Yoshimitsu Morita Movies

Yoshimitsu Morita's comedy drama Ashura No Gotoku (Like Ashura) tells the story of what happens to four sisters when they discover a secret their father has been keeping. The film opens with third sister Takiko (Eri Fukatsu) revealing to the others that dad has been having an affair that has produced an illegitimate child. While all the women react in their own way, each has also been keeping secrets. Takiko becomes involved with the private eye she hired to snoop on her father. Tsunako (Shinobu Otake), the oldest, is a widow who has been carrying on with a married man. Second oldest Makiko (Hitomi Kuroki) is too dense to see that her husband has been cheating on her. The situation grows more complicated when a mysterious letter that may have been written by one of the sisters is printed in the newspaper. Like Ashura was screened at the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat mixture of black comedy and terror, Wakatsuki (Masaki Uchino) is an insurance investigator who is looking into a claim. His investigation leads him to a man and woman whose son recently committed suicide. The father (Masahiko Nishimura) is an emotionally unstable man who has somehow lost his thumbs, while his wife (Shinobu Otake) is in even worse shape. Kuroi Ie was based on a popular novel by Japanese author Yusuke Kishi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A man gets a second chance at life, only to find his new circumstances far stranger than he imagined in this dark comedy from Japan. Makoto (Koki Tanaka) is a 14-year-old boy who died in an accident, leaving his parents terribly distraught. Their grief turns to mingled happiness and confusion when Makoto awakes as if from a nap, and gets up from his slab in the morgue. As it happens, the soul of a recently deceased criminal has been sent back to Earth for another try at life, and he's entered Makoto's body. Makoto's family soon finds that the formerly introverted young man has developed an outgoing personality and a sense of humor, while the man inside Makoto discovers he's ended up in a not-very-functional family; the father regards himself as a failure in both business and parenting, his mother is looking for satisfaction in life through self-improvement, and his brother enjoys wearing women's clothes. The new Makoto also discovers eccentricity isn't limited to his family but has spilled over to his school chums, most notably to a pretty girl who likes designer clothes and doesn't mind having sex for money to pay for them. Colourful received its North American premiere at the 2000 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Yoshimitsu Morita's long filmography includes everything from art-house hits to romantic drama by way of porno comedies, but Keiho is his first psychological mystery-thriller. Keiho diverts from recent Japanese thrillers as its focus is not so much a journey into existential darkness, but emergence of long-hidden secrets through patient investigation. Stage actor Masaki Shibata Shinichi Tsutsumi has murdered a man and his wife. He confesses his crime; he says his motive was that the woman, who is five months pregnant, criticized his one-man show. It could be an open-and-shut case except for the 'diminished responsibility' clause of Japan's criminal law. Masaki has to go through psychological examination to determine his sanity. A police psychiatrist declares he has a split personality, but his female assistant, named Kafka as a result of her father's literary tastes, does not agree. She begins her own research into Shibata's background and comes up with disturbing discoveries. On the other hand, a cocky police detective is also busy doing his own investigation and comes up with evidence that the victim raped and killed a girl when he was a teenager, but escaped punishment for the crime because a psychiatric examination found him not guilty. Further investigation reveals hidden identities, but the mystery is never solved. As the curtain falls, we are informed that the case is still continuing. It is not the crime or the criminal that is being explored so much as the complications of human psyche, but it is somewhat too confusing for the viewer, whose interest cannot be sustained with the incomprehensible twists and turns of the plot. Keiho Dai sanjyukyu jyo was one shown in competition at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival in 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Yoshimitsu Morita, who made his name with the savage social satire Family Game, goes for decidedly sweeter fare with this You Got Mail style romantic comedy. Haru Masaaki Uchino is a salesman based in Tokyo who consoles himself with an on-line chat group after blowing out his knee playing American football. He soon develops a rapport with a male member of his group named Hoshi who is unusually sympathetic about Haru's tempestuous relationship with his girlfriend. Hoshi (Eri Fukatsu), a department store clerk living in northern Morioka, is really a she. Soon she reveals her true sexual identity to Haru and their friendship blooms. Still reeling from the death of a lover and shrinking from the advances of an overzealous suitor, she assumed another gender to avoid further harassment. Haru tells Hoshi all about his new relationship with a young firebrand named Rose. Meanwhile, Hoshi tells Haru about the executive who proffered a curious proposal -- to marriage based on platonic love, without the illusion of romance or passion. Of course, as their correspondence grows more and more heated, they start feel like they are more than chatroom chums. Will Hoshi and Haru's friendship develop into anything further? ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Four closely related stories are told in this unusual film, all of them written by Yoshimitsu Morita and filmed by four separate directors. In all of them, the main characters are desperately seeking something which circumstances lead them to reassess either before or after they get it. In the last segment, a man who has gotten a job transfer to Chicago has to learn how to actually speak English, and he seeks out a number of resident foreigners in order to accomplish that goal. Every one of the foreigners is so unpleasant that he is led to reconsider whether he wants to spend the next few years among such people. In an earlier segment, a young woman lives just a little too far from Tokyo's "date centers" for comfort: she must use public transportation to meet her friends and would-be lovers, but it shuts down at midnight. As a consequence, she loses a good romantic prospect because he finds the tiny amount of time she can spend with him too frustrating. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The demands of his scientific work require Kazuya to live most of the time at his laboratory, visiting home only occasionally. In this domestic drama, the scientist has returned for one of his rare visits home. At first, his two sons are simply delighted to see him. Before long, they notice that there is considerable coolness between their parents. Kazuya has just told her that he has a mistress at his workplace residence. This news creates quite a furor not only with his wife but with his sons, and Kazuya gives the whole thing a second thought. Eventually he ditches his mistress, apologizes to his wife, and manages to patch his family back together. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A dark foreboding settles over this taut drama about Kudo (Kenji Sawada), a hitman going through ordinary activities with all the ritual of a choreographed, deadly game. Kudo is settled into a villa in a remote country village, and his only companions are a quarrelsome attendant and a geisha-like woman. By means of elaborate innuendo and some ominous computer print-outs, it slowly becomes clear why the hitman is in this village and what is waiting for him on the not-so-distant horizon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Co-produced by the Art Theatre of Japan, The Family Game explores the coming-of-age (so to speak) of a traditional Japanese family. Ichirota Miyagawa is the youngest member of a clan that dwells in a house so small you virtually have to go outside to change your mind. Miyagawa gets his first taste of the world outside his own four walls when he is tutored by instructor Yusaku Matsuda. Though Matsuda's technique is somewhat blunt (he's not averse to knocking his pupil around to get his attention), the tutor encourages Miyagawa to stand on his own two feet and break away from the family unit. Matsuda practices what he preaches at the climax by lashing out at the family's cloistered provincialism. The Family Game is based on a novel by Yohei Honma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A trio from the same high school in Tokyo decide to cut classes for awhile and escape to a seaside resort area in Izu, on the west coast of Japan. Once there, they encounter three young women and through various musical numbers (the trio is actually a Japanese singing group called the Shibugaki-tai), the men and women pair off in a romantic interlude that skims the surface like the boats on the water. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide