Aoi Miyazaki Movies

Actress Aoi Miyazaki narrates this first volume in the New People Artist Series, which focuses on creative force and cult favorite Yoshitomo Nara. This documentary follows Nara as he travels across the world to create his AtoZ exhibit, teaming up with Hideki Toyoshima and a number of others to craft a uniquely collaborative work. For this project, the artist's vision involves making a small town within a warehouse in his native Hirosaki, Japan. ~ Kimber Myers, Rovi

A coming of age drama that hinges on the notorious 1968 payroll theft frequently referred to as "Sanoku-en Jiken" (or "The 300 Million Yen Affair"), Yukinary Hanawa's tale about a young orphan girl longing for the acceptance of her peers draws its inspiration from the autobiography of Misuzu Nakahara - who claims to have been partially responsible for the long-unsolved crime. Misuzu (Aoi Miyazake) is recently orphaned sixteen year-old who has been sent to live with her wealthy relatives. Upon following her brother Ryo (Masaru Miyazaki) to an underground Shinjuku jazz club, Misuzu becomes infatuated with her charismatic sibling's colorful group of friends. A radical crew consisting primarily of theatrical performers and political activists, Ryo's peers rapidly begin to splinter apart after a high-profile demonstration takes a violent turn. Later, when quiet kid Kishi (Keisuke Kiode) voices his opinion that Misuzu should play a role in the robbery, the naïve young girl giddily accepts. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Following up on his acclaimed debut Moonlight Whispers (about a sadomasochistic relationship between two teens), Akihiko Shiota once again looks at troubled youth. Sachiko (played by Aoi Miyazaki of Eureka fame) is a 13-year-old junior high school student with a complicated family life. Her father left when she was an infant for a young mistress. Her mother (Ryo) -- a secretive and weirdly distanced woman -- works as a hostess and a kept woman for a mysterious gangster type. Sachiko finds some modicum of solace in the arms of her sixth grade teacher, Ogata (Seiichi Tanabe) who has a brief affair with her. As a result, he quits his job and starts working for a nuclear power plant far away. When her mother makes another halfhearted attempt at suicide, Sachiko's shattered emotional life becomes too much to bear and she drops out of school. Though she continues to correspond with Ogata, Sachiko is desperately lonely and alienated, leading to her consorting with other social dropouts. When her sole school friend Natsuko urges her to return to school, Sachiko finds that her long simmering rage against the world becomes difficult to control. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi