Ken Watanabe

The Weinstein Company presents this story of an American (John Cusack) in Shanghai who, through the investigation of the death of a friend, ends up falling in love while stumbling upon a political conspiracy in this period drama from 1408 helmer Mikael Håfström. Gong Li and Ken Watanabe co-star in the production, from a script supplied by Hossein Amini. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood offers an equally thoughtful portrait of the Japanese forces who held the island for 36 days in this military drama. In 1945, World War II was in its last stages, and U.S. forces were planning to take on the Japanese on a small island known as Iwo Jima. While the island was mostly rock and volcanoes, it was of key strategic value and Japan's leaders saw the island as the final opportunity to prevent an Allied invasion. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) was put in charge of the forces on Iwo Jima; Kuribayashi had spent time in the United States and was not eager to take on the American army, but he also understood his opponents in a way his superiors did not, and devised an unusual strategy of digging tunnels and deep foxholes that allowed his troops a tactical advantage over the invading soldiers. While Kuribayashi's strategy alienated some older officers, it impressed Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), the son of a wealthy family who had also studied America firsthand as an athlete at the 1932 Olympics. As Kuribayashi and his men dig in for a battle they are not certain they can win -- and most have been told they will not survive -- their story is told both by watching their actions and through the letters they write home to their loved ones, letters that in many cases would not be delivered until long after they were dead. Among the soldiers manning Japan's last line of defense are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker sent to Iwo Jima only days before his wife was to give birth; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), who was sent to Iwo Jima after washing out in the military police; and Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura), who has embraced the notion of "Death Before Surrender" with particular ferocity. Filmed in Japanese with a primarily Japanese cast, Letters From Iwo Jima was shot in tandem with Flags of Our Fathers, and the two films were released within two months of one another. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The origins of the Caped Crusader of Gotham City are finally brought to the big screen in this new adaptation of the perennially popular comic-book series. The young Bruce Wayne (Gus Lewis) leads a privileged life as the son of wealthy, philanthropist parents, both of whom stress their commitment to improving the lives of the citizens of crime-ridden Gotham City. After his mother and father are murdered by a mugger, however, Wayne grows into an impudent young man (Christian Bale), full of rage and bent on retribution until encouraged by his childhood sweetheart, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), to search for answers beyond his own personal vendettas. Wayne eventually finds discipline in the Far East under the tutelage of Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), a member of the mysterious League of Shadows who guides him in the study of martial arts -- and the ways in which an ordinary man can hone his senses to an almost superhuman acuity. After seven years away from Gotham, Wayne returns, determined to bring peace and safety back to the city. With the help of his faithful manservant, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a scientist at his late father's corporation, Wayne develops a secret identity as Batman, a masked fighter for justice. But when a shady psychiatrist (Cillian Murphy) joins forces with the criminal underworld, Wayne realizes that putting an end to their nefarious plans will be very difficult indeed. Batman Begins also features Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordon and Tom Wilkinson as the crime boss Carmine Falcone. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Edward Zwick returned to the director's chair for the first time since 1998's The Siege with this sweeping period drama set in 19th-century Japan. After centuries of relying on hired samurai for national defense, the Japanese monarchy has decided to do away with the warriors in favor of a more contemporary military. Tom Cruise stars as Nathan Algren, a veteran of the U.S. Civil War who is hired by the Emperor Meiji to train an army capable of wiping out the samurai. But when Algren is captured by the samurai and taught about their history and way of life, he finds himself conflicted over who he should be fighting alongside. Billy Connelly, Tony Goldwyn, and Ken Watanabe co-star. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Noted television screenwriter and founder of the acclaimed theatrical group Tokyo Sunshine Boys, Koki Mitani makes his directorial debut with this wickedly funny look at a live radio broadcast gone horribly wrong. As a part of a PR stunt, a Tokyo radio station holds an amateur screenwriting contest and the winner (and only contestant) is a meek and guileless housewife named Miyako (Kyoka Suzuki) who spun a sincere little melodrama about a marriage falling apart. At first, everything seems like a dream -- the show's high-strung producer Ushijima (Masahiko Nishimura) is calling Miyako by the honorific sensei and the cast and crew seem to radiate a cool, yet heartfelt, professionalism. Then calamity strikes. Prima donna actress Nokko (Keiko Toda) -- who is ticked off at the current state of her career -- decides moments before air time that her character Ritsuko should be named Mary Jane. Instead of being a modest housewife, Mary Jane is casually turned into a high-powered lawyer. Soon the other characters want to play glamorous foreigners too. The setting is switched from sleeping resort town Atami to Manhattan and then later Chicago. The romantic male goes from being a truck driver to a pilot and then an astronaut. As further plot changes continue to pile up -- ranging from gangster hits to dam breaks to moon landings -- Ushijima and director Kudo (Toshiaki Karasawa) try desperately to keep ahead of things while poor Miyako -- her dreams of being a screenwriter thoughtlessly trashed -- quietly seethes. This film was screened at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this gruesome and extraordinarily explicit wartime medical horror story, based on a 1948 novel by Simsako Endo, two rival surgical teams at the University Hospital in Kyushu begin on a course of practice which violates every concept of medical ethics after the moderately innocent decision to disguise the death of a patient on the operating table as a post-operative mortality. Before long, the teams are performing needless, lethal and experimental surgeries on captured American servicemen. The scenes and sounds depicting these operations are exceptionally graphic and detailed and, despite warnings during festival showings of the film, many viewers had to leave the room. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Two rival surgical teams at a Japanese hospital perform gruesome experimental operations on healthy patients in this macabre horror story. The liver of a young serviceman is removed as the main course in a planned dinner celebration. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide