Hilo Izumi Movies
- 2007
The new kid in town finds his new friends might know something his father doesn't in this playful comedy from Japanese filmmaker Isao Yukisada. Ryunosuke Kusunoki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) is a boy from Tokyo who moves with his family to a farming community in Hokkaido province, where he soon finds he doesn't fit in. Ryunosuke's difficulties with his new school mates isn't helped by the fact his father (Tomokazu Miura) is a government functionary who has come to persuade a handful of farmers to sell their land so that a new airport can be built. Ryunosuke's father isn't the first man to try to get the local farmers to sell their land, and the landowners don't regard him with any greater friendliness than they did his predecessors. Ryunosuke is frequently taunted by Kohei Tsuchida (Yuma Sasano), whose father is a scientist and the leader of the local opposition to the new airport, but while their parents are increasingly at odds, Ryunosuke and Kohei strike up a friendship through their shared love of pranks. As Ryunosuke slowly begins to enjoy his new environment and the joyously eccentric community around him, he finds he can no longer support his father's desire to tear up the countryside in the name of air transportation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryunosuke Kamiki, Suzuka Ohgo, (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)
