Yoshino Kimura Movies
Glamorous actress Yoshino Kimura distinguished herself from many of her female contemporaries in Japanese cinema by keeping a fixed eye on internationally oriented projects that demanded a host of varied skills, from traditional dramatic interpretation to singing and dancing, often in English. Born in April 1976 in Great Britain, Kimura spent periods of her childhood in London and New York City, then returned to Japan and both developed and honed a keen interest in equestrianism. Kimura took her first screen bow at the age of 20 in the 1996 outing Genki wo ageru, but only with the following year's Shitsurakuen did she move ahead to prominent screen roles. By the early 2000s, Kimura had already branched out into stage work in Japan and decided to return to New York City for musical theater training; the performer realized the fulfillment of this goal with a prime role in the American musical Me & My Girl (2003); not long after, she returned to Japan and acted in director Masahiko Makino's gross-out comedy Wakeful Nights and Mika Ninagawa's period feminist film Sakuran (2007). That same year, the actress received Hollywood attention with her role in Norio Tsuruta's Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise (2007) for the Showtime pay cable network in the U.S.; she then turned up opposite Yusuke Iseya and others for a prominent role in Fernando Meirelles' thriller Blindness, a Canadian-Brazilian-Japanese co-production that starred Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Fernando Meirelles' adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago's novel Blindness begins when an epidemic of blindness strikes the world. Mark Ruffalo stars as an eye doctor who awakens one morning to find that he suffers from the unexplained disorder. He, along with other victims, is sent to a government detention center so that they can be quarantined. His wife (Julianne Moore) pretends to be blind so that she can be with him inside the institution. Their time in the center grows more and more desperate as food and supplies dwindle, and one of the other citizens (Gael García Bernal) exercises dictatorial control over the others after he acquires a weapon. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, (more)
- 2008
Love threatens to turn two geeky guys against one another in this independent comedy from Japan. Teruo (YosiYosi Arakawa) is a self-conscious nerd who works at a bookstore when he isn't indulging his favorite pastime of scaring people. Teruo enjoys playing pranks on strangers and filming their reactions, and his latest project involves turning his home into a spook house. Teruo's best friend Hisanobu (Yoshinori Okada) works in a hospital by day and helps his pal with his outlandish stunts at night. However, when Hisanobu meets Akari (Yoshino Kimura), a clumsy but beautiful artist, he falls head over heels for her, and Teruo isn't so sure he wants to share his friend's time and attention with a woman. Zen zen daijobu (aka Fine, Totally Fine) was an official selection at the 2008 Hong Kong Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Yoshino Kimura, (more)
- 2007
- Add Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise to QueueAdd Masters of Horror: Dream Cruise to top of Queue
Premonition writer/director Norio Tsuruta directs iconic Japanese author Kôji Suzuki's tale of open-water terror for the small screen as Showtime's Masters of Horror series winds to a waterlogged close. Jack (Daniel Gillies) is an American lawyer working in Tokyo who is terrified of the sea. But a few small waves become the least of Jack's worries when he and the wife of his powerful client Eiji enter into a dangerous affair. Later, when Eiji personally invites Jack to join the couple for an afternoon boating excursion into Tokyo Bay, the shaken lawyer reluctantly accepts. Little do Jack and Eiji's wife realize that their greatest fears are about to become reality when a presumed pleasure cruise turns deadly personal. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Gillies, Ryo Ishibashi, (more)
- 2007
Mika Ninagawa's lavishly produced, broadly-scaled period epic Sakuran unfurls in 18th century Edo, the embryonic fishing village that in later years blossomed into the Japanese metropolis of Tokyo. Anna Tsuchiya stars as Kiyoha, a social-climbing courtesan who inhabits and works in a bordello of the exclusive Yoshiwara district. Exceptionally particular regarding her customers/bedmates, Kiyoha seeks liberation from the lifestyle and career that have ensconced her - but refuses to accept such emancipation at the hands of a rich man's purchase. Deliberately, yet with great assurance and conviction, Kiyoha approaches the prospect of freedom and attempts to surmount the social and cultural obstacles that stand in her way. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Tsuchiya, Kippei Narimiya, (more)
- 2006
Filmmaker Heddy Honigmann takes an up-close look at one of the world's most famous cemeteries in this documentary exploring Père-Lachaise -- the eternal resting ground of such world-renowned artists as Jim Morrison, Piaf, Chopin, and Proust. Despite the fact that they may be home to a variety of well-known artists, composers, and musicians, the lavish grounds of Père-Lachaise are also occupied by a number of lesser-known figures whose once-strong fan bases have since died down as the proliferation and popularity of the departed eventually waned. Still, thousands of people continue to visit Père-Lachaise each and every year, and whether it be the fan who shows up to place a flower on the grave of the artist who inspired them or the little old ladies who tend to the graves and ensure that the grounds don't fall to ruin, these quiet visitors open up to the camera to provide an intimate look at the meaning of immortality in a world where death waits for no one. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Masahiko Makino's willfully offensive comedy Nezu No Ban concerns a beloved comedian (Hiroyuki Nagato) who from his deathbed asks to see the private parts of a woman. The people he has worked with for years attempt to make that dream a reality, but their success has unintended consequences. Based on a traditional Japanese theatrical style that utilizes exceedingly vulgar language, the film continues onto a series of funerals as the various people who worked with the old man die themselves. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kiichi Nakai, Hiroyuki Nagato, (more)
- 2003
Yoshimitsu Morita's comedy drama Ashura No Gotoku (Like Ashura) tells the story of what happens to four sisters when they discover a secret their father has been keeping. The film opens with third sister Takiko (Eri Fukatsu) revealing to the others that dad has been having an affair that has produced an illegitimate child. While all the women react in their own way, each has also been keeping secrets. Takiko becomes involved with the private eye she hired to snoop on her father. Tsunako (Shinobu Otake), the oldest, is a widow who has been carrying on with a married man. Second oldest Makiko (Hitomi Kuroki) is too dense to see that her husband has been cheating on her. The situation grows more complicated when a mysterious letter that may have been written by one of the sisters is printed in the newspaper. Like Ashura was screened at the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shinobu Otake, Hitomi Kuroki, (more)
- 2002
Based on Miyuki Miyabe's popular novel, Yoshimitsu Morita's lurid thriller follows an intelligent serial killer as he strings police and the media along while committing a series of brutal murders. Torturing his victims before killing them in numerous horrific ways, the fearless killer (played by Japanese pop star Masahiro Nakai) continues to press his luck with authorities while using the media to announce his evil intentions. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masahiro Nakai, Takashi Fujii, (more)
A psychic and a young girl with multiple personality disorder find their paths crossing in this adaptation of Yusuke Kishi's novel. Isola: Persona 13 is set before the backdrop of the 1995 Kobe earthquake and stars Yoshino Kimura as Yukari, a mind reader who encounters Chihiro, a girl who believes she possesses 13 personalities, including that of an evil spirit. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yu Kurosawa, Yoshino Kimura, (more)
Veteran director Yoshimitsu Morita spins this romantic melodrama that was originally written by Junichi Watanabe and serialized in the Nihon Keizai Shinbum, Japan's answer to the Wall Street Journal. Kuki (Koji Yakusho) is a former magazine editor wunderkind whose star has dimmed as he slides into middle age. After corporate downsizing, he finds himself in an easily forgotten corner of a corporate conglomerate and, at home, in an increasingly chilly marriage. Rinko (Hitomi Kuroki) is an elegant calligraphy instructor who looks quite fetching in a kimono, and is similarly stuck in a nuptial dead-end. Both find solace in each other's arms, but their respective spouses are getting wise to their affair. Rinko's cheese-loving husband sics a private investigator on her, while Kuki's wife uses more intimate methods of divinating the truth. Given the forces that are pulling them apart, they resolve to take concrete measures that will insure they will be together forever. The film's ending features something rarely seen this side of a Monzaemon Chikamatsu play. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Yakusho, Hitomi Kuroki, (more)
