Masato Harada Movies

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, All Movie Guide

Fearless opens in Shanghai, China, circa 1910, when wushu master Huo Yuanjia (martial arts superstar Jet Li) prepares to battle one Japanese opponent, Tanaka (Shidou Nakamura), and three American opponents (Anthony de Longis, Jean-Claude Leuyer, and Brandon Rhea) in a massive tournament. The picture then cuts back to Huo's boyhood in the city of Tianjin, in North China, circa 1880, when his father forbids him from engaging in martial-arts training. He must therefore slip off and train covertly. Around 1900, Huo -- then in his twenties -- continues to fight in tournaments. His determination is such that his entire life begins to revolve around championships, and the prospect of becoming the top-ranked fighter in Tianjin turns into a die-hard obsession, despite the repeated warnings of his best friend, Nong (Dong Yong), to cut back. Huo ignores these admonitions, then turns conceited and ultimately refuses to hear an additional word of caution, until his arrogance leads to the death of a fighter and Nong's decision to abandon him as a friend. Driven into exile, Huo journeys to southeastern Asia, where he works alongside rice farmers and divests himself of conceit, then gently touches the spirit of a blind girl. When he finally returns to Tianjin, he has transformed, internally, into a different person altogether. A huge hit in Hong Kong when originally released into theaters in 2006, Fearless was often touted as Jet Li's final film in the wushu school of martial arts. The picture is based on the real-life story of Huo Yuanjia, founder of the Jingwu school of martial arts. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Edward Zwick returned to the director's chair for the first time since 1998's The Siege with this sweeping period drama set in 19th-century Japan. After centuries of relying on hired samurai for national defense, the Japanese monarchy has decided to do away with the warriors in favor of a more contemporary military. Tom Cruise stars as Nathan Algren, a veteran of the U.S. Civil War who is hired by the Emperor Meiji to train an army capable of wiping out the samurai. But when Algren is captured by the samurai and taught about their history and way of life, he finds himself conflicted over who he should be fighting alongside. Billy Connelly, Tony Goldwyn, and Ken Watanabe co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Masato Harada, who directed such critically acclaimed fare as Bounce Ko Gal and Kamikaze Taxi, rides the wave of Japanese horror flicks that followed the mega-success of Ring with this supernatural tale about moving to the wrong town and falling for the wrong girl. Akira Nutahara (Atsuro Watabe) is a young, attractive grade-school teacher who gets transferred to a remote school high up in the mountains of Kochi prefecture in Shikoku. There he promptly falls for fortyish spinster and paper maker Miki Bonomiya (Yuki Amami). Akira soon learns that Miki's family is reviled in the village because of its long-rumored association with a fearsome and bloodthirsty deity named Inugami. He also learns that she and her evil, thuggish brother, who runs the local paper mill, are having a continuing -- though nonconsensual -- incestuous relationship. When Akira tries to escape with her from the village, he quickly learns that her connection to the burg goes beyond normal, material bonds. This film was screened at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Masato Harada tackles the racism experienced by South American-born, ethnically Japanese returnees in this two-fisted crime drama and road movie. The film centers on Tatsuo (Kazuya Takahashi) -- a low-level, short-tempered gangster moving up in the pimping business. Yet, when he sends out his one and only hooker (Reiko Kataoka) to service a wizened politician, she returns beaten, battered, and bruised. When Tatsuo's girlfriend complains, she is killed by crime boss Animaru (Mickey Curtis) as Tatsuo is forced to look on. Seeking revenge, he and his posse trash the politician's house and swipe a stack of yen. In retaliation, Tatsuo's own bosses put a hit out on them. After a bloody shoot out in a forest, the protagonist is the only one to emerge alive. He hails a cab with the aim of making a suicide run at the gang's HQ, but the cabbie proves to be a Peruvian returnee (Koji Yakusho), who speaks in a strange accent and can't read a Japanese map. Though at first the driver seems wide-eyed and innocent, he reveals an inner strength in chaotic situations. Soon the two seem less like a passenger and driver and more like two allies in the same beleaguered army. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Veteran director Masato Harada spins this Bagdad Café-style drama about a group of quirky strangers stuck in the desert. The film opens with a yakuza named Jiro (Kazuya Kimura) staggering into a remote tumble-down café with an ugly shoulder wound. The place is run by tough-as-nails Japanese-American woman Sari (Nobu McCarthy), who toils as the establishment's only waitress and cook. After convalescing, Jiro reveals some surprising skills -- his culinary prowess would put Alice Waters to shame. Soon the café's handful of patrons are being wowed by some wildly creative, beautifully laid out food. Meanwhile, Mafioso kingpin Al (James Gammon) tires of his usual Italian fare and somehow stumbles onto Sari's place. He's instantly in love -- both with the food and the proprietress. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Shuji is a good-looking lad, one of the up-and-coming assassins for the Daito mob of the yakuza, Japan's answer to the mafia. Despite his pretense of toughness, he frequently has overwhelming longings to return to his childhood and the innocent games he played then with his best friend's younger sister. When he is sent to assassinate the members of a rival gang, childhood memories lead him to permit one of the men to live. Rather than being grateful, the survivor of the killings plots his revenge despite the fact that the two gangs are now merging into one operation. Meanwhile, Shuji has run across his childhood sweetheart, and the two of them realize that they share a similar view (common to many Japanese, apparently) that their childhood was a special, golden time to be cherished. She is not a member of the gangs, and through her inspiring presence, Shuji attempts to reform himself, though he must kill a lot of people in order to win that chance. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Kei (Hiroyuki Watanabe) is a professional motorcycle racer with a young daughter from an earlier marriage and a busy schedule that takes him to Berlin during the racing season and to Canada in-between. Sam (Leslie Malton) is a motorcycle mechanic who meets Kei on the racing circuit and the two eventually fall in love with each other - in a most charming and captivating manner. The unique quality of this standard love story is that absolutely nothing is made of the fact that Kei is Japanese and Sam is both American and Caucasian - it is a breakthrough in finally ignoring race. As in many other Japanese films, the original title is an English word, "Windy" - and inscrutable in its application to this story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Male bonding and romantic love are the two major elements in this first-time drama from movie critic Harada Masato. Shuma (Naohiko Shigeta) is whiling away time, waiting to hear about his acceptance into the university. A favorite way of passing time is to go to the movies and on one of these excursions he makes friends with Dan (Takuzo Kawatani), an obsessive movie buff. As their friendship grows, Minami (Atsuko Asano) enters the picture. Shuma carries a big torch for her until he finds out that she is no more than a "gun moll." Shuma's anger at Minami's gangster connections makes him say a few things to Dan that are ill-advised. Shuma forgets about it soon afterwards, but unfortunately, Dan does not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide