Takao Osawa

Isshin Inudou's drama Bizan concerns a woman named Sakiko (Nanako Matsushima) who returns home when her mother (Nobuko Miyamoto) goes into the hospital. The daughter discovers in quick succession that not only is her mother dying, but the father she never met, and thought had been deceased, is actually alive. Sakiko sets off to find him, guided only by a stash of letters he wrote to her mother. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Isao Yukisada directed and co-wrote this romantic melodrama, based on a best-selling novel by Katayama Kyoichi. A typhoon is approaching town when Ritsuko (Kou Shibasaki, who also starred in director Yukisada's Go) discovers a mysterious old cassette tape that leads her to abruptly abandon her fiancé, Sakutaro (Takao Osawa of All About Lily Chou-Chou). When Sakutaro realizes where she's gone, it leads him to take a journey of his own. Sakutaro (played by Mirai Moriyama as a teen) goes into a deep reverie, thinking back to his high school years (which are shown in flashback), when he developed a powerful crush on a classmate, Aki (Masami Nagasawa). Aki was beautiful, poised, and athletic, and seemed on the verge of escaping their small town. With the encouragement of his best friend Ryunosuke (Issei Takahashi) and his uncle (Tsutomu Yamazaki, who also starred in Go), a wedding photographer, Sakutaro pursues Aki. She's drawn to him, and encourages him to open up to her in cassette recordings that they exchange. Their romance is blossoming when Sakutaro learns that Aki is gravely ill. As he relives his past, it becomes unclear whether their respective journeys will reunite Sakutaro and Ritsuko. Crying Out Love in the Center of the World was shown at the 2005 Asian American International Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Two teenagers fall for the same boy with unexpected consequences in this popular comedy drama from Japan. Hana (Anne Suzuki) and Arisu (Yu Aoi) are a pair of 15-year-old girls who have been best friends for years. Arisu, the more outgoing of the two, has developed a crush on a boy and they begin dating. So that Hana won't feel left out, Arisu fixes her up with Masa (Tomohiro Kaku), one of her boyfriend's pals. However, after a few months, the bloom is off the rose for Arisu and her beau, while things are going swimmingly for Hana and Masa. Making matters worse for Arisu is the fact she's become quite infatuated with Masa, and one day while she's following him home from school, she sees him accidentally walk into a wall. Masa is knocked cold for a moment, and when he awakes, he sees Arisu, who attempts to convince him that she's actually his girlfriend...something he doesn't recall thanks to a mild dose of amnesia brought on by the accident, according to Arisu. Written and directed by Shunji Iwai, who created the international success All About Lily Chou-Chou, Hana to Arisu began as a series of candy commercials and became so popular as an expanded series of short subjects available online that Iwai adapted them into a feature. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Ryuhei Kitamura, director of the cult action hits Versus and Alive, made this samurai movie about a legendary supernatural creature. In the middle of the night, two wounded samurai come upon a remote mountain temple. One of them dies. The other, after recovering from his wounds, meets the occupant of the temple, a brooding warrior who tells him that he is the legendary goblin Aragami, a god of war who eats human flesh and is invincible in battle. Wearied by his apparent immortality, he is searching for the one mortal who can defeat him, and hopes that his visitor is the one to do so and take on both his powers and the burden of eternal life. Aragami is one half of the "Duel Project," in which Kitamura and fellow director Yukihiko Tsutsumi agreed to each make a film involving a duel to the death. Tstutsumi's half of the bargain is entitled 2LDK. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide

Renowned director Stanley Kwan spins this parable about post-handover Hong Kong, the second in a trilogy about the former colony that began with Hold You Tight (1998). Inspired from the 1998 "bird flu" that killed several people and prompted authorities to order the wholesale slaughter of that city's chickens, this film centers on seven disparate people trapped on an island because of a government quarantine. The film opens with Haruki (Takao Osawa), a Japanese writer suffering from consumption, trying to write his next novel. Other characters that populate the film include Sharon (Michele Reis), a lesbian Chinese-American businesswoman who lived on the island as a child, Sharon's married Japanese friend Marianne (Kaori Momoi), and party girl Mei Ling (played by former pin-up model Shu Qi), who came to the island to meet a Brit with whom she shacked up the night before. Also, there is young actor Han (Julian Cheung), hailing from Hong Kong, and Bo (Gordon Liu) the gay middle-aged manager of the island's hotel. After the aforementioned people cross paths, news comes that the government has stopped all traffic to and from the island for an indefinite period of time in order to prevent the spread of the "stone virus." As the long night wears on, the inhabitants have little to do except wait and talk. Soon they begin to reveal more and more of themselves. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide