Jun Murakami Movies

A pair of death-obsessed teens track a Tokyo serial killer in this gruesome thriller from director Gen Takahashi. A madman is stalking the Tokyo suburbs, slaughtering young women and severing their hands before posing the corpses in places the police will easily discover them. With each new killing, teenage loner Morino (Rin Takanashi) and her outgoing pal Kamiyana (Kanata Hongô) grow increasingly fascinated by the morbid crimes. When Morino stumbles across what appears to be the killer's journal, she and Kamiyama try to track his movement in order to get a look at the crime scenes before the police do. But the closer the two friends get to the killer, the greater the danger to their own life grows. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Former anime director Hideaki Anno adapts Go Nagai's manga and anime character of Cutie Honey to live-action cinema in this high-energy Japanese adventure comedy. Honey Kisaargi (Eriko Sato), an android created by her scientist father, is attempting to balance her dull office job and her secret life as the constantly costume-changing, pink-clad superhero warrior of love, Cutie Honey. When the dreaded Panther Claw gang returns to create evil and steal our hero's Love System necklace, it can only be Cutie Honey to the rescue! As Honey races to save the world, she teams up with a hard-as-nails detective (Mikako Ichikawa) and a super-cool reporter (Jun Murakami) and faces off against an evil tree demon known as Sister Jill (Eisuke Sakai). Cutie Honey incorporates anime-style hand-drawn effects into the film's many special effects sequences and features a pop music score by Mikio Endo and Kumi Koda. ~ Jason Gibner, Rovi

Directed by Hiroshi Ando, Blue follows schoolgirls Kayako Kirishima (Mikako Ichikawa) and Masami Endo (Manami Konishi), who meet and quickly find that they've got something more than a mutual friendship between them. Though Kayako never believed herself to be a lesbian (and, in fact, recently lost her virginity to a male), she ends up sharing a kiss with Masami. Their feelings for one another are put to the test when Masami sets off to visit the man who had impregnated her sometime earlier, and Kayako is left on her own. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Directed by Lee Sang-II, Border Line chronicles the lives of convenience-store clerk Aikawa (Yumi Asou), as she struggles to pay the bills after her husband abandons her and their young son, and low-leval yakuza Miyaji (Ken Mitsuishi), whose aid to an associate may ultimately cost him his life. Throwing a wrench into the already complicated situation is Matsuda (Tetsu Sawaki), who is a possible suspect in the murder of his own father. Different as they are, the characters share a common bond: each individual is overwrought with an onslaught of unprecedented responsibility. Set in Japan, the film is a modern commentary on various economic-related troubles and the results of a skyrocketing divorce rate. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Hideaki Anno, who previously made his name creating cutting-edge animated films, moves further into the real world in this, his second live-action feature. A filmmaker (Shunji Iwai) recording the world around him with his video camera and an eccentric young woman (Ayako Fujitani) with a remarkable collection of umbrellas are trying to work their way out of a collective emotional funk. The girl has a habit of saying "Tomorrow is my birthday" every morning, and has developed an odd premonition -- she's convinced that as soon as one of her dreams becomes a reality, she will cease to exist. Shunji Iwai, who plays the filmmaker in Shiki-jitsu, came by the role naturally -- he's directed several features and is considered one of Japan's finest independent filmmakers. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this startling psychological thriller from Japan, Mami (Hijiri Kojima) is a teacher who meets Tomo (Koji Chihara), a psychotic criminal with a short temper and no visible means of support. Amour fou blooms between them, and a year later they're living together, with Mami taking part as Tomo abducts, tortures, and kills one of their neighbors. Eventually the cycle of crime goes too far for Mami and she leaves Tomo, but several years later, he arrives at her home to disrupt her life with her new husband. Hysteric was directed by Takahisa Zeze, who previously received critical acclaim for the film Kokkuri. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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, Rovi