Hanae Kan Movies
- 2005
One young man's struggle to find happiness in a family and a city fraught with strife sets the stage for this coming-of-age drama. Shuji (Yuya Tegoshi) and Shuichi are two brothers who were born and raised in Hama, a city in Western Japan. Shuichi is an ambitious young man who is determined to make something of himself, while Shuji is a quieter sort who is willing to let his brother be the star of the family. Hama becomes an increasingly difficult place to live, as a resort project designed to economically jump-start the city proves to be a massive failure and it's discovered that the village priest, Father Yuichi (Etsushi Toyokawa), has a scandalous past. The tensions of life in Hama become too much for Shuichi, who begins setting fire to buildings to vent his rage. Shuji, meanwhile, has taken solace in a romance with Eri (Hanae Kan), a girl from his school who has become an outcast after her parents killed themselves. Shuichi is finally captured by the police for his string of arsons, and is sent to jail; his parents go missing shortly afterward, and Father Yuichi struggles to hold the family together by keeping Shuichi in contact with his brother Shuji. Shuji falls into a deep depression and contemplates suicide, but instead decides he needs to see Eri. However, she has moved to Tokyo, so Shuji sets out to find her. En route, he becomes friendly with a woman named Akane (Miki Nakatani), which puts him in great danger when he learns she's the girlfriend of a notorious gangster. Shisso (aka Dead Run) received its North American premiere at the 2005 New Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yuya Tegoshi, Hanae Kan, (more)
Hirokazu Kore-eda, who wrote and directed the international success After Life, returns with this story about a family dealing with an unusual dilemma in an unusual manner. Keiko (You) is a single mother who moves with her 12-year-old son, Akira (Yuya Yagira), into a small flat in a large city; however, what the building management doesn't know is that Keiko also has three other children, all fathered by different men: ten-year-old Kyoko (Ayu Kitaura), seven-year-old Shigeru (Hiei Kimura), and four-year-old Yuki (Momoko Shimizu). One day, Akira finds a note from his mother, saying that she'll be away for a while and that he's in charge while she's gone; the message is accompanied by an envelope full of money. Akira takes this news in stride, since it isn't the first time this has happened; he sees to it that the bills are paid, Kyoko takes care of the housework, and the youngest kids look after one another. But days stretch into weeks and it becomes clear that Kieko may not be coming back for a while. At first, the children try to keep up appearances as if their mother were still around, but as time goes on and money gets low, things become increasingly chaotic, and Keiko starts running out of ways to dodge the landlord and keep their problem a secret. Daremo Shiranai was inspired by actual events known in Japan as The Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo, though Kore-eda's version differs considerably from what occurred in real life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yuya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, (more)
