Hiroyuki Sanada Movies

Based on a true-life 18th century tale, this fantasy epic tells a dramatic tale of clan warfare and revenge surrounding a band of 47 loyal samurai seeking vengeance after their master is murdered. Keanu Reeves stars in the Universal Pictures production, written by Hossein Amini and Wanted's Chris Morgan. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

The Matrix masterminds Andy and Larry Wachowski usher anime icon Tatsuo Yoshida's classic 1960s-era hit into the new millennium with this family-friendly story of a young racecar driver who takes on the mysterious Racer X in a custom-made, gadget-loaded speed machine named the Mach 5. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is the kind of driver that every wheelman wishes he could be: a born winner whose unbeatable combination of aggression, instinct, and fearlessness always finds him crossing the checkered flag with a comfortable lead. In Speed Racer's mind, the only driver who could present him with any real challenge is his late brother -- the legendary Rex Racer. Rex died in a heated cross-country rally known as The Crucible many years ago, and now his younger sibling is driven to fulfill the legacy that Rex left behind. To this day, Speed Racer is fiercely loyal to family. It was Speed Racer's father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), who designed the unbeatable Mach 5, and even a lucrative offer from racing giants Royalton Industries isn't enough to get the young ace to break his family ties.

Upon turning down Royalton's (Roger Allam) astronomical offer, Speed Racer makes the shocking discovery that the outcomes of the biggest races are being predetermined by a handful of powerful moguls who pad their profits by manipulating the drivers. Realizing that his career would be ruined if word of the fix gets out, Royalton vows that the Mach 5 will never make it to another finish line. Now, the only way for Speed Racer to save the family business and beat Royalton at his own game will be to win the very same race that claimed his brother's life so many years ago. In order to accomplish that formidable feat, however, Speed Racer will not only have to rely on his family and the aid of his longtime girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), but form a tenuous alliance with his longtime rival -- the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox) -- as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In this third installment of the popular action comedy franchise, LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) book a flight for Europe and prepare to clean up the streets of Paris after discovering that Chinese triads have extended their criminal influence to the City of Lights. Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) is in Los Angeles and about to reveal the details of a clandestine triad conspiracy to the World Criminal Court when an assassin takes aim and pulls the trigger. Though Carter has been demoted to directing traffic at the time of the shooting, Lee is acting as a bodyguard to Han when the bullets begin to fly. Lee quickly gives chase, but hesitates when he realizes that the gunman is Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada), his old friend from the orphanage. When triads steal an envelope containing vital information regarding the conspiracy from Soo Yung's (Zhang Jingchu) Chinatown kung fu studio, Carter and Chief Inspector Lee race to reach Genevieve (Noémie Lenoir), an underground entertainer who could prove the key to bagging the bad guys. During the course of their investigation, however, triads clash with the French police, threatening to turn the romance capitol of Europe into an explosive hotbed of crime and violence. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Love and war conspire to create a romantic triangle in this lavish historical epic from director Chen Kaige. A young girl who has lost her parents to the violence of war bravely refuses to obey the orders of a warrior's son, and is approached by a spirit who offers her a life of wealth and power as a reward, but with a catch -- she will never know the love of a man unless she learns how to bring the dead back to life by turning back time. Two decades later, the orphaned girl has become Qingcheng (Cecilia Cheung), the adopted daughter of The King (Cheng Qian), and her nation is yet again in the grip of war. During a long and bloody battle, Kunlun (Jang Dong-gun), a slave who has been ordered to fight, proves his skill and bravery in combat, and his commander, General Guangming (Hiroyuki Sanada), rewards him by making him his personal assistant. When Guangming learns that the King is in danger, he and Kunlun set out to rescue him. Kunlun is disguised as Guangming as they prepare to fight the enemy leader Wuhuan (Nicholas Tse), who is out to assassinate the King, but when they arrive, they find that the strong-willed Qingcheng is in greater danger than the potentate as her father and his soldiers struggle to verbally and physically cut her down to size. Kunlun and Guangming impulsively rescue Qingcheng instead of the King, and as they look for a safe haven for the princess, both men fall in love with her, while both the King's forces and Wuhuan are determined to find them. Budgeted at 30 million dollars, Mo Gik (aka The Promise, Master of the Crimson Armor, and Wu Ji) was a major box-office success in China before receiving an international release. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada -- who is perhaps most famous for cranking out most of the 48 films of the Tora-san series -- directs this good-natured drama set in the waning years of the Edo period (1600-1867). Seibei (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a low-level samurai struggling to get by on stipend of 50 rice bales a year while working as a clerk at the clan office. While his co-workers spend their evenings sucking down sake at the local pub, Seibei, whose wife has passed away, heads straight home to care for his two young daughters and doddering mother. One day, his friend Michinojo (Mitsuru Fukikoshi) tells him that his boyhood friend Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa), is leaving her thuggish husband and returning home. Tomoe soon starts to frequent Seibei's house, taking care of his daughters, while Seibei quietly falls in love with the attractive young lass. After defeating Tomoe's husband in a duel, armed with only a pointed stick, Seibei is asked by Michinojo if he wants to marry Tomoe. Seibei declines, too embarrassed by his poverty to accept. Later, as he prepares to perform the distasteful task of killing a fellow samurai, he learns that Tomoe is engaged to another man. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In a time when demons and ghosts threaten to bring total devastation to a powerful kingdom, betrayal from within the powerful ranks of the ruling emperor threatens to bring an entire civilization to its knees in this supernaturally charged martial arts epic from director Yojiro Takita. As dark forces hold a suffocating grip on a once powerful kingdom during the Heian period, the emperor employs the help of the Onmyoji in keeping the malevolent spirits at bay. Though the coming birth of the emperor's heir offers a glimmer of hope for the kingdom's future, an intimate betrayal leaves the fate of the kingdom in the hands of Seimei (Mansai Nomura) -- the most powerful of the Onmyoji. As Seimei prepares to do battle with his former master Doson (Hiroyuki Sanada), the powers of lightness and dark come together for a battle that will determine the fate for generations to come. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Hideo Nakata follows up on the phenomenal success of Ringu -- the highest grossing Japanese film up to that point -- with this effort. In the previous film, Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) was a television reporter doing a piece on a videotape that seemed to kill those who watched it. Not long after learning that the cause of the killing was a vengeful spirit named Sadako who inhabited the video, Reiko's researcher ex-husband (Hiroyuki Sanada) died a painful death, and the fate of Reiko's son, Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka) -- who watched the tape -- was in doubt. Ring 2 opens with an autopsy of Sadako, whose supernatural rage was sparked when she was dumped in a well. Sadako's powers affect Yoichi, who survived the video and has become a medium of sorts for the wraith. Also affected is Reiko's dead husband's mistress, Mai Takano (played by pop star Miki Nakatani), whose life has become a living nightmare. Also under Sadako's power is Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Sato), who was a schoolmate of one of Sadako's first victims. Though many try to get to the bottom of the problem -- including a psychologist (Fumiyo Kohinata) and a police detective (Kenjiro Ishimaru) -- the bodies start piling up. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In this psychological horror story from Japan, a legend circulates among teenagers that if one watches a certain video at a certain time of the night, the telephone will ring right afterward, and one week later, you will die. When Masami (Hitomi Sato) tells her friend Imako this story, she scoffs -- but a week later, Imako dies in an auto accident. Imako's aunt, a television journalist named Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), hears that not long before she died, Imako was watching a strange video with her friends -- all of whom have turned up dead. Reiko tracks down a copy of the video, and as she watches its strange, spectral images, the telephone begins to ring....The next morning, Reiko begins a desperate search to solve the mystery of the video, convinced she has only seven days to live; assisting her is Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a mathematics expert and her former husband. Ringu was a box-office success in its native Japan, and a surprise blockbuster in Hong Kong, where it became the biggest grossing film of the first half of 1999. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artist Sharaku is an enigmatic puzzle in the world of Japanese art. Working at an age when such masters of the trade as Hokusai and Utamaro were at their zenith, Sharaku suddenly emerged out of obscurity and produced roughly 140 strikingly brilliant portraits of Kabuki performers, only to disappear just as suddenly. To date, no one knows about his true identity or about his post-ukiyo-e career. Veteran director Masahiro Shinoda tries to fill in the blanks with this lavish period production. Set in the 1790s, the film centers on Tombo (Hiroyuki Sanada), a lowly Kabuki player who gets dumped from his troupe after breaking his foot. He joins a ragged traveling outfit run by former courtesan Okan (played by Shinoda's wife, Shima Iwashita). While not on-stage, he takes up drawing, for which he realizes he has considerable ability. His talents are noticed by Tsutaya Juzaburo (Frankie Sakai), a ukiyo-e publisher who is desperate for a replacement after his star artist Utamaro (Shiro Sano) defected to his rival's stable. Sharaku's work immediately creates a stir in Edo, particularly with the rigidly moralistic Prime Minister Matsudaira Sadanobu (Hachijusuke Bando). After falling for a beautiful teenaged geisha (Riona Hazuki), the latest sexual plaything of the rich and lecherous Utamaro, Tombo feels more and more constrained by his anonymous fame and the increasing tyrannical demands of Juzaburo. Soon, freedom and love seem more appealing than riches or art. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Makoto Wada directs this Twilight Zone-like portmanteau film about the grotesque, the bizarre, and the just plain weird. The first segment features a slightly drunken man (Hiroyuki Sanada) and a very tense woman (Mieko Harada) clutching a suitcase, who are riding an elevator together. When the lift suddenly stops and the lights dim, the guy clearly hopes for impromptu romance to bloom. Instead, the woman freaks out, accusing him of stopping the elevator on purpose. Soon she's brandishing a switchblade, defending whatever is in her luggage to the death. The second segment details how a young woman's (Mami Kumagai) moment of upward career mobility is undone by a mysterious -- maybe otherworldly -- boatman. The third section tells of a novelist (Haruhiko Saito) who fails to buy a train ticket on his way back to his hometown village and is forced to explain himself to a frightfully unsympathetic station manager (Ryuko Hagiwara). The fourth segment relates a story about a rich merchant (Kaoru Kobayashi) who happens upon his former mistress (Hitomi Kuroki) while escaping a thundering rainstorm. The two share a room at a nearby inn and make love. In the middle of the night, the mistress is plagued by horrible visions and soon the merchant is seeing them too. The final section is about a reporter (Ken Ishiguro) and photographer (Kyusaku Shimada) who enlist the help of the wrong pilot in order to make deadline for their tyrant of an editor. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Following up on his wacky documentary-like look at an emergency room (Byoin e Iko), Yojiro Takita returns to a hospital setting in this zany film about terminal cancer. Yuko (Kyoko Koizumi) is a vivacious beautician who, unbeknownst to her, has terminal stomach cancer. Her local hospital -- more of a family clinic, really -- is run by two brothers: Ichiro (Hiroyuki Sanada), who passionately believes in the miracles of modern aggressive drug therapies, and Tamotsu (Hiroshi Mikami), who thinks that terminal patients should die with dignity. He's building a hospice on the hospital grounds. When Yuko finally learns the hopeless nature of her condition, she quickly dumps chemo and tries to settle in the hospice. She realizes she still has three or so months to live and sets out to pack as much living in that short time as she can, which includes starring in a TV commercial and falling for Tamotsu. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Kazuki Omori directs this wacky screwball comedy about injured pride and high-strung mobsters. Stockbroker turned yakuza Shoichi Yoshinari (Hiroyuki Sanada) has been presented with a thankless task. He is to invite an oyabun (mob don) of an associated gang to emcee a succession ceremony -- the passing of the baton from the older to the younger generation. Shoichi's assignment is tough because the oyabun (Ken Ogata) is the clan's second choice, after the wizened top choice fell ill. Pride is terribly important in the hermetic world of the yakuza, and asking a godfather to play second banana is asking a lot. Thankfully, the oyabun seems like an affable sort. Unfortunately, Shoichi realizes upon arriving at the oyabun's rural estate that he hit on his knockout of a wife (Yuko Kotegawa) while on the road. Things get worse when the first choice makes a sudden recovery and Shoichi is faced with the tickling task of informing the oyabun that his services are not needed. Humiliated, the oyabun goes on a bender, and then proceeds to crash a funeral thinking it's the succession ceremony. When the first choice speaker keels over, Shoichi is faced with the near impossible assignment of asking the drunk, irate, and embarrassed oyabun to speak once again. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

This is the fourth of a series of samurai movies based on a popular Japanese television series. Among the other features of this goofy production is its soundtrack, combining Mexican and Country-Western music. The villains are garishly made-up individuals who are killing almost indiscriminately at the behest of a new local magistrate. The hero is reputed to be a coward, since he relies on his detective skills more than swordplay to get to the root of the matter. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi