Chara Movies
- 1996
Following up on the fantastic success of Love Letter, pop phenom Shunji Iwai directs this phantasmagoric sprawling sci-fi drama set in a polyglotic encampment known as Aozora (blue skies) on the fringe of a megalopolis called Yen Town. Its ragtag -- and remarkably fashionable -- inhabitants are into every kind of nefarious activity imaginable. The film centers on Glico (played by pop star Chara), a Chinese hooker who tattooed a swallowtail butterfly to her chest so that she might be identified after death. Other inhabitants include a doe-eyed orphaned teen (Ayumi Ito) whom Glico takes under her wing and dubs Ageha ("caterpillar"), and Feihong (Hiroshi Mikami), a master grifter who is in love with Glico. One day, a couple of other Aozora-dwellers -- a slick Chinese hustler named Ran (Atsuro Watabe) and jumpy Iranian con-artist Nihat (Abraham Levin) -- discover a cassette tape in the stomach of a dead gangster. The tape not only contains the tune "My Way" but also a computer code to counterfeit 10,000-yen notes. Soon every shantytown resident is cheating change machines everywhere and making a killing in the process. With his newfound wealth, Feihong opens a nightclub with Glico as the lead act. Soon the actual owners of the tape -- a ruthless band of Chinese gangsters -- cotton on to the Aozorian's scheme and demand their money back. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hiroshi Mikami, Chara, (more)
- 1994
Director Shunji Iwai follows up on the wild success of his star-crossed romantic drama Love Letter with this slick, brooding tale about a trio of mental asylum inmates and one really long wall. Koko (played by pop icon Chara) is placed into an institution after she embarrasses her rich family by killing crows. Sporting a skimpy black dress and a crow's feather boa, she believes that the world was created when she was born and will end when she dies. At the institution, she befriends Tsumuji (Tadanobu Asano), a lad who killed his bullying teacher in a fit of rage and is now haunted by his ghost. After reading a Bible that a priest had given him, Tsumuji becomes convinced that the world is coming to an end. His friend Satoru (Koichi Hashizume) is a quiet retiring sort who is obsessed with rules and who compulsively masturbates. One day, this strange threesome decides to leave the asylum and have a picnic before the world's eminent end. Sensitive to Satoru's neuroses, the trio doesn't hop the hospital walls, but instead walks on top of them. Fortunately, this wall happens to be the longest such edifice this side of China, as it extends to the sea. There, their own personal apocalypse unfolds. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
