Kazuya Takahashi Movies

Japanese director Shin Togashi spins this mystical tale of two young souls who may have been soul mates had they been given a chance in his 2003 romantic drama, Hoshi ni Negaio (Night of the Shooting Stars). Working long hours in the emergency room, nurse Kana Aoshima (Yuko Takeuchi) befriends musician and frequent hospital patient Shogo Amami (Yu Yoshizawa). Shogo's therapy visits for his muteness and blindness happen to frequently coincide with Kana's shift, which enables the nurse to get to know the handsome artist well enough to start falling in love with him. Fate intercedes, however, when Shogo is killed after being hit by a car -- a development that utterly crushes Kana's will to live. Shogo's spirit is transported to heaven, where it is given the chance to return to Earth to assist Kana through her grieving and to renew her sense of faith in the world -- with the only caveat being he cannot reveal his identity to Kana. Night of the Shooting Stars was selected for inclusion into the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Following up on his acclaimed Like Grains of Sand, Ryosuke Hashiguchi spins this melodramatic comedy about two gay men, an unbalanced woman, and a baby. Naoya (Kazuya Takahashi) is a soft-spoken, easygoing gay man who runs a pet store with his overbearing mother. After years of one-night stands and failed relationships, Noaya finally meets someone he likes at his favorite gay club, the handsome though closeted Katsuhiro (Seiichi Tanabe), who works as an engineer. Though at first the two seem to be quite happy, Katsuhiro's reluctance to come out to his traditionally minded parents throws a damper on their budding relationship. One of their arguments is overheard in a noodle shop by Asako (Reiko Kataoka), a beautiful though unbalanced lass who spends much of her twenties either on the psychologist's couch or having promiscuous sex. When the doctor recommends to her parents that she be sterilized, she has her own ideas. She decides that smart, kind, and well-dressed Katsuhiro would be the perfect father for her child, and she asks him if he would be her sperm donor. Naoya is initially dead set against the idea, but slowly Asako manages to win him over. Meanwhile, Katsuhiro starts to open up to his family. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Japanese filmmaker Takumi Kimizuka directed this darkly comic look at the sordid underside of a supposedly happy marriage. Mitsuko (Nae Yuki) and Haru are a young couple who live a life of bourgeois respectability in a clean, modern home in a good neighborhood. But Haru has overextended himself financially to buy this house, and he works long hours as an insurance salesman, hoping to earn enough to keep himself afloat in the wake of an economic downturn. His main source of solace is alcohol, and he usually comes home late at night and quite drunk. Mitsuko fares little better; she wants to be the perfect wife with a clean house, beautiful garden, and dinner on the table when her hubby wants it. But Mitsuko is convinced that Haru is working himself to death and keeps a close watch on his health, while she has no one for companionship while Haru is away but a stray cat she's trapped in a ball of wire. Mitsuko becomes reacquainted with an old friend from school, Kumi; Kumi's marriage also has problems, as she wants to have a baby but her sex life with her husband is not at all satisfying. Mitsuko discovers she's pregnant, and Haru starts coming home earlier and spending more time with her, but what at first seems like an upturn in their marriage soon proves to be the beginning of the end. Takumi Kimizuka based his screenplay on a novel by Motoko Maeda. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A large, dysfunctional family awaits word on a loved one's fate in this domestic drama starring Susan Sarandon as Mag Singer, mother of seven sons. One, Percival (Matt Keeslar) is serving in the Marine Corps, and when news comes that his barracks in the Middle East has been bombed by terrorists, Mag's family assembles at her home, anxious for more information. In the meantime, a series of old wounds are reopened and healed. The prodigious Singers include the father, Patrick (Sam Shepard), unhappily estranged from Mag and prone to bouts of hysterical blindness, and Alfred (Robert Sean Leonard), the responsible, sober eldest, who is engaged to divorced mother Cynthia (Marcia Gay Harden). There's also Simon (Nick Stahl), the intellectual Izzy (Sean Astin), two twins, and guilt-wracked Gideon (Jason London), a track star who outshone Percival athletically, inspiring the latter to join the military. While the Singers deal with minor crises like a neighbor's dog that repeatedly attacks Simon, Percival's fate looms, and Mag deals with her fear by cleaning out the ramshackle garage and drinking Tequila with her daughter-in-law to be, Cynthia, with whom she's surprised to find much in common. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi