Kirina Mano Movies

Japanese director Shinobu Yaguchi first brought his wickedly funny brand of slapstick and deadpan black comedy to the screen in the 1993 cult hit Down the Drain, about a high-schooler undone by the seemingly innocuous use her friend's train pass. In this 1999 film, Yaguchi again mines the comic potential of a chance encounter to turn one's life upside-down. Suzuki (Masanobu Ando) is a meek, inarticulate car rental clerk who hates his job and his boss' petty bullying. His life takes a sudden ugly turn when he is dragged to a yakuza den after a fender-bender with a gangster named Kuroiwa. Yet luck intervenes, in the guise of a freak gas explosion that kills almost everyone in the place. Enter Shizuko (Hikari Ishida) a timid, overly serious nurse who dreams of the "new self" predicted by her horoscope. Hearing the explosion, she rushes to the scene and finds a dazed Suzuki, a gravely injured Kuroiwa, and a suitcase full of yen. On the way to the hospital, the mobster suddenly awakes and, as if programmed to protect his loot, grabs the wheel of the ambulance, sending it careening into a river. After Suzuki and Shizuko tumble onto the pavement, they realize that there is easy money for the taking, and they quietly swipe the cash and let the ambulance sink. The money gives them the courage to break away from their dead-end lives: Suzuki decks his dolt of a boss and Shizuko steps out of her bookish shell and becomes a knock-out in a red dress. Soon they are on the run and in love -- but, of course, things are never that easy. The situation starts to fall apart when both the cast-bound Kuroiwa and a band of dim-witted punks (played by the popular Japanese comedy group Jovi Jova) catch up with the two. Both Ando, who began his career in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return, and well-known television star Ishida deliver great performances as the losers who evolve into gutsy combatants against the fearsome yakuza. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

From Peter Greenaway, one of Britain's most controversial directors, 8 1/2 Women is a laconic black comedy that examines the age-old phenomenon of male sexual fantasy, its roots and consequences. A rich businessman from Geneva acquires eight and a half pachinko parlors in Kyoto, Japan. They are run by his son who is fascinated by earthquakes. When the father's beloved wife dies, the son takes him to see Federico Fellini's film 8 1/2 to distract him from his grief and rekindle some interest in the opposite sex. Inspired by Fellini's vision, they bring eight and a half women from Japan and Europe and turn the father's Geneva mansion into a private harem. Amanda Plummer, Toni Collette, Polly Walker and Vivian Wu (the protagonist of Greenaway's previous film The Pillow Book), head the cast of this multi-layered film that failed to reach the degree of critical acclaim of Greenaway's previous works. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide