Japanese Movies

Evil Dead 2 meets Street Fighter by way of The Matrix in this wild and woolly zombie/yakuza/samurai/kung fu/splatter flick directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Throughout the world there are 666 portals to the other side; the 444th is Japan and is called the Forest of Resurrection, where good has battled evil for time immemorial. The film opens with prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and his fellow cellmate escaping a maximum-security prison and ending up in the forest where they are supposedly to be picked up by a band of gangsters in a shiny Mercedes and taken to a safer place. Instead, the gangsters try to use them and a female hostage (Chieko Misaka) as pawns in a larger power struggle. A gunfight ensues killing KSC2-303's colleague and the mob boss, but just as the standoff is about to yield more violence, an odd thing happens -- the dead get up and attack the living. In the chaos, KSC2-303 and girl disappear into the forest with a band of slickly coifed yakuza in hot pursuit. High-kicks, machine guns, and rampant disembowelments ensue. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa transferred the setting of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths from Imperial Russia to his own country's Edo Period--which, like Gorky's 19th-century setting, was an era of great cultural advances, offset by the miseries of those who weren't in the aristocracy. Kurosawa's film concentrates on Toshiro Mifune, playing a crooked gambler who falls in love with the sister (Kyoko Kagawa) of his cruel landlady (Isuzu Yamada). Herself carrying a torch for Mifune, the landlady exacts a roundabout revenge by killing her own husband and pinning the blame on the gambler. As the landlady descends into madness, those whom she has treated wretchedly laugh at her plight. Originally titled Donzoko, The Lower Depths was renamed Les Bas-Fonds for its French release--the same title bestowed upon Jean Renoir's 1937 adaptation of the Gorky play. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Masato Harada takes the helm for this eerie horror film concerning a song that inspires listeners to take their own lives. The year was 1933, and Hungarian composer Rezs Seress was stuck in a slump. In order to cope with his depression, Seress composed a melancholy little ditty entitled "Gloomy Sunday". According to legend, this sad but beautiful song has inspired many a forlorn soul to succumb to their inner malaise. Seventy years after the fact, it seems that "Gloomy Sunday" still has the power to corrode the soul. A woman named Kana has suffered a mysterious death, leaving her two friends Anzu and Riku to make sense of a seemingly random tragedy. Upon learning of the urban legend surrounding Seress's downbeat ditty, Anzu and Riku discover a disturbing pattern. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Dandoh's sport of choice is baseball, but when his mean swing accidentally smashes the principal's window, things change. Impressed with Dandoh's abilities, the principal introduces the boy to golf. Dandoh is reluctant to trade in his bat for a club, but dollar signs fill his eyes when he learns about the cash prizes that await the winner of a golf tournament. Hoping to bring back his mother, whom he lost as a result of poverty, Dandoh becomes the most promising young golfer that almost anyone has ever seen. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

It is the year 2033 and the world is a much different place. Tokyo has been devastated by a major earthquake and rebuilt as Megatokyo. Amid the chaos surrounding the devastation and rebuilding was a perfect window for the emergence of Boomers. Boomers are humanoid robots created to perform all manner of work -- manual, sexual, and otherwise. The giant corporation GENOM, which created the Boomers, however, has a problem on its hands since they sometimes rebel from their assigned task and wreck havoc. The solution to this problem comes in the form of the Knight Sabers, an all-female fighting force equipped with armor and weaponry for the main task of handling insurgent Boomers. The task of the Knight Sabers, however, turns out to be more complicated than it looks. Is the enemy really just any rogue Boomer, or is it GENOM itself? This anime mixes action, comedy, and questions about the line between man and machine. Bubblegum Crisis was one of the first anime to gain popularity in the U.S. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

The Priestess of Water is retiring and her replacement is long overdue! What has happened to her? And just when Makoto is trying to learn more about this new world... What's this? An alternative world?

Master Taiwanese director Edward Yang spins this intricate and complex yarn about life's everyday crises. The film focuses on N.J. Jian (Wu Nien-Jen, a noted writer/director in his own right); his wife, Min-Min (Elaine Jin); and their two children, teenager Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee) and young Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang). Their middle-class existence seems stable and secure until a series of incidents throws all of their lives out of kilter. The misfortunes start at the wedding of Min-Min's ne'er-do-well brother, Ah-Di (Chen Xisheng), when his jilted ex-girlfriend Yun-Yun (Tseng Hsin-yi) bursts into the proceedings and lambastes the bride. Upset by the ruckus and feeling unwell, Min-Min's mother goes home early only to suffer a stroke and slip into a coma. After the wedding, N.J. runs into his first love, Sherry (Ke Suyun), who is married to a rich American. This chance encounter shakes N.J. to his very foundations, forcing him to reevaluate his life. At the same time, N.J.'s computer company deliberates on whether or not to collaborate with a renowned Japanese games designer, Ota (Issey Ogata), sending N.J. to Japan to negotiate a contract. Confronted by her mother's coma, Min-Min also takes stock of her life and finds it lacking. On the brink of a nervous breakdown, she suddenly joins a religious retreat. In Japan, N.J. warms to his potential business partner Ota, spending long evenings discussing life and love in hip Tokyo jazz clubs. There, N.J. also meets up with Sherry; they relive old memories and flirt with infidelity. At the same, Ting-Ting, who quietly blames herself for her grandmother's coma, learns her first hard lessons about love, while Yang-Yang causes trouble at school and wrestles with the truths of the adult world. This film won the Golden Palm for Best Direction at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was an official selection for the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

This dark anime series takes place in the distant future, a time when overpopulation has led to interplanetary colonization. On the planet of Japones, the entire world is comprised of men. The only women who live there are androids called marionettes. These super-strong creations are devoid of emotion but saturated with strength, so when the evil Starface is freed from prison and sets his sights on taking the thrown from Junior, the pure-hearted heir, there's no one better suited to protect him than three die-hard marionettes, Cherry, Lime, and Bloodberry. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

In this thrilling sci-fi adventure, the terrifying Zeram, an enormous renegade space alien, is tricked into coming to Earth by an intergalactic bounty hunter who plans on using a variety of techno tools to capture him. Among her arsenal is a warp machine, an electric shield, and Bob the computer. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Seven years after the end of the One Year War that took place in the original Gundam series, Mobile Suit Gundam, the Federation establishes a task force called the Titans to deal with the remaining Zeon insurgents. These military elites use as much force as they deem necessary, superseding all rights of individuals with seeming totalitarian authority. The series focuses on Char Aznable, a member of the Anti-Earth Union Group, a resistance force working against the Titans. A new Gundam Suit prototype has emerged, the Gundam Mark-II, and Char wants to gain possession of it for the AEUG. Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is thought by many to be inspired by George Orwell's novel 1984 and inclusive of much more social commentary and reflection than is expected of animated science fiction. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Hiro Takahashi's The Sylvian Experiments centers on a scientist who finds an unusual film reel in the basement of an abandoned hospital. When she watches the movie, she discovers it documents a series of brain experiments designed to locate a third reality that is a state of neither life nor death. She becomes obsessed with continuing the work done in the movie, and considers experimenting on her own daughters. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A famed sushi chef's daughter runs away to a remote hot springs inn after getting fed up with her father's ultra-strict working habits, and uses her many years of training to save the lives of the guests when a twisted former researcher perfects a method of creating killer sushi. Keiko's father is one of the most respected sushi chefs in Japan. He always gives 110%, and he expects the same from his daughter. Determined to live life on her own terms, Keiko lands a job at a serine inn surrounded by soothing hot springs. Unfortunately for her, both the employees and the pharmaceutical specialists staying there on a work retreat take no small amount of pleasure in mocking the new addition to the staff. But when a disgruntled former employee of the firm shows up at the inn with a bizarre formula that transforms delicious sushi into rampaging monsters, only Keiko and her unique skill set can save them all from being eaten alive. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

When a young karate student attempts to earn some extra cash by serving as bodyguard to a high-profile Hong Kong woman, the initial distraction of her beauty soon gives way to razor sharp focus as a series of attackers descend upon the pair in a tense tale of criminal excess from tireless Ichi the Killer director Takashi Miike. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi