Hiromi Nagasaku Movies
- 2008
A passionate young man gets a crash course in the ways of love in this romantic comedy-drama from Japanese auteur Nami Iguchi. Mirume (Kenichi Matsuyama) is a nineteen-year-old student pursuing a degree in art at a college outside Tokyo. Mirume signs up for a printmaking class, and the handsome young artist makes a major impression on Yuri (Hiromi Nagasaku), an attractive professor in her mid-thirties who is teaching the course. Yuri seduces naïve Mirume, and before long he's convinced that she's the love of his life. When school shuts down for the summer break, Yuri heads north to her home in Kiryu City, and after uncovering her address, Mirume follows her home. Mirume arrives at Yuri's house to discover she has a husband (Morio Agata) who doesn't understand the purpose of Mirume's visit, and as the evening wears on, Mirume becomes increasingly reluctant to accept that Yuri wanted nothing more than a brief fling. Meanwhile, Mirume's infatuation with Yuri doesn't set well with En (Yu Aoi), one of his classmates who is clearly attracted to him. Hito no sekkusu o waruna (aka Don't Laugh At My Romance) was an official selection at the 2008 Hong Kong Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hiromi Nagasaku, Kenichi Matsuyama, (more)
- 2007
When the homely 18-year-old Kyomi (Aimi Satsukawa) loses both of her parents to a car wreck, tragedy sets the stage for a seriocomic and occasionally poignant battle-of-wills between the young woman and two of her siblings. So begins Japanese director Daihachi Yoshida's slice-of-life seriocomedy Funukedomo, Kanashimi No Ai Wo Misero (AKA Funuke, Show Some Love You Losers!, 2007). Upon learning of her parents' death, Kyomi's older sister, the financially-strapped and emotionally-troubled actress Sumika (Eriko Sato), hearkens back to the family's bucolic home to collect on a healthy inheritance - but the girls' brother, the woodcutter Shinji (Masatoshi Nagase), informs her of standing legal delays. Thus, Sumika moves into the house (occupying her childhood room) and waits out an indeterminate period of time, unable to foot the cost of a return to Tokyo. Yoshida then flashes back to detail the family's colorful and occasionally violent past - involving Sumika's prostitution, death threats directed at her father, and exploitation of her conflict with her father by dramatizing and publishing the events in a bestselling manga. Back in the present-day, Sumika receives an offer to write a screenplay and once again turns to family strife as dramatic fodder for her fictions - rapidly coming to the conclusion that perhaps her eccentric family isn't so terrible after all. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eriko Sato, Aimi Satsukawa, (more)
- 2005
A seemingly normal family turns out to be a hotbed of neuroses in this disquieting drama from Japanese filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda. The Kyobashis are a cheery and open-minded household where no topic of conversation is considered off-limits for their children, as evidenced one morning when teenage daughter Mana (Anne Suzuki) asks her parents about the details of her conception over breakfast. When Mana learns she was the result of an assignation at an "adults only" hotel in a seedy part of town, she begins hanging out there, sometime picking up men and sometimes simply soaking up the creepy atmosphere. Her brother, Ko (Masahiro Hirota), has been having trouble in school, so his parents have hired a tutor, Mina (Sonim), to help him with his studies; however, Ko has also been having sex with his new study buddy. Father Takashi (Itsuji Itao) is also having an affair with Mina as well as another woman, while his wife, Eriko (Kyoko Koizumi), has a shocking secret that would startle even her own eccentric brood. Kuchu Teien (aka Hanging Garden) was screened in competition at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masahiro Hirota, Itsuji Itao, (more)
Yuka (Hiromi Nagasaku) is an attractive young woman whose brother has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Shortly before his untimely death, Yuka got her first glimpse of his double, who has since moved into their apartment and taken his place. Hayasaki (Koji Yakusho) is a brilliant but mercurial scientist obsessed with perfecting a robot chair for the disabled, with wheels and mechanical arms that are supposed to function according to the "will" of the user. In his single-mindedness, he harangues his underlings and aggravates his employer, who is focused on the bottom line. After a co-worker tells Hayasaki about Yuka's experience, he finds himself being stalked by a doppelganger. At first, he thinks he is doomed, like Yuka's brother, and tries to avoid his double. Eventually, he loses his job, and control of his invention, and the doppelganger steps in to take care of everything. The double trashes Hayasaki's former lab, stealing the robot chair so the scientist can continue his work. The double also hires a young thug, Kimishima (Yusuke Santamaria), to work for them. The double says Kimishima is "just dumb enough not to find us alarming." But Hayasaki's fears come to the fore when the double takes advantage of Yuka's interest in him. And when his former employer, Aoki (Masahiro Toda), now disgraced, comes looking for a piece of the robot-chair action, the scientist finds himself uncertain who to trust. Doppelganger, a dark comedy directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure) from a script by Kurosawa and Ken Furusawa, was shown at the 2004 Rotterdam Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Yakusho, Hiromi Nagasaku, (more)
