Yoichi Okamura Movies
This American remake of director Takashi Shimizu's popular Japanese movie franchise The Grudge puts Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumna Sarah Michelle Gellar back into the line of supernatural fire. When Karen (Gellar), an American student working with a Japanese health center for college credit, comes across a mysterious curse, she quickly finds herself embroiled in a fight for her own sanity, and, ultimately, her very survival. Known as a "grudge," the curse was born inside of a house after its inhabitants died while consumed by rage -- according to legend, the curse touches all who come into contact with it, and will torment those unlucky individuals until they, too, become part of the grudge . Each time the curse finds a new victim, it is, in a sense, reborn, and will continue on its path unless Karen can free herself from its control over her. This version of The Grudge is also directed by Shimizu, and features Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, Kadee Strickland, William Mapother, and Bill Pullman in supporting roles. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, (more)
Masashi Yamamoto directs this impressionist portrait of the drug-addled riff-raff at the edges of Japanese life. Told in a series of vignettes, the film opens with emaciated beauty Miyuki (Miyuki Iijima) polishing off a hit of crack and murdering her sleeping lover just before going to work. Jonesing during an interminable meeting, she ventures out into the street during lunch break in search of some rock, only to find more than drugs at the hands of a sociopathic pusher. Cut to Yokohama's red light district where big-haired rocker Hide (Yoshiyuki) picks up Chinese-American prostitute Myan (Mia). Though they don't share a language in common, they develop a bond beyond mere rutting. Cut to the story of Cawl (Ali Amed) -- a Pakistani alien with a hair-trigger temper -- he murders his Japanese girlfriend when she refuses his offer of marriage and then dispatches with the shady broker who brought him to Japan when he demands a king's ransom to take him home. Other vignettes include gangland knife fight among lowriders, a Mexican female pro-wrestler's departure from the land of the rising sun, and a junkie who passes out on Tokyo's circular Yamanote train line. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shizuko Yamamoto, Miyuki Ijima, (more)
