Kumiko Aso Movies

Following up on his acclaimed and Cannes Grand Prix-winning Unagi, veteran iconoclast Shohei Imamura directs this gleefully ragged tale about one very dedicated, though defiantly eccentric, doctor during the waning days of the Second World War. Dr. Akagi (Akira Emoto) is a small-town physician who sports a prim white suit and straw hat as he runs at full gallop from one case to the next. His diagnosis is always the same no matter the symptom: hepatitis. Along the way, he enlists the help of a young lass named Sonoko (Kumiko Asou) whose mother is a prostitute. Before she leaves home, mom gives her this kernel of maternal wisdom: give your physical devotion away to only your true love, make everyone else pay. She decides that the lucky recipient will be Dr. Akagi. Unfortunately, he has little interest in anything other than finding a cure for hepatitis. One day he happens upon a bruised and battered Dutch soldier (Jacques Gamblin) who escaped from the local POW camp. Realizing that returning to the camp would spell death for the lanky escapee, the doctor hides him with the aid of drug-addled fellow doctor (Kotsuke Sera) and an alcoholic Buddhist priest (Juro Kara). In gratitude to Dr. Akagi's kind act, the Dutchman, a lens crafter in quieter times, helps to fashion him a microscope so that the doctor may look at the very hepatitis germ itself. This film was intended as Imamura's swansong, but in 2001 he came out of retirement to direct the surrealist romance Akai Hashi Noshitano Nurui Mizu. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

As one of the most cutting-edge Japanese filmmakers, Kiyoshi Kurosawa once again wraps a lowbrow, much-maligned genre -- in this case horror flicks (which were the rage in Japan at the time of this release) -- around some decidedly highbrow philosophical concepts. At the film's outset, Michi (Kumiko Aso) and her cohorts at a rooftop nursery cannot get ahold of their co-worker, Taguchi (Kenji Mizuhashi), who has an important floppy disk. When she ventures over to his apartment, she finds him pale, listless, and unusually quiet -- that is until he suddenly hangs himself. While the suicide is disconcerting, what really freaks Michi out is that Taguchi's body seems to dissolve into the wall, leaving a sickly black stain. Meanwhile, college slacker Ryosuke Kawashima (Haruhiko Kato) logs onto the Internet for the first time even though he is not particularly fond of computers. Instead of stumbling into a porn site or a chat room, he finds himself in a most peculiar site -- he just sees ghostly images of other people going about their everyday life. Then the computer prompts him, asking, "Would you like to meet ghosts?" Even though he eventually pulls the plug, the machine still on occasion springs to life. He eventually consults a comely computer maven named Harue (Koyuki), who is also utterly baffled. As more and more Internet users seal themselves into their rooms with red duct tape and melt into black splotches, Kawashima and Michi independently come to discover that the Internet has become portal for an increasingly crowded afterlife. As Tokyo becomes increasingly depopulated, Kawashima and Michi cross paths. This film -- which also features cameos by Kurosawa regulars Koji Yakusho, Jun Fubuki, and Sho Aikawa -- was screened at the 2001 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A genetic discovery that could prove mankind's saving grace is instead used to create the very beings who threaten their existence in director Kazuaki Kirya's visionary sci-fi epic. The time is the late 21st Century; fifty years of war between Europa and the Eastern Federation have left the planet devastated and the human race completely dispirited. In the aftermath of the Eastern Federation "victory," a new federation known as Eurasia is born. But the planet has been ravaged beyond the point of repair by nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and a half-century of warfare has taken a devastating toll on all mankind. At first, it appears that salvation is imminent when a highly respected geneticist named Azuma announces the discovery of a so-called "neo cell" that can rejuvenate the human body without risk of rejection. Mankind's last hope threatens to become its ultimate downfall, however, when nature and science combine to create a menace that could very well extinguish the human race forever. Now, as the human race prepares to make its last stand against the ultimate enemy, a powerful warrior will emerge to fight for mankind and provide hope for future generations. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The martial arts film Samurai Resurrection begins with thousands of commoners being murdered in an attempt to revolt against the their ruler. Ten years after the slaughter, the revolution's leader, Shiro Amakusa, comes back from the dead and begins plotting his revenge. He brings back to life an army of skilled swordsmen and sets his sites on the same person who was responsible for killing him before. Jubei Yagyu is responsible for protecting that ruler, but he will have to fight his reincarnated father in order to fulfill his duty. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A fierce woman warrior joins a wandering demon hunter on his quest to recover the missing body parts and regain his natural form in director Akihiko Shiota's adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's popular manga of the same name. Years ago, malevolent ruler Daigo Kagemitsu promised to deliver his unborn son to the forty-eight devils of the underworld in exchange for the power to conquer his country. When his son was born with forty-eight body parts missing, Daigo knew he had gotten his wish and cast the infant child into the river. Rescued from certain death and given the name Hyakkimaru (Satoshi Tsumabuki) by a poor herb doctor, the boy was outfitted with a glass eye, fitted with artificial limbs, and raised amidst the confusion of war. Now, every time Hyakkimaru slays a demon, he regains another one of his missing body parts. One day, as Hyakkimaru does battle with a particularly fierce spider demon, a scrappy female thief named Dororo (Kou Shibasaki) takes notice and comes to his aid. Fascinated by the strange sword affixed to Hyakkimaru's artificial arm and awestruck by the fact that he somehow managed to grow a new leg after defeating the giant spider, Dororo agrees to follow Hyakkimaru on his journey after learning of his story from an ageing minstrel. But while Dororo is a fearless ally indeed, she has a troublesome habit of getting into mischief at the most awkward times. Later, as Hyakkimaru prepares to face off against his powerful father - he leaves his new friend behind in order to face his fate alone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide