drama, this is the situation that the young Shinran (1173-1263) discovered when he began exploring Buddhism as an alternative to the violence and ceaseless civil wars that racked Japan at the time. There was nothing out there for the common man, and the common man was desperately in need of hope and succor. Out of his experiences, the compassionate priest came to understand that "self-power" forms of practice were not especially helpful, and his teachings emphasized "other-power," the compassionate intervention of the Buddha Amida (Amitabha), which followers could receive by reciting an homage to him (Namo Amida Butsu). This alone would ensure the devotee's rebirth in Amida's Pure Land (a kind of heaven) and many blessings in this life. Hence, the school of Buddhism he founded came to be known as "Pure Land" or Shin Buddhism, and along with its many offshoots it became (as intended) the most popular and widespread form of Buddhist practice in Japan and continues in that role today. As for this complex movie, though lavishly produced, it was reportedly quite confusing to less well-informed (usually non-Japanese) audiences and failed to involve those for whom these religious controversies were not particularly compelling. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In a wholly serious, somber argument for euthanasia, director Yoshishige Yoshida focuses on a family with an aged and severely ailing grandmother. When police arrive at the family's home to investigate the elderly woman's death, her husband comes forward and says he murdered her. Flashbacks tell the story of how the woman's mind was completely gone, her body barely functioned at all, and she was in a great deal of misery. Also, her family was burdened with her care and were severely depressed by her declining situation. Since grandmother herself did not want to live any longer, the question for the police is whether a crime should be acknowledged or not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Kinzo Otuka (Rentaro Mikuni) is a defense lawyer who refuses the request of Kiriko (Momoe Yamaguchi) to defend her brother after he is falsely accused of murder. When her brother commits suicide, Kiriko is convinced that Kinzo could have saved her sibling. She seeks vengeance by planting evidence against Kinzo's mistress Michiko (Akiko Koyama) and lies to the police to set her up on a murder rap. Tomokazu Miura plays the investigative reporter who falls for Kiriko and proposes marriage. Kinzo professes profound regret for not helping Kiriko and berates himself for only taking the cases of those who can afford his services. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The story of a young woman in the early 1900s who is abused and living in poverty while being overworked in a silk mill in Japan. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

Set in 1901, this movie depicts the fate of two military training companies sent on war exercises to Mount Hakkoda in the northernmost part of the main island of Japan. They were preparing for maneuvers in the Russo-Japanese War, on the orders of Maj. General Tomoda, in terrain which they believed would be similar to those they would encounter during the war itself. They were asked to rendezvous somewhere on the mountain. The smaller group was headed by a man who scouted the local area and asked local people how best to survive the conditions they would encounter. This group also asked for local guides. They survived quite handily, but could not complete their mission because the larger group, which trusted their modern procedures and military training and spurned the locals' offers of guidance, was lost -- frozen, on the mountain. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Using modern scientific biases to strip away the mystery behind ancient legends is an activity not confined to Europe or the Americas. In this Japanese film, the mythological foundations of Japanese society are explained away, albeit poetically. Here, the Sun Goddess responsible for the founding of Japan is seen as conniving woman Himiko (Masao Kusakari), who rules a small portion of the Japanese islands in the third century through her influence over several powerful men. When she is killed for reasons of political expediency, the film zooms back to reveal her mourners as figures in modern-day Japan. ~ Clarke Fountain, 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

The Japanese title of Band of Assassins was Shinsengumi, which pinpointed the assassins in question. The Shinshen was a covert military organization in the employ of the 19th-century Japanese aristocracy. To protect their decadent employers, the Shinshen regularly ventured out to kill political enemies and other undesirables. Toshiro Mifune is among the participants in the film's steady (and seemingly endless) stream of bloodletting. Band of Assassins was one of the bread-and-butter pictures which Mifune made in order to afford to work in more prestigious fare. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi