Arata
- 2008
Director Yusuke Kaida eschews the high-definition sensibilities so predominant in modern filmmaking to shoot this haunting tale of supernatural longing on 8mm film. Based on an actual event and set in 1980s-era Tokyo, Shadow of Sand centers on the strange events surrounding a young woman named Yuki Yusuke (Noriko Eguchi), who continues to live with the spirit of her lover (Yonemura Ryotarou) long after she murdered him (Yonemura Ryotarou). Yuki's mate may be gone, but he continues to appear before her as real and vivid as when he was once alive. Despite his unsettling presence, however, the haunted woman continues to go about her daily business as if everything is completely normal - doing everything in her power to fly beneath the radar. In time, the supernatural cohabitation becomes a simple fact of life for the troubled Yuki. But this strange domestic arrangement can't last forever, and when Yuki takes a new lover her life quickly begins to unravel. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noriko Eguchi, Yonemura Ryotarou, (more)
- 2007
In a stark depiction of the dissatisfaction that followed the demise of 60's idealism, United Red Army follows the story of the titular leftwing Japanese terrorist group that came together in 1972 as two pre-existing groups merged. Interspersed with large amounts of archival footage and employing a semi-pseudo-documentary style, the film visits upon the key historical figures and events that led to the United Red Army eventually purging much of its membership, leading five student radicalists to hole up in the Asano mountain lodge in Nagano Prefecture in a standoff against the police. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Akie Namiki, Arata, (more)
- 2002
The debut feature film from Sori is a tale of adolescent angst and stylish table tennis sequences. Ping Pong's main character, Tsukimoto (Arata), is an overly sensitive young man who refuses to actually defeat his opponents at the game table because he does not want them to feel bad. His buddy Peco (Yosuke Kubozuka) is a brashly confident and flamboyant player, who meets his match in Kong (Sam Lee). After suffering injuries and temptations, both enter the same major tournament only to realize that they may end up facing off against each other in the finals. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yosuke Kubozuka, Arata, (more)
- 2001
Four people whose lives are connected by a common tragedy discuss the paths their lives have taken in this drama from Japan. Minoru (Susumu Terajima) is a businessman, Atsushi (Araka) is a disaffected post-modern teen, Kiyoka (Yui Natsukawa) is an educator, and Masaru (Yusuke Iseya) a quiet young woman. Normally, these four would have nothing in common and little to say to one another, but fate has brought them together through an unfortunate circumstance -- they all had relatives who were members of the Ark of Truth, a combination religious cult and terrorist group whose desire to lash out at society led them to dump poison in Tokyo's water processing plants, leading to the death of 128 people and serious illness in thousands of others. The Ark of Truth members directly responsible for the poisoning were then attacked and killed by the other members of the group. On the third anniversary of this disaster, the foursome is part of a handful of people who mourn their loved ones near a remote lake where the Ark of Truth was formed; afterward, they discover that the car they arrived in has been stolen, and along with Koichi (Tadanobu Asano), a former member of the cult, they must spend the night in a cabin where the group once met. Inspired in part by the infamous Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, which was responsible for releasing nerve gas in a Tokyo subway, leading to the death of 12 people, Distance was directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who previously made the international success After Life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tadanobu Asano, Arata, (more)
- 1999
Acclaimed maverick filmmaker Shinji Aoyama departs from his trademark bloody crime films such as his landmark Helpless (1996) to direct a brittle, engrossing romantic drama. Rika (Rei Kurita), a bright, attractive, and driven young woman, is intent on marrying her dreamy boyfriend Seiichi Ono (Tomohiro Sekiguchi) who is not only tall and handsome but also an up-and-coming executive. One day, Ono abruptly dumps her. Shocked, Rika chugs a bottle of wine and calls people randomly on her cell phone, hoping to find someone that will listen to her woeful tale. Unable to follow the advice of self-help books or the one person she is able to get ahold of -- Kono Shingo (Arata) -- she stumbles over to Ono's apartment and threatens to commit suicide. Rika then hires a private eye to tail her errant lover. Ono eventually consents to marriage with her only when it becomes apparent that it would help his career. Like his earlier films, Aoyama renders the world of Japan's youth as solipsistic and inert; they're more attached to their belongings than to other people. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arata
Like his previous drama Maborosi (1995), Hirokazu Kore-eda's After Life is a brilliant meditation on death and memory. The premise of After Life is simple: over the span of a week, twenty-two souls arrive at a way station (which looks like an old junior high school) between life and death, where they are asked to choose just one memory to take into the afterlife. The new arrivals include an elderly woman, a rebellious dropout, a teenage girl, and a 70-year-old war veteran. Once they have chosen a memory, it is recreated and filmed by the staff of the way station, using all the tricks and illusions of cinema: cotton balls are used to mimic clouds, a fan is used for a summer breeze. In preparation for this project, Kore-eda interviewed 500 people from all walks of life about their memories. The film freely cuts between footage of these interviews, actors improvising, and actors reading scripts. Just as Kore-eda fuses documentary elements with a fictional narrative, we see over the course of the film how memories are distorted, improved on, and revised; and it is these subjectively constructed memories that the new arrivals value most. This film is not a typical Hollywood feel-good film; but its unhurried pace and lack of melodrama, like its subject, may linger in the memory long afterwards. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
