Toshiyuki Nishida Movies

Is bad love better than no love at all? A woman finds herself pondering that question in this dark comedy from filmmaker Yukihiko Tsutsumi. When she was a teenager, Yukie Morita (Miki Nakatani) was the sort of girl whom people tended to ignore, and her efforts to stand out among her fellow students invariably ended in failure. The one thing that made others take notice of Yukie didn't help her much -- her father attempted to rob a bank, but his scheme failed so miserably it earned him lasting local notoriety. Desperate to start over, Yukie left the coastal town where she was born and moved to Osaka, where she worked a series of unglamorous jobs. In her early thirties, Yukie waits tables at a diner, but she's head over heels in love with her live-in boyfriend, Isao Hayama (Hiroshi Abe). Yukie is so thrilled to have someone to love that she's willing to ignore the fact Isao drinks too much, throws away his money gambling, can't hold a job, and has a hair-trigger temper that results in broken furniture and upended dinner tables on a regular basis. But is she really as happy as she claims to be? ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Yoji Yamada, a veteran director who has become a national icon thanks to his beloved Tora-san (Otoko wa tsurai yo) series, spins this tale about a gruff, lovable junior high school teacher working in a night school in Tokyo's low-rent shitamachi district. Like Tora-san, Kuroi-sensei (Toshiyuki Nishida) may be crass, unfashionable, and a complete slob, but he has a heart of gold and a fervent devotion to his students. Though his principal wants him to transfer to another junior high in a much more high-end part of town, Kuroi resists; he's too committed to his students in the neighborhood. His pupils, having fallen through the cracks of the Japanese educational system and failed to get a junior high diploma, are all outsiders in one fashion or another. His students include Onomi (Eiko Shinya), a Korean woman who manages a small restaurant; Midori (Nae Yuki), a former junkie hoping to become a beautician; Eriko, a teen from a nice middle-class family who outright refuses to go to her nice middle-class school; Chan (Weng Huarong), a recent immigrant and son to a Japanese war orphan; and Ino-san (Kunie Tanaka), an illiterate day laborer with a brilliant memory for horse-racing statistics. The film opens with all of the students writing their graduation essays as Kuroi reminisces about the year. He recalls Onomi ebullient after writing her first letter in Japanese; Midori balled up by the school gate, in a panic as to whether to enter or not; Eriko breaking out of her shell on the volleyball court; and Ino-san memorizing Chinese characters like a mad man in order to impress Kuroi's comely colleague Tajima-sensei (Keiko Takeshita). ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Junya Sato directs this historical epic about an Japanese sailor shipwrecked in Russia. Set during the Edo period (1600-1868, an era of great international isolation when going abroad was an offense punishable by death), the film centers on ship captain Daikokuya Kodayu (Ken Ogata), who, while transporting a load of rice from Ise to Edo (pre-modern Tokyo), gets blown off course. Nine months later, he and his ragged crew land on Kamchatka Peninsula. There they brave Siberian winters, and Russia's labyrinthine bureaucracy. Along the way, Kodayu learns Russian and befriends a local scholar (Oleg Yankovskii), who accompanies him on his exhausting journey across the tundra to St. Petersburg where he meets Catherine the Great. Ten years later, when he returns to Japan, he is immediately jailed. Will the hero be put to death? ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Set in 11th-century China, Silk Road is the story of a young student named Zhao who is travelling with a caravan on "the Silk Road," an ancient trading route. After the caravan is attacked by a group of mercenaries, the leader of the criminals takes Zhao under his wing, so the boy can learn and experience the shifting sands of history. Taken back to the city of Dun Huang, Zhao falls in love with a princess. However, Dun Huang is soon invaded by a neighboring country, forcing Zhao to hide the city's treasures in caves. The Silk Road is paced quite leisurely, yet it sparks to life with its terrific battle sequences. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

A Japanese science teacher (Kenji Sawada) creates a homemade atomic bomb, and threatens to use it unless his strange demands -- which include a Rolling Stones concert -- are met. This dark comedy centers on the teacher's attempts to achieve his goals, while avoiding capture by a persistent detective. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi