Katsumi Takahashi Movies
- 2008
A bout of terminal cancer alters the course of a man's life in completely unexpected ways in Walking My Life (AKA Zo No Senaka), Japanese director Satoshi Isaka's thoughtful domestic drama. At age 48, Yukihiro Fujiyama (Koji Yakusho) has virtually everything a man could want - a respectable job as a project chief at a real estate company, a satisfying marriage and two children. When the said diagnosis hits, however, it prompts Yukihiro to both shun conventional treatment and set about righting past wrongs from his life - he visits his undeclared high school love to inform her of his feelings, reestablishes contact with his estranged brother (Ittoku Kishibe) and re-initiates a friendship with his buddy from high school. Problematically, however, Yukihiro finds that he is somehow unable to inform his wife of the impending disease, even as he struggles with an even graver secret of which she is unaware. When she finally learns of the cancer and questions her husband about his reason for concealing the disease, he declares that, however much time he has left, he would much rather live for today than for the future. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Koji Yakusho, Miki Imai, (more)
- 2006
Japanese writer-director Kaori Momoi's feature Faces of a Fig Tree (AKA Ichijiku No Kao) observes the tragedies that begin to pull apart the ties of the Kadowaki family. The story opens with the clan rough-hewn but tightly-knit by the bonds of intimacy. Circumstances start to go awry when the patriarch suddenly and without substantial explanation accepts a night job on a construction site, thus raising suspicions of infidelity in his wife. Another member of the family, Oto, then dies of a brain hemorrhage; Masaa, the mother, cracks up emotionally; and Yume, the daughter, learns that she was actually adopted by her parents. Stylistically, Momoi's production designer, Kimura Takeo (a longtime collaborator with Suzuki Seijun) utilizes bright, garish colors and hyper-stylized set design that make the film thoroughly unique. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kaori Momoi, Hanako Yamada, (more)
As the Korean War draws to a close and the pressing demand for copious amounts of coal takes a sudden plunge, the remote Japanese mining town of Joban attempts to compensate for the devastating economic blow by transforming itself into a lavish Hawaiian retreat in an affectionate comedy inspired by real events and directed by Lee Sang-il. The year s 1965 and the changes that have swept through the outside world are finally reaching Joban. As the mineworkers are laid off and the women of the town take it upon themselves to gently nudge their once-prosperous community from the brink of economic collapse, the ancient Hawaiian art of the hula dance seems to offer the ideal means of doing so. Though highly fashionable Tokyo urbanite Madoka Hirayama (Yasuko Matsuyuki) at first seems terribly out of place when she arrives in Joban to teach local ladies how to saw their hips with authentic grace, her noble efforts soon instill her students with a newfound sense of confidence in both themselves, and their struggling community. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, (more)
