Youki Kudoh Movies
Delicately beautiful Japanese actress Youki Kudoh skyrocketed from obscurity to national fame in her native Japan in the early '80s. Talent agents discovered the then-12-year-old girl on the streets of Tokyo and recruited her for a singing career; seemingly within no time, she garnered a massive fan base as a pop sensation -- her country's equivalent of Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson. By her 22nd birthday, Kudoh had 11 albums to her credit and segued into acting on an international scale, alternating between arthouse-style independent films, such as the Jim Jarmusch-directed U.S. production Mystery Train (1989), and buttered-popcorn fare, such as the 1997 Australian action thriller Heaven's Burning.Kudoh achieved much greater recognition in the States when she landed the covetable lead role of Hatsue Imada, the Japanese-American lover of reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) in Scott Hicks' meditation on WWII-era Japanese internment, Snow Falling on Cedars (1999). After scattered minor roles over the next several years, Kudoh followed up her impressive, multi-layered portrayal for Hicks with a performance as Pumpkin in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), director Rob Marshall's follow-up to the 2002 blockbuster Chicago. In 2006, Kudoh hearkened back to A-list Tinseltown fare as the female lead in the action-filled Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker buddy comedy Rush Hour 3. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this original satire of a consumer family in a consumer society gone over the edge, the family in question moves into an upscale house and for a very short period, all seems to be blissful. They have more space, they have all the mechanical gadgets that make life "easier" -- what more could they want? -- emotional stability, for one thing. Bouncing between scenes reminiscent of horror films and samurai sagas, the family's situation becomes quite literally explosive as their manic antics mount. They retrench after the "explosion" -- and the meaning of the title becomes more evident: a "back-jet" is a jet that brakes on landing, sending thrust in the opposite direction. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katsuya Kobayashi, Mitsuko Baisho, (more)
Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three short anecdotes involving foreign tourists in Tennessee. Each story is set in a fleabag Memphis hotel which has been redressed as a "tribute" to Elvis Presley. Story #1 involves two Japanese tourists whose devotion to '50s American rock music blinds them to everything around them. Story #2 finds eternal victim Nicoletta Braschi sharing a room with stone-broke Elizabeth Bracco and having her problems solved by a spectral vision of The King. And story #3 offers the further misadventures of Bracco, her no-good boyfriend and her dysfunctional family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, (more)
The struggles of a young Japanese who leaves her home to marry an stranger are chronicled in this historical drama based on true stories. Picture brides were Japanese women contracted to marry Japanese sugar-cane laborers working in Hawaii. The couple would agree to marry based on the photos they sent to one another. Riyo, an orphaned 17-year old, sails from Yokohama to Hawaii to marry Matsuji. She is appalled to see that Matsuji sent her an old photograph and that he is 25 years older than she. Angered, the spunky bride refuses to sleep with her new husband. She is however obligated to work on the plantation. The miserable girl finds solace with her new friend Kana, a young mother. Riyo decides she will earn her way back to Japan even though, at only sixty five cents per day, it could take years to save the $300 for the return fare. She meets more obstacles and continues to stay away from her husband until a tragedy befalls Kana. This serves to bring the two together and leads Riyo to accept her new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Youki Kudoh, Akira Takayama, (more)
A runaway Japanese bride finds herself alone in Sydney, Australia when her lover fails to show up to save her from her husband, and she ends up on an off-road adventure with a handsome getaway driver while fleeing gangsters, cops from two countries and her murderously humiliated spouse. The whole mess begins when Midori (Youki Kudoh) engineers her own kidnapping to avoid her honeymoon night with her hyper-tense businessman husband Yukio (Kenji Isomura). When he notices Midori's absence, Yukio panics. Local policemen Bishop and Moffat are assigned the case and it is while talking to Yukio and the staff that they learn the truth. When the Japanese press finds out about Yukio's plight, they merrily proceed to crucify him in the headlines, making him a laughingstock. Meanwhile, Midori, after getting jilted, goes to a bank to exchange some money and is caught in the midst of an armed bankrobbery masterminded by Afghani hoodlums Mahood (Robert Mammone) and his brother Gullbuddin. The two are about to shoot the terrified Midori when their getaway driver Colin (Russell Crowe) intervenes. Gullbuddin is accidentally killed during the scuffle and Colin hits the highway with Midori. With the aforementioned crowd in hot pursuit, the two fugitives head for a farm in the boonies where Colin's elderly, embittered father lives in almost comical isolation. Along the way, the two encounter several memorable characters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Russell Crowe, Youki Kudoh, (more)
Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels Gudmundsson (Max Von Sydow) defending him, reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) covers the proceedings for the local newspaper. It's difficult for Ishmael to view the trial objectively, as his first love was a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who later married Kazuo. Now, Ishmael has discovered that, when the Japanese-American residents of San Piedro Island were sent to internment camps during World War II, Carl's mother used their incarceration to scuttle a land purchase by Kazuo's family. This could suggest a motive for murder, but Ishmael is reluctant to step forward with the story. Snow Falling on Cedars was based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, adapted for the screen by Ron Bass and writer/director Scott Hicks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, (more)
This anime feature blends digital computer animation with the more traditional drawn animation cells. The moody artwork complements the story of Saya, the last true vampire, who must find and destroy an evil group of blood-sucking creatures that are hiding, and killing, within a U.S. compound in Japan during the Vietnam War. This DVD presentation also includes a "making of" featurette and a trailer for the film. The voice of Saya is provided by Youki Kodoh, who starred in 1999's Snow Falling on Cedars. ~ Jessica Frost, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Youki Kudoh
This film, based on the novel by Arthur Golden, unfolds from the perspective of Chiyo (Zhang Ziyi), a girl who, at the age of nine, is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto in the early 1930s. Here, she learns that becoming a geisha can be the single path to wealth and independence for a woman. The head geisha of her house, however, Hatsumomo (Gong Li), is bitterly jealous of Chiyo and abuses her at every opportunity. Eventually Chiyo is taken under the wing of Hatsumomo's rival, Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), by far the most famous and successful geisha in their district. Under Mameha's tutelage, Chiyo becomes Sayuri, the most legendary geisha in the nation, skilled in all areas, from conversation to dance, and sought after by seemingly every man alive...except for the one whom she has secretly longed for since she began her training, The Chairman (Ken Watanabe) -- a man who showed her kindness at a time when her view of the world had turned the most bleak. Now as World War II approaches, Japan stands at the brink of a new era and Sayuri must confront the possibility that history will leave all that she has worked for behind. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, (more)
An American journalist in search of the love he once left behind travels to a mysterious Japanese island where the past is best left forgotten in the one installment of Showtime's Masters of Horror series that was too controversial for American television. It was long ago that Christopher (Billy Drago) met the mysterious prostitute who captured his heart, but their grim fate was forever sealed when he left the island with only a promise to return one day in the future. Unlike many of the insincere souls who promise to spirit the prostitutes away from the dark and infernal island, Christopher actually made good on his word. However, life is cheap on this bewitched island where the local brothel is the sole refuge for weary souls, and though he ultimately proved to be a rare exception to the rule, Christopher has taken far too long to fulfill his promise. Now, as he shares his woeful tale with a horribly scarred whore (Youki Kudoh) whose knowledge of his long lost love's true fate may prove more of a curse than a blessing, Christopher is about to discover that there are times when death can be the kindest release of all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Drago, Youki Kudoh, (more)
In this third installment of the popular action comedy franchise, LAPD Detective James Carter (Chris Tucker) and Chief Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) book a flight for Europe and prepare to clean up the streets of Paris after discovering that Chinese triads have extended their criminal influence to the City of Lights. Chinese Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) is in Los Angeles and about to reveal the details of a clandestine triad conspiracy to the World Criminal Court when an assassin takes aim and pulls the trigger. Though Carter has been demoted to directing traffic at the time of the shooting, Lee is acting as a bodyguard to Han when the bullets begin to fly. Lee quickly gives chase, but hesitates when he realizes that the gunman is Kenji (Hiroyuki Sanada), his old friend from the orphanage. When triads steal an envelope containing vital information regarding the conspiracy from Soo Yung's (Zhang Jingchu) Chinatown kung fu studio, Carter and Chief Inspector Lee race to reach Genevieve (Noémie Lenoir), an underground entertainer who could prove the key to bagging the bad guys. During the course of their investigation, however, triads clash with the French police, threatening to turn the romance capitol of Europe into an explosive hotbed of crime and violence. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, (more)
A mysterious loner attempts to successfully complete his criminal mission while operating outside of the law in contemporary Spain. His objectives shrouded in secrecy, the untrusting lone wolf (Isaach de Bankolé) sets out on his latest assignment knowing that the law is never too far behind. Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Gael García Bernal co-star in a crime drama from acclaimed indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (Mystery Train, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isaach de Bankolé, Hiam Abbass, (more)
