Kaori Momoi Movies

A band of outsiders takes to the highways in this touching independent drama. Brett (William Hurt) is a petty criminal who is eager to turn his life around after spending six years in jail. Brett is looking for a ride home to Louisiana, and happens upon a pair of teenagers up for a road trip -- Martine (Kristen Stewart), a 15-year-old girl whose attempts to catch the eye of a boy she loves have ended in failure, and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne), a geeky outcast wishing he could find somewhere to fit in. Brett persuades Martine and Gordy to give him a ride home, and together the three misfits bond over their shared need for acceptance. Driving toward a New Orleans that's been leveled by Hurricane Katrina, Brett can't help but ponder the biggest question in his life -- if his wife, May (Maria Bello), will take him back now that he's a free man. Based on a short story by Pete Hamill, The Yellow Handkerchief received its world premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Japanese writer-director Kaori Momoi's feature Faces of a Fig Tree (AKA Ichijiku No Kao) observes the tragedies that begin to pull apart the ties of the Kadowaki family. The story opens with the clan rough-hewn but tightly-knit by the bonds of intimacy. Circumstances start to go awry when the patriarch suddenly and without substantial explanation accepts a night job on a construction site, thus raising suspicions of infidelity in his wife. Another member of the family, Oto, then dies of a brain hemorrhage; Masaa, the mother, cracks up emotionally; and Yume, the daughter, learns that she was actually adopted by her parents. Stylistically, Momoi's production designer, Kimura Takeo (a longtime collaborator with Suzuki Seijun) utilizes bright, garish colors and hyper-stylized set design that make the film thoroughly unique. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

This film, based on the novel by Arthur Golden, unfolds from the perspective of Chiyo (Zhang Ziyi), a girl who, at the age of nine, is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto in the early 1930s. Here, she learns that becoming a geisha can be the single path to wealth and independence for a woman. The head geisha of her house, however, Hatsumomo (Gong Li), is bitterly jealous of Chiyo and abuses her at every opportunity. Eventually Chiyo is taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's rival, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), by far the most famous and successful geisha in their district. Under Mameha's tutelage, Chiyo becomes Sayuri, the most legendary geisha in the nation, skilled in all areas, from conversation to dance, and sought after by seemingly every man alive...except for the one whom she has secretly longed for since she began her training, The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) -- a man who showed her kindness at a time when her view of the world had turned the most bleak. Now as World War II approaches, Japan stands at the brink of a new era and Sayuri must confront the possibility that history will leave all that she has worked for behind. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Renowned director Stanley Kwan spins this parable about post-handover Hong Kong, the second in a trilogy about the former colony that began with Hold You Tight (1998). Inspired from the 1998 "bird flu" that killed several people and prompted authorities to order the wholesale slaughter of that city's chickens, this film centers on seven disparate people trapped on an island because of a government quarantine. The film opens with Haruki (Takao Osawa), a Japanese writer suffering from consumption, trying to write his next novel. Other characters that populate the film include Sharon (Michele Reis), a lesbian Chinese-American businesswoman who lived on the island as a child, Sharon's married Japanese friend Marianne (Kaori Momoi), and party girl Mei Ling (played by former pin-up model Shu Qi), who came to the island to meet a Brit with whom she shacked up the night before. Also, there is young actor Han (Julian Cheung), hailing from Hong Kong, and Bo (Gordon Liu) the gay middle-aged manager of the island's hotel. After the aforementioned people cross paths, news comes that the government has stopped all traffic to and from the island for an indefinite period of time in order to prevent the spread of the "stone virus." As the long night wears on, the inhabitants have little to do except wait and talk. Soon they begin to reveal more and more of themselves. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Ripped straight from the headlines of 1990s Japan, this film directed by Masato Harada explores the ticklish issue of enjo kosai -- a much-hyped phenomenon in which Tokyo schoolgirls (kogyaru) go on paid dates with lecherous middle-aged men. Set in the ultra-fashionable neighborhood of Shibuya, this film details a day in the lives of such freewheeling young women. Bounce Ko Gals opens with Raku (Yasue Sato) accompanying her round-faced friend Maru (Shin Yazawa) to an after-school abortion. After that minor medical inconvenience, Maru meets up with a prospective john -- a suavely dressed cat named Oshima (played by the ubiquitous Koji Yakusho). Unfortunately, Oshima proves to be a yakuza running a brothel out of a date club, and he regards Maru and her cohorts as unwanted competition. When one of Maru's pals, Jonko (Hitomi Sato) -- a street-smart, stun gun-wielding enjo kosai who prefers to swipe the cash from her clients instead of exchanging fluids with them -- tries to negotiate with the mobster on her friend's behalf, she finds herself unwittingly forced into Oshima's stable of whores. At the same time, while parading around town in a naughtily tailored schoolgirl uniform for a porn-flick guerrilla shoot, Raku runs into Risa (Yukiko Okamoto), a young lass who finally scraped together enough money for a long-planned trip to New York by selling her panties and consorting with perverts. When Raku's shoot is busted by a couple of punks and Risa's savings are stolen, the two flee into a nearby park. As Risa grows ever more despondent, Raku hatches a scheme to recoup her new friend's 100,000- yen savings before her departure the following day. Not surprisingly, this plan involves enjo kosai . Bounce was screened at the 1998 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Following up on the fantastic success of Love Letter, pop phenom Shunji Iwai directs this phantasmagoric sprawling sci-fi drama set in a polyglotic encampment known as Aozora (blue skies) on the fringe of a megalopolis called Yen Town. Its ragtag -- and remarkably fashionable -- inhabitants are into every kind of nefarious activity imaginable. The film centers on Glico (played by pop star Chara), a Chinese hooker who tattooed a swallowtail butterfly to her chest so that she might be identified after death. Other inhabitants include a doe-eyed orphaned teen (Ayumi Ito) whom Glico takes under her wing and dubs Ageha ("caterpillar"), and Feihong (Hiroshi Mikami), a master grifter who is in love with Glico. One day, a couple of other Aozora-dwellers -- a slick Chinese hustler named Ran (Atsuro Watabe) and jumpy Iranian con-artist Nihat (Abraham Levin) -- discover a cassette tape in the stomach of a dead gangster. The tape not only contains the tune "My Way" but also a computer code to counterfeit 10,000-yen notes. Soon every shantytown resident is cheating change machines everywhere and making a killing in the process. With his newfound wealth, Feihong opens a nightclub with Glico as the lead act. Soon the actual owners of the tape -- a ruthless band of Chinese gangsters -- cotton on to the Aozorian's scheme and demand their money back. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Directors Toshio Terada, Jun Ichikawa, and Kaori Momoi spin this omnibus film about that cornerstone of Japanese society -- the goaisatsu. Long, stilted, and often painfully maudlin speeches delivered in the floral style of formal Japanese, the goaisatsu graces such public events as wedding receptions, going-away parties, and high school reunions. The first section, directed by Terada and entitled "Iroiro Arimashite," opens at a going-away party for a young worker who has decided to leave her job to marry. During her speech, she makes the off-handed remark that "various things have happened" ("iroiro arimashite"). This aside sends the upper management into a fit of anxiety -- what did she mean? Was she sexually harassed? Was she harboring some awful company secret? They assign her former boss (Keizo Kanie) to get to the bottom of the matter. His investigation lands him in the heart of workplace darkness where office intrigue, petty rivalries, and half-hidden desires are the norm. As he sinks deeper into this corporate quagmire of the soul, his wife complains of neglect and his bosses grow impatient for a report. The second segment, helmed by Ichikawa and titled "Kayo," tells of a lonely middle-aged woman (Mamako Yoneyama) who works at a train station newspaper stand. She wakes at the crack of dawn in her dingy claustrophobic apartment, works long tedious hours making change and stocking her wares, and then returns home by train. When she attends the wedding of her co-worker, she makes a quiet though moving goaisatsu. The final segment, directed by and starring Kaori Momoi, is about a thirtyish unmarried woman who makes a drunken, though heartfelt speech at her high school reunion. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Historians and humanitarians still argue over whether it was truly necessary to drop a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Ashita probes this volatile subject not by recreating the fateful blast, but by backtracking 24 hours. Director Kazuo Kuroki speculates on what things were like in Nagasaki on August 8, 1945 -- the day before the bombing. Unavoidably heartbreaking, occasionally profound, Ashita is the cinematic equivalent to the old adage which begins "In the midst of life..." The title, incidentally, translates as Tomorrow. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A producer of softcore videos is a family man who suffers from sexual dysfunction in this often disturbing erotic drama. He discovers he can only be aroused when his blood is drawn. He carries on a series of affairs with some of his erotic actresses until two conspire to end his philandering ways. Toshiyuki Nagashima plays the producer whose sexual obsessions lead him to ruin. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In a slow-paced narrative interspersed with close-ups of tomatoes, a bottle, and similar animate or inanimate artifacts, this film carefully unfolds the story of how a musician gives a ride to a little girl as he is peddling along on his bicycle, and after an encounter with a man incongruously playing away on a piano in an open field, the two take off for northern Japan without thinking of telling the girl's parents -- who are going to be understandably upset when their daughter appears to have been kidnapped. The police start their hunt for the "kidnapper," as he and the girl remain oblivious to the furor stirred up by her supposed abduction -- but not for long, the police are coming closer by the minute, ignoring all the tomatoes and bottles in their path. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this melodrama, a young Japanese student juggles two different lovers with the usual consequences. She is actually in love with one of them, an odd, eccentric journalist, but for various reasons she does not break off the relationship with her other lover, a less than likeable student. In addition to these evolving liaisons, a few other men come into the picture, none of whom are great advertisements for men in general or for fidelity. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The various factions opposing the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1860s Japan did not always work in tandem, as is made clear in this historical drama about the assassination of Ryoma Sakamoto, the head of the important Tosa clan. The Tosa clan worked simultaneously (if not altogether cooperatively) with the Satsuma-Chosu clans to bring about a new form government for Japan, to enable the country to continue resist encroachments by the Europeans. The revolution they engendered is now known as the "Meiji Restoration," for it put titular authority back into the hands of Japan's emperors. The complexity of the plots and counterplots leaves it unclear, by the film's end, whether Ryoma was killed by forces loyal to the Shogun, or by his erstwhile allies, who were worried about his far-reaching ideas for governmental reform. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi