Kazutoshi Wadakura Movies

2007  
 
Director Yasuo Baba and screenwriter Ryoichi Kimizuka team to tell the satirical tale of a young bar hostess sent back in time to the year 1990 on a mission to save her mother and reverse a disastrous financial policy that threatens to plunge the Japanese economy into debt. Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust opens as bar hostess Mayumi Showa (Ryoko Hirosue) is abandoned by her boyfriend shortly after the death of her mother and plunged into bottomless debt. Later followed to her apartment by Finance Ministry salary-man Shimokawaji (Hiroshi Abe), Mayumi is informed by Shimokawaji that her mother is not dead, but trapped in a different decade on a government-sponsored mission. It seems that the powers that be have created a working time machine out of a common washing machine, and that Mayumi's mother Mariko was sent to ensure that 1990-era Finance Minister Serizawa (Kazue Fukiishi) never establishes the policy that will ultimately cripple the Japanese economy. Should Mayumi succeed in her mission, all of her personal debts will be forgiven. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Ryoko HirosueHiroshi Abe, (more)
2006  
 
Taste of Tea director Katsuhito Ishii collaborates with filmmakers Shinichiro Miki and Hajime Ishimine) for this outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother (Tadanobu Asano), his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother. Dance numbers, pillow fights, animation, comedy, and science fiction all combine to create a unique and disorienting viewing experience featuring such highlights as an absurdist tribute to David Cronenberg, an ass-television, and a girl who fires lasers from her forehead in order to battle a floating space blob which emits spinning, spherical projectiles. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Susumu TerajimaTadanobu Asano, (more)
2006  
PG13  
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Better Luck Tomorrow director Justin Lin picks up where John Singleton left off to offer a high-octane look at the world of underground Japanese drift-racing in the latest installment of the super-charged Fast and the Furious film series. A frustrated teen from a broken home, Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is an outsider looking to make a name for himself on the illegal street racing circuit. When Sean is busted by the police for his high-speed exploits and given the option of either spending time behind bars or moving overseas to live with his no-nonsense, military man father who's currently stationed in Tokyo, the young rebel packs his bags and sets his sights on Nippon. Though at first reluctant to adapt to the unfamiliar customs and foreign code of honor of his new home, Sean soon strikes up a friendship with American speed freak Twinkie (Bow Wow), a like-minded race fan who schools the inexperienced newcomer in the pulse-pounding world of drift-racing. Inadvertently challenging local champion and yakuza associate D.K. (The Drift King) his first time on the road, Sean is subsequently forced to work under expatriate Han (Sung Kang) to pay off his debt after failing to cross the finish line first. Taking note of the young American's affinity for racing as he warmly welcomes him into his merry band of misfit drift-fanatics, Han slowly introduces Sean to the key principles of the popular new racing style. When Sean makes the potentially deadly mistake of falling for D.K.'s girlfriend Neela (Nathalie Kelley), he'll need all the help he can get to face his most challenging race to date and take on the most notorious driver on the Tokyo drift scene in a hair-raising, hairpin-turn race where the winner truly takes all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Lucas BlackBow Wow, (more)
2004  
 
Filmmaker Katsuhito Ishii takes a break from the post-Tarantino excess of such highly-stylized outings as Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl for this low-key look at an eccentric family residing in a quiet countryside town just north of Tokyo. The Haruno family is a five-piece clan living the simple life in Japan. The summer sun shining gently down, this quiet quintet is transformed into a six-piece when urban-dwelling uncle Ayano (Tadanobu Asano), a successful music producer, arrives to visit his family and confront his feelings for the ex-girlfriend who married another man after Ayano moved to the city. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes. Eccentric grandfather Akira (Tatsuya Gashuin) seems to reside in a wondrous universe of his own making, while imaginative mother Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is attempting to re-establish herself as an anime artist and hypno-therapist father Nobou (Tomokazu Miura) practices his trade on willing family members. Meanwhile, on the youthful side of the clan, son Hajime (Takahiro Sato) attempts to get his hormones in check following the arrival of a pretty new classmate, while haunted daughter Sachiko (Maya Banno) stealthily attempts to avoid her massive doppelganger - a mysterious figure who seems to be tracing the girl's every move. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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Starring:
Mayo BannoTakahiro Sato, (more)
1995  
PG  
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This Canadian-Japanese co-production uses both vintage historical footage (including armed forces films and period newsreels) and contemporary dramatic reenactments to tell the story of how the scientific and military minds behind the Manhattan Project, under the orders of President Harry Truman (Kenneth Welsh), developed the first atomic bomb. The weapon was first used to attack the city of Hiroshima near the end of World War II, changing forever the shape of modern warfare and bringing fearsome devastation to a previously quiet Japanese city. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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