Hitomi Sato Movies
Hideo Nakata follows up on the phenomenal success of Ringu -- the highest grossing Japanese film up to that point -- with this effort. In the previous film, Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) was a television reporter doing a piece on a videotape that seemed to kill those who watched it. Not long after learning that the cause of the killing was a vengeful spirit named Sadako who inhabited the video, Reiko's researcher ex-husband (Hiroyuki Sanada) died a painful death, and the fate of Reiko's son, Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka) -- who watched the tape -- was in doubt. Ring 2 opens with an autopsy of Sadako, whose supernatural rage was sparked when she was dumped in a well. Sadako's powers affect Yoichi, who survived the video and has become a medium of sorts for the wraith. Also affected is Reiko's dead husband's mistress, Mai Takano (played by pop star Miki Nakatani), whose life has become a living nightmare. Also under Sadako's power is Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Sato), who was a schoolmate of one of Sadako's first victims. Though many try to get to the bottom of the problem -- including a psychologist (Fumiyo Kohinata) and a police detective (Kenjiro Ishimaru) -- the bodies start piling up. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, (more)
In this psychological horror story from Japan, a legend circulates among teenagers that if one watches a certain video at a certain time of the night, the telephone will ring right afterward, and one week later, you will die. When Masami (Hitomi Sato) tells her friend Imako this story, she scoffs -- but a week later, Imako dies in an auto accident. Imako's aunt, a television journalist named Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), hears that not long before she died, Imako was watching a strange video with her friends -- all of whom have turned up dead. Reiko tracks down a copy of the video, and as she watches its strange, spectral images, the telephone begins to ring....The next morning, Reiko begins a desperate search to solve the mystery of the video, convinced she has only seven days to live; assisting her is Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a mathematics expert and her former husband. Ringu was a box-office success in its native Japan, and a surprise blockbuster in Hong Kong, where it became the biggest grossing film of the first half of 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hitomi Sato, Yasue Sato, (more)
