Tadanobu Asano Movies
Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano is frequently compared to American actor Johnny Depp for both his ultra-hip, youthful good looks and unyielding affinity for off-kilter performances; his career also mirrors that of his American counterpart, in that he has found marked success in mainstream Japanese cinema in addition to the sometimes outrageous independent films on which his reputation was founded. Possessing the kind of detached cool that seems to stem more from simple confidence than over-inflated ego or condescending arrogance, the aspiring rocker-cum-actor is edging ever closer to mainstream acceptance in Asian cinema -- a prospect that seems especially jarring to the increasingly busy actor.With a father who eschewed salaryman status to live the life of an artist, and an equally unconventional Japanese-American mother who could often be spotted listening to Led Zeppelin while clad in the latest in thrift-store chic, the fair-skinned Yokohama native was frequently taunted by classmates for his Westernized appearance and unconventional taste for punk rock music. Asano's love of music found him forming a band with like-minded friends in his early teens, and at the age of 14, the musically inclined youngster was taken to his first audition by his father. Though he didn't necessarily harbor any great interest in acting, he was taken aback by the overeager, attention-grabbing antics of his young contemporaries. Asano was confident that he could beat out all the competition by simply acting natural, and his instincts proved correct when he soon made his screen debut as a student in the popular television series Teacher Kinpachi.
In the years that followed, Asano continued to hone his skills before the camera. His career was driven more by a desire to support his family than to achieve celebrity stardom, and his first love still remained music despite his increasing success in film and television. Though it was his role in director Shunji Iwai's made-for-television feature Fried Dragon Fish (1993) that first caught the attention of the Japanese public, it wasn't until his appearance as a mental patient who longs to escape the padded confines of the asylum in Iwai's 1994 drama Picnic that Asano truly connected with audiences. Not only did the film serve as something of a launching pad for the young actor's career, but it also introduced him to co-star Chara, a Japanese pop star who would eventually become his wife.
As the 1990s progressed, Asano's unconventional approach and quirky cool endeared him to many a hip young Japanese film lover, and though he continued to specialize in the sort of dark characters who could quickly snowball into self-parody in the hands of a lesser actor, his fearless approach to filmmaking continually set him apart from the pack. While Asano frequently chose roles that actors looking to achieve mainstream success wouldn't dare accept, it seemed that the harder he attempted to avoid the spotlight, the brighter it got. Subsequent roles in the Tarantino-inspired, manga-based crime comedy Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl and the homosexual-themed samurai drama Taboo found his popularity leaking into the mainstream, and with a leading performance in 2000's Gojoe, Asano seemed poised for crossover stardom -- a prospect that he seemed to resist with every ounce of energy, taking on outrageous roles in Electric Dragon 80.000 V and director Takashi Miike's notoriously gory Ichi the Killer. Asano was cast in Ichi as the sadistic mob henchman Kakihara, and his portrayal of the stylish, torture-happy psychopath created what was arguably the most memorable and terrifying screen villain in recent history.
In 2003, Asano essayed the role of a disgruntled employee who slaughters his boss' entire family in acclaimed director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Bright Future. Shortly thereafter, he played a suicidal librarian in Last Life in the Universe -- a role that won Asano the Upstream Prize at the 2003 Venice Film Festival. Having previously appeared opposite Japanese megastar Takeshi Kitano in Taboo, Asano once again appeared opposite the seasoned comic-turned-actor in Kitano's 2003 film Zatochi. An updating of the classic samurai tale of a blind assassin, the film took home awards at such prestigious film festivals as both the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. With his roles in Gojoe and Electric Dragon 80.000 V director Sogo Ishii's 2003 action thriller Dead End Run, it seemed that the king of Japanese cool was still at the top of his game when it came to taking risks on the big screen. In addition to his film work, the dedicated father and husband can frequently be spotted feeding his first love on-stage with his band Peace Pill. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Hikaru is truly an odd duck. He completely expects a flood of the sort described in the Christian Bible to sweep everyone away momentarily. Meanwhile, he hangs out with Sadaro, a very critical friend, who occasionally beats up on him just for fun. One day, after getting whomped on, Hikaru finds that he has several unusual and virtually useless powers: he can bend spoons and explode light bulbs. In one respect, his life improves at this point, because he meets a cheerful young woman who lives, handily enough in his view, on a barge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hikari Ishida, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
- 1994
Director Shunji Iwai follows up on the wild success of his star-crossed romantic drama Love Letter with this slick, brooding tale about a trio of mental asylum inmates and one really long wall. Koko (played by pop icon Chara) is placed into an institution after she embarrasses her rich family by killing crows. Sporting a skimpy black dress and a crow's feather boa, she believes that the world was created when she was born and will end when she dies. At the institution, she befriends Tsumuji (Tadanobu Asano), a lad who killed his bullying teacher in a fit of rage and is now haunted by his ghost. After reading a Bible that a priest had given him, Tsumuji becomes convinced that the world is coming to an end. His friend Satoru (Koichi Hashizume) is a quiet retiring sort who is obsessed with rules and who compulsively masturbates. One day, this strange threesome decides to leave the asylum and have a picnic before the world's eminent end. Sensitive to Satoru's neuroses, the trio doesn't hop the hospital walls, but instead walks on top of them. Fortunately, this wall happens to be the longest such edifice this side of China, as it extends to the sea. There, their own personal apocalypse unfolds. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Japanese documentarian Hirokazu Kore-eda made his first dramatic feature with this austere drama, which recalls the visual and narrative style of Yasujiro Ozu. Yukimo (Makiko Esumi) is married to Ikuo (Tadanobu Asano), a happy and humble man who loves her very much. While Yukimo and Ikuo are content in their marriage and have a beautiful infant son named Yuichi, Yukimo is haunted by visions of death. She has a recurring nightmare in which her grandmother leaves her home to go to the village of her birth to die, as Yukimo weeps uncontrollably. Yukimo's sad obsession foreshadows a real tragedy in her life when she wakes one morning to discover that police are at her door -- Ikuo has died after apparently committing suicide along the nearby railroad tracks. Yukimo is shattered and spends several years in solitude, until she meets Tamio (Taketoshi Naito), a widowed fisherman who lives in a nearby village with his daughter. They fall in love, and Yukimo marries him and moves into his home. She begins to find happiness anew, until she returns to her old home for her brother's wedding, which brings back a flood of troubling memories. Maboroshi no Hikari (which translates as "Illusory Light") was a multiple award winner at the 1995 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
- 1996
Gen-X auteur Shinji Aoyama directs this brooding gangster flick about alienation, sudden violence, and high school classmates. The film opens with mobster Yasuo (Ken Mitsuishi) getting out of jail only to learn that his gang's don is dead, and that his own future is in doubt. Seething from the bad news, he sees his old high school friend Kenji (played by hipster heartthrob Tadanobu Asano). Along with Yasuo's mobster cohorts -- a young thug and nattily dressed yakuza with a Gorbachov style birthmark who greeted Yasuo at the prison gates -- they break bread at a family restaurant. When yakuza makes an off-colored remark about Yasuo's boss, he ices him on the spot. Later, Kenji pays a visit to his profoundly depressed father at the hospital. Afterwards, he goes to Yasuo's mountain cabin where the gangster is busy burying the body. There Kenji meets Yasuo's kid sister, Yuki (Kaori Tsuji). When Yasuo takes off in search of his boss' killer, Kenji zips off in the other direction with Yuki in tow. Once in town, Kenji learns that his father hung himself. At about the same time, another one of Kenji's former high school classmates, Akihito (Yoichiro Saito), surprises him with a Polaroid camera. Kenji violently snaps. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Satoshi Isaka makes his directorial debut with this psychological thriller and expose on Japan's voracious media. Iwai (Akira Shirai) is a television director with dubious morals and a great suit. Iwai wants to do a piece on Kanemura (played by Japanese Gen-X poster boy Tadanobu Asano) -- a nerdy otaku with a passion for electronic eavesdropping equipment. As Iwai, accompanied by his equally ambitious assistant (Keiko Unno) and cameraman, prepares his interviewee, Kanemura grows increasingly apprehensive -- and for good reason. Seeking to turn the nebbish otaku's life into an object of tabloid sensation, Iwai tries repeatedly -- though unsuccessfully -- to insinuate himself into Kanemura's privacy. Kanemura soon wants little to do with the man, but Iwai remains doggedly persistent. Later, when he learns of a contraband gun deal from Kanemura's machinery, Iwai realizes that his human-interest piece has evolved into something much bigger. With Kanemura along as an unwilling assistant, Iwai stages a discovery scene of the stolen weapons. Then a trio of skate punks barges into the shoot, demanding to know what the crew is doing. Iwai's attempts to shoo the youths away only inflame the situation and soon they are attacking the group -- Kanemura snaps. Soon blood is on the walls, people are killed and at least one person is raped. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Veteran indie filmmaker Sogo Ishii spins this dream-like pulpy yarn about death and buses. Tomiko Tomonari (Rena Komine) works as a bus conductress, and though she gets to wear a spiffy uniform, she is thoroughly bored with her job and her life. One day, a new bus driver named Tatsuo Niitaka (Tadanobu Asano) starts working at her company. Mysterious, moody, and silent, he has garnered the notice of almost all the women in the company -- but Tomiko has a particular interest in him. Tomiko's best friend was once engaged to Niikata, before she died in an accident while he was at the wheel. Even more unnerving, her best friend sent her a letter before she died, talking much about death at the hands of her lover. Instead of going to the police, Tomiko purposefully falls for the guy. This, she tells herself, is the adventure she as been looking for. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
Photographer Chris Doyle, who along with his own still work, has served as a cinematographer for Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige, and Edward Yang, makes his directorial debut with Away With Words, a very loosely plotted story that concerns what Doyle has called the two most important things in his life -- women and beer. Asano (Tadanobu Asano) hops off a ship in Hong Kong and makes his way to The Dive Bar, owned by a gay alcoholic named Kevin (Kevin Sherlock). Asano starts knocking back brews with Kevin and two of his friends, Susie (Mavis Xu) and Georgina (Georgina Dobson), and each begins to drift into flashbacks about their childhoods and previous experiences. Away With Words had its world premiere at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened in the Un Certain Regard category, provoking a wildly mixed reaction from critics and audiences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Kevin Sherlock, (more)
Following up on his wildly successful 1997 feature-length anime Neo Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno takes digital camcorder in hand and makes his live-action directorial debut with this day-in-the-life drama about a quartet of enjo kosai (school girls) who make big bucks selling their services to middle-aged perverts with money to burn. Though frequently weird and exotic, their dates rarely request anything close to plain old vanilla sex. One geezer takes the four to sing karaoke. After belting out a few, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a bag of grapes. He asks that each lass bite into the fruit just enough to break the skin. Once that's done, he puts each grape in its own individual baggie and labels it. Other patrons are just as pitiful if less bizarre. The film focuses particularly on Hiromi (Asumi Miwa), who is trying to make enough money to buy a topaz ring and hide her right hand, which she thinks is ugly. Hiromi comes from a normal -- if blithely obtuse -- family and is not your typical portrait of an enjo kosai. Yet she hustles with her more street-smart friends and learns about her newfound profession's dangers and degradations the hard way. This film was based on a book by Ryu Murakami. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1998
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Drawing equally from Quentin Tarantino, Hong Kong action spectaculars, Japanese anime, and the over-the-top fashion sensibility of Tokyo's Shibuya district, Katsuhito Ishii spins this dizzying propulsive flick about lovers on the run and the weirdest band of gangsters on the planet. Toshiko Momojiri (Shie Koinata) dreams of a life away from the grinding tedium of working in a run-down hotel and away from her perverted, pawing uncle who manages the place. While driving to the post office, she literally runs into Kuro Samehada (played by Japanese indie film icon Tadanobu Asano), a thief who stole a pile of loot from his former gang and is currently fleeing them dressed only in his underpants. He jumps in the driver's seat, and soon love is born. The gang is lead by a dandy of a boss (Kishibe Ittoku) who obsessively collects energy-drink ads while his son Mitsuru (Shingo Tsurumi) -- heir apparent of the gang -- sports a snow-white jumpsuit and platinum locks; they are single-minded in their lust for Kuro's pilfered loot. Meanwhile, Toshiko's uncle puts a bounty on his niece and a hit out on his new competitor for her attention. Ultra-violence, bizarre sex, and killer costumes ensue. This film was screened at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Sie Kohinata, (more)
Based on the cult Garo comic by famed manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge, this film -- directed by veteran yakuza flick auteur Teruo Ishii -- is a hallucinogenic tale about love, death, dreams, and reality. Tsube (Tadanobu Asano) is a down-and-out cartoonist who can't cough up enough money to pay the rent. His live-in girlfriend Kuniko (Miki Fujitani) lands a job as a maid in an all-male company dormitory while Tsube crashes with a painter friend of his. Tsube soon realizes the pitfalls of this setup -- his friend tries to spoon up with him at night while he is driven mad with jealousy by flirtatious dorm residents. When the two finally break up after Kuniko succumbs to temptation and has a one-night stand, Tsube tries to kill himself by downing fistfuls of pills. He comes to in a hospital room as a nurse swaddles him in a diaper and as his smirking friend looks on. The youth goes to the countryside to convalesce and to piece his life together. Instead, he has a series of bizarre erotic encounters. A beautiful tavern hostess (Tsugumi) puts his hand under her top; an icy studio model (Mika Aoba) gives him a thorough tour of her naked body while taunting his apparent lack of interest; and an old maid who runs a restaurant shags him all night and casts him aside the following morning. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Kazuhiko Kanayama, (more)
- 1999
Director Macoto Tezka's harrowing drama is set in an alternate version of the 1990s in which World War II never ended and the citizens of Japan are subjected to nightly bombing raids. Japanese cult actor Tadanobu Asano stars as Izawa, a lowly production assistant in the corporate monolith Media Station, housed in a gleaming building that towers above the ruins of Tokyo. He lives in squalor among pigs and chickens in an old tailor's house, and he perpetually contemplates suicide. A noose invitingly hangs from his ceiling if the mood were to strike. Media Station's number-one idol is the beautiful but malicious Ginga (Reika Hashimoto). Everyone in the company quietly loathes the spoiled star, but they put up with her because of her enormous popularity. Yet Ginga becomes enraged when her advances on the thoroughly uninterested Izawa are thwarted. Meanwhile, Izawa discovers a young woman, the wife of the neighborhood lunatic, hiding in his room. Soon an odd sort of relationship develops between these two deeply lonely souls. The woman quietly remains in Izawa's room during the day and sleeps with him at night. Later, the nightly air raids crescendo into a fiery apocalyptic climax. The Innocents was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Miyako Koda, (more)
Shinya Tsukamoto's latest work is a bit of a departure for the director of such over-the-top cult films as Tetsuo: Iron Man (1989). Though punctuated by his trademark kinetic camera work, this moody gothic horror film has the sort of brittle formalism more common in Japanese domestic dramas of the 1940s and 1950s. Dr. Yukio Daitokuji (Masahiro Motoki) is a well-to-do doctor living in a wealthy neighborhood located near a shantytown. He lives in a gorgeous old house along with his father, mother, and beautiful young wife Rin (Ryo). The couple seems happy, but Rin's lack of a past, due to amnesia, is a source of anxiety for the socially conscious doctor. The rigid respectability of the couple's upstanding bourgeois life shatters when a bizarre rag-wearing man kills off Daitokuji's parents in sudden and gruesome manners. The terror gets ratcheted up a notch when the mysterious assailant throws Daitokuji into a deep well on the family grounds and then reveals himself to be physically identical to the young doctor. The stranger assumes Daitokuji's identity by making passionate love with his wife and threatening to kill his patients. Tsukamoto brilliantly juxtaposes the oppressive opulence of the upper class, characterized by deathly silences and Kubrick-like compositions, with the grubby, desperate world of the slums, whose residents could have populated The Road Warrior (1981). While Tsukamoto's fascination with revenge, doppelgangers, and male rage, as seen in Tokyo Fist (1995) and Bullet Ballet (1998), are clearly present in this work, it also showcases the director's growing stylistic maturity. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masahiro Motoki, Ryo, (more)
After a 13-year absence, partially due to a life-threatening stroke, master filmmaker Nagisa Oshima returns to the silver screen with this revisionist samurai epic. From his first major film, Cruel Story of Youth to his most notorious work Ai no Korrida, Oshima has coupled the political and the sexual in a manner that transgresses all social norms. In this film, Oshima explores homosexuality among the ranks of the much hallowed samurai. The film is set in Kyoto in 1865 during a critical moment of Japanese history--the country's 300-year-long self-imposed isolation was coming to an abrupt halt leading to the end of the Shogunate. In its place came a more internationally-minded government with the Emperor as its nominal head. Feeling both their traditions and their grip on power threatened, samurai militia sprang up throughout the country to fight this foreign encroachment. One such group, the Shinsengumi, is auditioning new recruits at the film's opening. Commander Kondo (Yoichi Sai) and Captain Hijikata (Takeshi Kitano, a renowned filmmaker in his own right) select the ruggedly handsome Tashiro (cult actor Tadanobu Asano) and Kano (Ryuhei Matsuda), an effeminate lad with long locks and a thirst for blood. Worried about the perceived slightness of the latter, Kondo and Hijikata order Kano to perform an execution, which he does with grim aplomb. The lad's androgynous beauty soon raises the general blood pressure of the militia. While Tashiro snuggles up with him nightly, Hijikata, who suspects that something other than manly appreciation is going on between the two neophytes, also seems unduly interested in the youth. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beat Takeshi Kitano, Shinji Takeda, (more)
- 2000
Veteran filmmaker Shinji Somai spins this melodrama about an unlikely couple blithely courting their own destruction. Famed pop star Kyoko Koizumi -- also known by her nickname Kyon Kyon -- plays Yuriko, Tokyo pink-salon hostess who after years of sticky fumbling in darkened booths is reaching the end of her tether. One day, she wakes up under a cherry tree with her salaryman client from the night before. Though she is irritated that he does not remember a thing about the previous night, she is curiously attracted to the guy. An elite bureaucrat in the powerful and prestigious Ministry of Education, Renji Sawaki (Tadanobu Asano) has long since given up caring for the career mobility or for his long-suffering girlfriend (Kumiko Asou); instead, he seems to be willfully slumping headlong into oblivion. This lust for the abyss attracts Yuriko on levels that she can't fully understand, but she soon realizes that she wants a change and she wants him to come along. The change she has in mind is a trip to Hokkaido to see her daughter. Will love bloom, or will their respective death wishes take the day? This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyoko Koizumi, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
Maverick Japanese director Sogo Ishii takes an unexpectedly conventional approach in this screen adaptation of a well-known Japanese folk legend of the 12th century. In the long-standing battle of the Genji and Heiki clans, the Heiki have emerged triumphant, but they find they have a new adversary in Shanao (Tadanobu Asano), a demon who each night lays waste to the Heiki warriors near the Gojoe Bridge in Kyoto. Retired warrior Monk Benkei (Daisuke Ryu) learns of his wrath, and after capturing the sword of the Demon Slayer, journeys to Kyoto to do battle with Shanao. But Benkei learns that Shanao isn't a demon after all -- he is one of the last surviving Genji, who has taken on the garb of a demon in a final bid to defeat his sworn enemies and restore the honor of his family. A box-office success in Japan, Gojo Reisen Ki was first shown in North America as part of the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Masatoshi Nagase, (more)
Katsuhito Ishii follows up on his loony, phantasmagoric work Samehada Otoko to Momojiri Onna with this dizzyingly bizarre gangster drama. Low-level yakuza Miki (Masatoshi Nagase) decides that he's had enough of the gangster life and swipes 200 million yen from his boss. He winds up hiding out in a remote dive called Hotel New Mexico, which is run by a middle-aged peeping tom (Yoshio Harada). The proprietor is so much the voyeur that he has fashioned a room in which he can see into every other room in the establishment. Donning yellow tights, a crescent moon-shaped mask, and a box of kleenex, he assumes his special voyeur identity -- Captain Banana -- as he watches his clientele. Sharing his peeping room is Okita (Tadanobu Asano), the geeky, whey-faced son of Captain Banana's dead partner. As the peeping duo look on, Miki gets a series of unwelcome visitors starting with his slinky ex-girlfriend, Kana (Akemi Kobayashi), who though married to a very rich man named Todohira (Yoshinori Okada), will not pay up the debt that she owes him. Soon Todohira too makes an unwelcome entrance, followed by thuggish gangster Sonoda (Keisuke Horibe) and his superior who demanded the return of Miki's ill-gotten goods. Finally, a sociopathic gangland hitman drops by sporting a ludicrously large perm, a gun, and a hair-trigger temper. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masatoshi Nagase, Keisuke Horibe, (more)
- 2001
Four people whose lives are connected by a common tragedy discuss the paths their lives have taken in this drama from Japan. Minoru (Susumu Terajima) is a businessman, Atsushi (Araka) is a disaffected post-modern teen, Kiyoka (Yui Natsukawa) is an educator, and Masaru (Yusuke Iseya) a quiet young woman. Normally, these four would have nothing in common and little to say to one another, but fate has brought them together through an unfortunate circumstance -- they all had relatives who were members of the Ark of Truth, a combination religious cult and terrorist group whose desire to lash out at society led them to dump poison in Tokyo's water processing plants, leading to the death of 128 people and serious illness in thousands of others. The Ark of Truth members directly responsible for the poisoning were then attacked and killed by the other members of the group. On the third anniversary of this disaster, the foursome is part of a handful of people who mourn their loved ones near a remote lake where the Ark of Truth was formed; afterward, they discover that the car they arrived in has been stolen, and along with Koichi (Tadanobu Asano), a former member of the cult, they must spend the night in a cabin where the group once met. Inspired in part by the infamous Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, which was responsible for releasing nerve gas in a Tokyo subway, leading to the death of 12 people, Distance was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who previously made the international success After Life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Arata, (more)
Maverick auteur Takashi Miike spins this unsettling, blood-soaked yakuza yarn adapted from Hideo Yamamoto's cult manga Koroshiya 1. When mob don Anjo mysteriously disappears, his protégé Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) vows to find the people responsible. Sporting a blond head of hair and a yawning, pierced slash for a mouth, Kakihara is no ordinary gangster and his methods are equally unorthodox; he impales one poor suspect's naked body on a series of meat hooks and then dumps hot oil on him. Meanwhile, a shadowy character known as Jijii (played by director Shinya Tsukamoto) deftly manipulates, for his own nefarious ends, Ichi (Nao Omori), an unbalanced but ruthless killing machine clad in a superhero suit. Pining for the sadistic abuse of his boss, Kakihara learns of Ichi from a Hong Kong hostess (Alien Sun) and sets out to find this fabled butcher, hoping he can inflict the pain that Kakihara craves. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival as a part of the Midnight Madness program. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, (more)
- 2002
Woman of Water is set in and around a public bathhouse in rural Japan run by Ryo (UA), whose name means "cool, clear water," and her elderly father. All the major events in her life are accompanied by rainfall, most significantly the day that both her father and boyfriend die in separate incidents during an unrelenting downpour. Now alone, Ryo must run the bathhouse herself and come to grips with her strange powers. One day she meets Yusaku (Tadanobu Asano), a young man obsessed with fire, whom she hires to stoke the bathhouse's furnace. A symbiotic relationship soon develops between these two personifications of opposing natural forces. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Hikaru, (more)
A story of two very different people coming together in the wake of personal tragedies, Last Life in the Universe stars Tadanobu Asano as Kenji, a quiet, bespectacled Japanese librarian living in Bangkok. Obsessed with suicide, he meticulously stages ways to kill himself, only to be interrupted every time. One night, his more raucous brother shows up for an unexpected visit, accompanied by a yakuza gangster. A gunfight breaks out, leaving both visitors dead. Kenji ventures out into the night and happens upon Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak), a feisty bargirl whose sister has just died in an accident following a fight over their shared boyfriend. Kenji accompanies Noi to her sprawling, dilapidated house in the country, where a relationship develops despite their language barrier and clashing personalities, until another twist of fate threatens to tear them apart. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Sinitta Boonyasak, (more)
Acclaimed Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa departs from the horror genre for this mystical story of urban ennui. Friends Mamoru (Tadanobu Asano) and Yuji (Joe Odagiri) are aimless young men stuck in dead-end jobs in a dreary factory in Tokyo. Mamoru, the more antisocial of the two, is obsessed with his pet project of acclimating a poisonous jellyfish to fresh water by gradually changing the water in its tank. One night, he inexplicably murders his boss' family and is sentenced to death. Yuji, left to continue the jellyfish experiment, befriends Mamoru's estranged father, and the two form a bond that helps him overcome his emotional troubles. But his attachment to the jellyfish is even stronger, and problems arise when he accidentally releases the poisonous creature into the canals of Tokyo. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jô Odagiri, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
- 2003
- R
Beat Takeshi Kitano directs and plays the title role in this tribute to the wildly popular "blind swordsman" of Japanese cinema who was the hero of more than 20 movies and a television series from the early '60s to the late '80s. In Kitano's version, Zatôichi wanders into a town harassed by criminal gangs, and helps two geishas take revenge on the men who murdered their parents. His mission leads him to a final, bloody confrontation with the gang's mastermind and his hired assassin (Tadanobu Asano), a swordsman with a reputation as lethal as Zatôichi. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beat Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, (more)
- 2003
Yoichi Higashi's Watashi No Gurampa (My Granpa) concerns the relationship between ex-convict Kenzo (Bunta Sugawara) and his 14-year-old granddaughter Tamako (Satomi Ishihara). Kenzo was behind bars for killing a gangster. Upon his release, he goes to live with his son (Mitsuru Hirata), whose marriage is on the rocks. Already a loner, Tamako is ostracized further when it is discovered that her grandfather is a murderer. Kenzo soon helps defend Tamako from bullies at school. When Tamako stands up for herself, she comes to believe that she has inherited some of her grandfather's great strength. Eventually, an associate of the man Kenzo killed comes looking for revenge, along with the dead man's son. My Granpa was screened at the Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bunta Sugawara, Satomi Ishihara, (more)
- 2004
Director Gen Sekiguchi and screenwriter Taku Tada, phenomenally successful award winners in Japan's advertising industry, make their feature-film debut with the fast-paced omnibus film, Survive Style 5+, which incorporates five strange tales that occasionally intersect. The ubiquitous Tadanobu Asano introduces the film, playing a man who has apparently just murdered his lovely wife (Reika Hashimoto). He drives out to the woods, buries the body, and returns home to find her waiting for him, and not in a particularly good mood. In the second story, Yoko (Kyôko Koizumi), a driven copywriter who constantly spews ad ideas into her handy minicassette recorder, has just had quick, unfulfilling sex with Aoyama (Hiroshi Abe), a sleazy, conceited TV hypnotist who proceeds to insult her work and her personal hygiene. Yoko takes it well, but she's got plans for the jerk. In the third story, Kobayashi (Ittoku Kishibe), a good-natured salaryman, is hypnotized by Aoyama into believing he's a bird. His family has a whole new set of problems when Aoyama is incapacitated before he can break the trance. The fourth thread follows three dimwitted burglars (Yoshiyuki Morishita, Jai West, and Kanji Tsuda) as they grapple with both professional and sexual confusion. The final plotline concerns a hot-tempered English hitman (Vinnie Jones) and his goofy employer (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa), who also serves as his translator as the hitman asks nearly everyone he meets, "What is your function on this planet?" Sonny Chiba has a cameo as the hen-pecked president of a drug company. Survive Style 5+ was shown at Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival in 2005. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
