Kenichi Matsuyama Movies

A passionate young man gets a crash course in the ways of love in this romantic comedy-drama from Japanese auteur Nami Iguchi. Mirume (Kenichi Matsuyama) is a nineteen-year-old student pursuing a degree in art at a college outside Tokyo. Mirume signs up for a printmaking class, and the handsome young artist makes a major impression on Yuri (Hiromi Nagasaku), an attractive professor in her mid-thirties who is teaching the course. Yuri seduces naïve Mirume, and before long he's convinced that she's the love of his life. When school shuts down for the summer break, Yuri heads north to her home in Kiryu City, and after uncovering her address, Mirume follows her home. Mirume arrives at Yuri's house to discover she has a husband (Morio Agata) who doesn't understand the purpose of Mirume's visit, and as the evening wears on, Mirume becomes increasingly reluctant to accept that Yuri wanted nothing more than a brief fling. Meanwhile, Mirume's infatuation with Yuri doesn't set well with En (Yu Aoi), one of his classmates who is clearly attracted to him. Hito no sekkusu o waruna (aka Don't Laugh At My Romance) was an official selection at the 2008 Hong Kong Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A detective has a tight deadline to crack a case that could claim the lives of millions in this crime drama, a spin-off from the Desu Notu (Death Note) franchise. L (Kenichi Matsuyama) is a cop with a serious sweet tooth and a fondness for gadgets who has been handed a very important assignment. A group of environmental radicals who want to decimate the Earth's population in the name of a greener world have gotten their hands on a potent man-made virus that could wipe out half the globe if it is released. It's L's job to track down the eco-terrorists and see that the virus is kept under wraps, but after signing his own name in the Death Book, he's given himself only 23 days to bring the radicals to justice. L: Change the World was the opening-night attraction at the 2008 Udine Far East Film Festival and was a major box-office success in Japan. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Released into Japanese theaters in 2006, director Shusuke Kaneko's stylish adaptation of the best selling manga quickly trampled The Da Vinci Code on Japanese screens and subsequently and set box office records in Hong Kong and all across Asia. The plot picks up as aimless law student Light Yagami (Tetsuya Fujiwara) discovers a mysterious notebook in the middle of the street. Soon thereafter, Light discovers that if he writes a name in the notebook, that person will instantly die (generally of a heart attack). Of course it doesn't take long for Light to realize the extraordinary power he now holds, and before long he hatches a plan to rid the planet of crime by scribbling the name of notorious criminals in the pages of the powerful notebook and make the world a safer place for decent citizens everywhere. But Light isn't alone in his mission, because his new companion Ryuk - a flying god of death who only Light can see and who also happens to be the true owner of the notebook - is always there to egg him on and get a little laugh from the criminal holocaust. Over the course of the next few weeks, Light does away with millions of nefarious baddies and the global crime rate drops by seventy percent. Still, the police aren't too happy that a regular civilian seems to be taking the law into his own hands. Perhaps the only person capable of discovering Light's true identity is L (Kenichi Matsuyama) - a brilliant teenage detective with a taste for sweets and remarkable deductive reasoning skills. When the police chief (Takeshi Kaga of the hit television series Iron Chef) - who also happens to be Light's father - is assigned the task of unmasking the elusive killer, things really start to get interesting. A fast paced, goth-infused, cat-and-mouse thriller, Death Note was followed at the box office by the equally successful sequel Death Note: The Last Name just a few short months later. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi