Tatsuya Fuji Movies

When a nuclear equipped, stealth-type American strategic bomber code-named Midnight Eagle bursts into flames during a routine training flight over the Northern Alps, an ex-war photographer turned nature-loving shutterbug attempts to prevent the missing weapons from falling into enemy hands. Based on author Tetsuo Takashima's popular novel of the same name, director Izuru Narushima's urgently paced action film stars Takao Ôsawa, Yûko Takeuchi, Hiroshi Tamaki, and Eisaku Yoshida. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A group of Coast Guard trainees undergoes a grueling training course in the hopes of joining an elite team of search and rescue scuba divers in Eiichiro Hasumi's Umizaru (Sea Monkeys). Their drill sergeant, Hara (Tatsuya Fuji, star of Nagisa Oshima's erotic drama In the Realm of the Senses), is as taciturn and demanding as they come, and a few trainees distinguish themselves quickly. Senzaki (Hideaki Ito of The Princess Blade) and Mishima (Ken Kaito) are clearly the strongest and the toughest, while Kudo (Atsushi Ito) is the runt of the litter. Hara teams the cocksure Senzaki with clumsy Kudo, and the pair have trouble completing their missions. Kudo continually slows Senzaki down, but they share in the punishment. While the rest of the trainees openly mock Kudo, Senzaki defends him and tries to inspire him. One night on leave, Senzaki runs into Kanna (Ai Kato), a pretty local girl who works for a Tokyo-based fashion magazine. Kanna has come back to town to care for her sick mother, but she has little patience for the antics of the "sea monkeys," as the locals refer to the trainees. She gets drunk, however, and winds up in bed with the equally inebriated Senzaki, leading to much confusion and embarrassment the next morning. Kudo eventually wins over the rest of the team with his determination, but Senzaki continually butts heads with the unfriendly Mishima. Kanna's budding romance is derailed by a career crisis, and tragedy strikes the team before training is through. Umizaru, based on a popular manga, had its international premiere at Subway Cinema's 2004 New York Asian Film Festival. The film features the music of Journey. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

In this somewhat confusing action-adventure story aimed at a teen audience, a group of young men and women take on a gang who has kidnapped one of their friends. Their bravery and resourcefulness lead them on a journey into a world filled with the denizens of organized crime, and of cops with questionable ethics. Before they can even come close to success, they face violent confrontations and rapid-fire gun battles in a bewildering sequence of equally rapid-fire events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Also known as Phantom Love, the French/Japanese co-production L'Empire de la Passion follows famed Japanese director Nagisa Oshima's multinational production, the chilling and erotic In the Realm of the Senses, which was banned in several countries and was disqualified from appearing at the Cannes Film Festival. This straightforward Japanese murder-mystery and ghost story, unlike that previous movie, does not focus on eroticism but concerns the aftermath of passion and the fruits of crime. In the story, based on an 1895 incident in rural Japan, Seki (Kazuko Yoshiyuki), a beautiful peasant woman, and her young lover Toyoji (Tatsuya Fuji), conspire to murder her husband when their erotic games get out of hand. After getting the husband drunk, the two lovers kill him and throw his body down an abandoned well, claiming that he has gone to do business in Tokyo. In order to avoid suspicion, the two only see each other seldom. In the meantime, Seki begins seeing visions of her husband, and her grown stepdaughter has dreams of him. Guilt consumes both of them, and their nemesis, in the form of a bumbling police inspector sent to investigate an unrelated murder, pursues them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Yasuharu Hasebe returned to direct this second sequel to his Naraneko Rokku: Onna Bancho (1970). Meiko Kaji and her all-girl Alleycats biker gang are being wined and dined by some American soldiers when a racist gang called the Eagles -- whose leader's sister was once raped by a black G.I. -- vents their hatred by gang-raping a black girl. The victim's brother leads the Brats, an interracial gang. A bloody race war ensues between the Eagles and Brats, and the Alleycats are caught in the middle. Stark and unsettling, this teen-oriented Nikkatsu Studios entry is no West Side Story, brutally dealing with both prejudice and rape by American soldiers, which had been a theme in many Nikkatsu productions since Shohei Imamura's Buta to Gunkan (1961). Television star Rikiya Yasuoka co-stars in this action film with a message. Hasebe returned later the same year with Naraneko Rokku: Mashin Animaru. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

When a police crackdown forces one of Tokyo's most powerful yakuza clans to cease operation, a few determined criminals vow to cling to power at any cost in this bloody crime drama from cult director Yasuharu Hasebe. Hunted by police and targeted for extinction by a mysterious killer, the fearless lone holdouts launch a brutal campaign to take over the city's thriving black market. With two forces fighting to take control of Tokyo's drug, gambling, and prostitution markets, the streets are about to become a war zone where no one is safe and everyone has a price. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide