Manami Konishi Movies

Japanese horror producer Taka Ichise -- the force behind Ringu and Ju-on: The Grudge -- and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the director of Pulse, team up for the supernatural horror picture Retribution (aka Sakebi), starring Koji Yakusho, Riona Hazuki, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Manami Konishi, Ryo Kase, Hiroyuki Hirayama, and Jô Odagiri. Yakusho plays Yoshioka, a cop tormented by strange details surrounding the murder of a local woman (Riona Hazuki) in a red dress. Though ostensibly killed by being drowned in a shallow, tepid pool of muddy water, an autopsy reveals the woman's belly as full of seawater. Moreover, a button found at the murder scene matches one that is missing from a coat Yoshioka purchased, and fingerprints that cover the body match his own. Yoshioka thus immediately reasons that he must have killed the woman but blocked it out, despite the assurance of his colleagues that he probably just touched the body sans gloves. He is soon visited repeatedly by the apparition of the victim (red dress intact). As these visitations build in intensity and bizarreness, another drowning murder -- that of a surgeon's son -- occurs in exactly the same manner, and the evidence this time seems to point so conclusively to Yoshioka that he could be sent away at any moment. But the story is far from over. To say more would ruin the picture, but Kurosawa then springs an endless series of twists and double-crosses that force the audience to reevaluate everything that has come before. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Katsuhiro Otomo, director of the groundbreaking anime feature Akira (1988), returns with this visually striking fusion of the past and the future. It's the Industrial Age in England, reimagined, and various and sundry inventors and scientists are arriving in Britain to hawk their products while capitalism rears its ugly head. A gadget-happy British lad named Ray (voice of Anna Paquin) receives a mysterious package from his grandfather Lloyd Steam (Patrick Stewart) -- a tiny ball that turns out to be an engine toting immense power. As it happens, several of these little balls run the O'Hara pavilion, a massive, mobile fortress. Ray later discovers that his dad and grandfather are located inside of the pavilion; his dad, Eddie, has become mesmerized by O'Hara and subject to their whims, while Lloyd suspects that O'Hara may want to use the balls for nefarious purposes, and tries to put a definitive end to those plans. Indeed, the O'Hara people soon take over the Great Exhibition and turn it into a veritable circus for weapons dealers. Meanwhile, Ray starts to develop feelings for a young girl named Scarlett O'Hara. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Akira Kurosawa's assistant director Takashi Koizumi directs the low-key drama Letter From the Mountain, based on the novel by Keishi Nagi. Highly specialized doctor Michiko (Kanako Higuchi) finds herself seized with panic attacks. She and her partner, Takao (Akira Terao), decide to leave behind their stressful lives in Tokyo for a simpler life in the small farming village of Shinshu. After meeting several sick people in the community, Michiko sets up a medical center and gradually heals herself in the process. However, many of the townspeople refuse medical treatment, preferring to let nature take its course. The conclusion involves an annual celebration suggesting the couple's acceptance in the community. Letter From the Mountain was shown at the 2002 Mill Valley Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide