Nanako Matsushima Movies
- 2007
Isshin Inudou's drama Bizan concerns a woman named Sakiko (Nanako Matsushima) who returns home when her mother (Nobuko Miyamoto) goes into the hospital. The daughter discovers in quick succession that not only is her mother dying, but the father she never met, and thought had been deceased, is actually alive. Sakiko sets off to find him, guided only by a stash of letters he wrote to her mother. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nanako Matsushima, Takao Osawa, (more)
- 2006
Precisely thirty-years after first bringing star detective Kosuke Kindaichi to the screen in The Inugami Family, acclaimed Japanese director Kon Ichikawa returns to follow author Seishi Yokomizo's super sleuth on his most challenging case. World War II has recently drawn to a close, and as powerful pharmaceutical executive and notoriously ruthless family patriarch Sahei Inugami (Tatsuya Nakadai) lays dying in his Nasu deathbed, his heirs all gather around to hear the reading of the will. Unfortunately for his eager offspring Sahei expires before summoning the strength to name his heirs, and family lawyer Furadate (Atsuo Nakamura) states that the will cannot be read aloud until all family members are present and accounted for. As eldest daughter Matsuko (Sumiko Fuji) sends for her war-ravaged son in Fukuoka, the lawyer's assistant contacts detective Kindiachi (Koji Ishizaka) with concerns about foul play. No sooner does the assistant voice his suspicions than he drops dead due to poisoning, and the eagle-eyed gumshoe begins working around the clock to crack the case. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Ishizaka, Nanako Matsushima, (more)
Hideo Nakata follows up on the phenomenal success of Ringu -- the highest grossing Japanese film up to that point -- with this effort. In the previous film, Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) was a television reporter doing a piece on a videotape that seemed to kill those who watched it. Not long after learning that the cause of the killing was a vengeful spirit named Sadako who inhabited the video, Reiko's researcher ex-husband (Hiroyuki Sanada) died a painful death, and the fate of Reiko's son, Yoichi (Rikiya Otaka) -- who watched the tape -- was in doubt. Ring 2 opens with an autopsy of Sadako, whose supernatural rage was sparked when she was dumped in a well. Sadako's powers affect Yoichi, who survived the video and has become a medium of sorts for the wraith. Also affected is Reiko's dead husband's mistress, Mai Takano (played by pop star Miki Nakatani), whose life has become a living nightmare. Also under Sadako's power is Masami Kurahashi (Hitomi Sato), who was a schoolmate of one of Sadako's first victims. Though many try to get to the bottom of the problem -- including a psychologist (Fumiyo Kohinata) and a police detective (Kenjiro Ishimaru) -- the bodies start piling up. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miki Nakatani, Hitomi Sato, (more)
In this psychological horror story from Japan, a legend circulates among teenagers that if one watches a certain video at a certain time of the night, the telephone will ring right afterward, and one week later, you will die. When Masami (Hitomi Sato) tells her friend Imako this story, she scoffs -- but a week later, Imako dies in an auto accident. Imako's aunt, a television journalist named Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), hears that not long before she died, Imako was watching a strange video with her friends -- all of whom have turned up dead. Reiko tracks down a copy of the video, and as she watches its strange, spectral images, the telephone begins to ring....The next morning, Reiko begins a desperate search to solve the mystery of the video, convinced she has only seven days to live; assisting her is Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), a mathematics expert and her former husband. Ringu was a box-office success in its native Japan, and a surprise blockbuster in Hong Kong, where it became the biggest grossing film of the first half of 1999. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, (more)
