Tomokazu Miura Movies

Two men form an unlikely bond during a long walk through a big city in this independent drama from Japan. Fumiya Takemura (Joe Odagiri) is a college student with an addiction to gambling; he owes over $8,000 to bookies, and doesn't have the money to pay them off. Fumiya is approached by Fukuhara (Tomokazu Miura), a mob enforcer who tells the student he has three days to come up with the money or else. Fumiya isn't sure what to do next, but two days later Fukuhara comes to him with a surprising offer -- the gangster is willing to pay off Fumiya's debt and give him some extra money for his troubles if he'd be willing to do him a favor. Fukuhara's task seems simple enough -- he wants Fumiya to keep him company as he walks from one end of Tokyo to the Kasumigaseki district. Fukuhara is looking to do more than stretch his legs -- he's accidentally taken his wife's life and has decided to turn himself in to the police, and needs someone to stay with him as he visits some places that have come to mean a lot to him. Ten-Ten (aka Adrift In Tokyo) also stars Ittoku Kishibe, Kyoko Koizuma and Yuriko Yoshitaka. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a gold ingot and a severed human head are discovered in a small provincial town, the rush to solve the curious case wavers between tragic and darkly humorous in this defiantly original film from Linda Linda Linda director Nobuhiro Yamashita. In the 1990s, the economy in a small country town is on the downturn. When a mysterious couple moves into a local home and the once-solid relationships between the eccentric townsfolk begin to erode, it quickly becomes apparent that something is amiss. A policeman and his twin brother are consumed by tragedy, a local loafer sits around while his wife breaks her back around the house, and a pretty girl seems willing to offer her body to anyone and everyone. Later, a gold bar and a human head appear in a frozen lake, intertwining the lives of everyone in town and effectively putting an end to their quiet, unassuming lifestyle. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Katsuhito Ishii takes a break from the post-Tarantino excess of such highly-stylized outings as Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl for this low-key look at an eccentric family residing in a quiet countryside town just north of Tokyo. The Haruno family is a five-piece clan living the simple life in Japan. The summer sun shining gently down, this quiet quintet is transformed into a six-piece when urban-dwelling uncle Ayano (Tadanobu Asano), a successful music producer, arrives to visit his family and confront his feelings for the ex-girlfriend who married another man after Ayano moved to the city. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes. Eccentric grandfather Akira (Tatsuya Gashuin) seems to reside in a wondrous universe of his own making, while imaginative mother Yoshiko (Satomi Tezuka) is attempting to re-establish herself as an anime artist and hypno-therapist father Nobou (Tomokazu Miura) practices his trade on willing family members. Meanwhile, on the youthful side of the clan, son Hajime (Takahiro Sato) attempts to get his hormones in check following the arrival of a pretty new classmate, while haunted daughter Sachiko (Maya Banno) stealthily attempts to avoid her massive doppelganger - a mysterious figure who seems to be tracing the girl's every move. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The give and take between the members of a string quartet becomes a metaphor for human relationships in this drama. First violinist Akio (Yoshihiko Hakamada), second violinist Tomoko (Sachiko Sakurai), violist Daisuke (Nao Ohmuri), and cellist Ai (Kaoru Kukita) comprised a student string quartet while the four were studying music in college; they stopped playing together after a disastrous student recital, and have had little contact with one another until they all arrived for an open audition for an orchestra. All four have gone on to rather unrewarding careers in music, and when they get word of an important music competition for small ensembles, they decide to reunite and take a stab at the prize. Looking for a impressive performance piece for the competition, Akio offers an original piece simply called "Quartet," not telling his partners the composition was actually written by his father. Akio quickly assumes leadership of the group, and as the other three chafe under his authority, the individual weaknesses of the four musicians become clear as they set out on a short tour to raise money and get into shape. After the tour, the quartet discovers their temporary manager has stolen all their money, and with their private lives in a shambles, they have no choice but to focus on salvaging their musical relationship in order to win the much-needed prize money. Karutetto was directed and co-written by Joe Hisaishi; it was the first feature for Hisaishi, who has a strong background in music as a leading Japanese film composer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The second film by Nobuhiro Suwa further explores the improvisational style that he developed in his highly praised debut, 2/Duo (1997). Starting from a three-page treatment, Suwa worked with actors Makiko Watanabe and Tomokazu Miura to fill out the plot and shade in the subtleties of their characters. The story focuses on Tetsuro (Miura), a divorced restaurateur whose business is beginning to fail, and his younger live-in girlfriend, Aki (Watanabe). They live in an open relationship that avoids questions of commitment. Aki is not interested in marriage, choosing to focus on her career at a successful graphic design company. This comfortable dynamic is upset when Tetsuro's ex-wife is involved in a serious car accident, and he is forced to take custody of his 8-year-old son, Shun. Though she is charmed by the boy, Aki is less than enthusiastic about this new arrangement. Aki and Tetsuro experience identity crises as Shun's presence reshapes their lives; their formerly free-form relationship quickly develops the contours of a traditional family. Almost in spite of herself, Aki takes on the bulk of the domestic responsibilities, while Tetsuro is forced to behave like a traditional father and role model. Watanabe gives a brilliantly subtle performance as she deftly reveals Aki's conflicting emotions: affection toward Shun, love tempered with repressed annoyance at Tetsuro, and frustration with herself for not living up to the traditional ideal. As the boy's stay draws to an end, the two are forced to rethink their relationship and their respective futures. Though the dialogue has the same fresh, spontaneous feel that marked Suwa's first film, M/Other is more deliberately paced and rigorously formal. In several scenes, the static camera runs for five or ten minutes, as the actors walk in and out of frame. This film was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Many may not be aware that during the 1930s a very covert civil war was going on in Japan and no government minister (and almost no military general officer) was safe from it. The conflict was chiefly between those who wanted to take over and exploit whatever parts of Asia could be conquered, and those with some sense of the limitations of this policy (whether they approved of it or not). One of the key moments in this battle was the 1936 assassination of several government ministers by a cadre of junior officers. They were distressed about the continued existence of dire poverty and unemployment in Japan, despite their country's recent and successful conquest of Manchuria. This film follows those young officers and takes the story up to the crucial day of February 26, when the attempted coup took place. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Director Koji Hashimoto calls the shots for this ambitious Japanese sci-fi epic concerning the colonization of Earth's neighboring planets, and the discovery of a menacing black hole that threatens to spell the end for all of mankind. In the 22nd Century the United Earth Federation has authorized the colonization of other planets. As a UEF science team attempts to extract water from the polar ice caps of Mars, the discovery of ancient carvings that depict the crash of an alien spaceship on the planet Jupiter many millennia ago forces authorities to postpone execution of the Jupiter Solarization Project - an ambitious plan to provide Earth with additional solar energy and enable colonization of other nearby worlds by turning the gas planet into a second sun. When Dr. Eiji Honda (Tomakazu Miura) is ordered to ensure that Jupiter has no trace of alien life before Jupiter Solarization Project can continue, he prepares to depart from the Minerva Station that orbits the massive gaseous planet in order to carry out his daring mission. Trouble soon arises, however, when scientists discover that a massive black hole is fast-approaching the solar system. With little time to lose before planet Earth is completely destroyed, Dr. Honda is ordered to abandon the Earth Solarization project and save the human race by sending Jupiter directly into the path of the vast, all-consuming void. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In 1954, Go Akuzu (Ken Takakura) travels to the Tsuruga Straits that separate Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido from the main island of Honshu, to investigate the tragic loss of a passenger ship in the treacherous waters of the straits. His solution to the marine dangers is to first advocate and then get a green light on building an underground tunnel to handle the inter-island traffic. His devotion to keeping the 25-year project on target leads to a separation from his wife, and a certain amount of loneliness -- until he helps Tae Makimura (Sayuri Yoshinaga) get a job at a local restaurant. His help was more than financial; Tae had accidentally caused the deaths of several people at an inn and was on the brink of suicide before Akuzu talked her out of it. Now that she is established in close proximity to his work, the two carry on a hopelessly platonic, romantic relationship that will last as long as Akuzu is supervising the tunnel's construction. The completed connection between the two islands will certainly affect the tenuous connection between the two protagonists, one way or another. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura co-star in their tenth film together, a melodrama in which both travel to Spain to reconcile with their past. He rekindles an affair with an old flame before his long-lost love falls to her death. She reconciles with her aging father, a guitar maker who is not long for this world. They become caretakers for an orphan who was the son of Miura's former boss before he was fired for his love affair with a flamenco dance student. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Kinzo Otuka (Rentaro Mikuni) is a defense lawyer who refuses the request of Kiriko (Momoe Yamaguchi) to defend her brother after he is falsely accused of murder. When her brother commits suicide, Kiriko is convinced that Kinzo could have saved her sibling. She seeks vengeance by planting evidence against Kinzo's mistress Michiko (Akiko Koyama) and lies to the police to set her up on a murder rap. Tomokazu Miura plays the investigative reporter who falls for Kiriko and proposes marriage. Kinzo professes profound regret for not helping Kiriko and berates himself for only taking the cases of those who can afford his services. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide