Anne Suzuki Movies

Infernal Affairs powerhouse Andy Lau and Alan Mak bring the most popular manga in Japan screaming to life in this in this live-action look at the high-speed sport of "drifting" that shot straight to the top of the Hong Kong box office. Eighteen-year-old Takumi (Jay Chou) is never late for a tofu delivery, and though he speeds the tofu to its destinations with the velocity of a landlocked stealth plane, his true aspiration in life is to follow in the footsteps of his formerly fast-driving father (Anthony Wong) -- an ex-adrenaline junkie who eventually gave up the race track for the restaurant business. In his five years delivering meals from his father's restaurant Takumi has learned the streets of his hometown like the back of his hand, and he can take every corner with the needle planted firmly on the right. The trick to Takumi's amazing driving skills is a technique known as "drifting," and in a world where high-risk racing has spilled out of the tracks and onto the streets, this daring driver is about to become a legend. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Two teenagers fall for the same boy with unexpected consequences in this popular comedy drama from Japan. Hana (Anne Suzuki) and Arisu (Yu Aoi) are a pair of 15-year-old girls who have been best friends for years. Arisu, the more outgoing of the two, has developed a crush on a boy and they begin dating. So that Hana won't feel left out, Arisu fixes her up with Masa (Tomohiro Kaku), one of her boyfriend's pals. However, after a few months, the bloom is off the rose for Arisu and her beau, while things are going swimmingly for Hana and Masa. Making matters worse for Arisu is the fact she's become quite infatuated with Masa, and one day while she's following him home from school, she sees him accidentally walk into a wall. Masa is knocked cold for a moment, and when he awakes, he sees Arisu, who attempts to convince him that she's actually his girlfriend...something he doesn't recall thanks to a mild dose of amnesia brought on by the accident, according to Arisu. Written and directed by Shunji Iwai, who created the international success All About Lily Chou-Chou, Hana to Arisu began as a series of candy commercials and became so popular as an expanded series of short subjects available online that Iwai adapted them into a feature. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Combining yakuza, science fiction, and vampire elements may sound like an outlandish recipe for campy excess in the United States, but former pinku eiga director Takahisa Zeze plays things remarkably straight in this truly unique effort from Japan. In the near future, a group of desolate citizens spend their days and nights in Mallepa, a large refugee community located in the "Asian Special Economic Zone." Though brothers Sho and Shinji survive on the streets with a little resourcefulness and the help of friend Toshi, an encounter with wounded vampire Kei forever changes the course of their lives. Soon after taking Kei back to their hideout so that the desperate vampire may recover, an angry gangster shows up to reclaim a stolen briefcase full of cash. Although Kei is quick to make dinner out of the angry gangster, his efforts to keep his trio of friends from harm is too little too late when the determined gangster fires a fatal bullet into Shinji. When Sho and Toshi plan to rip off a rival gang a decade later, Kei follows and the team soon meets up with similar-minded Chinese troublemaker Son (Wang Lee Hom) and his sister Yi-Che (Zeny Kwok). Soon stalked by the revenge-thirsting rival gang, the trio lose track of their bloodsucking friend in the ensuing melee. It's not long before Sho and Son have a falling out and end up in rival gangs, but can the re-emergence of condemned vampire Kei be enough to bring the two old friends back on the same side of the fence again? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Nine years after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a small town in the Pacific Northwest still struggles with the troubling legacy of U.S. policies against Asian-Americans. In December 1950, just off the shores of San Piedro Island in Washington, a Japanese-American man named Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune) stands accused of murder after his close friend Carl Heine (Eric Thal) is found drowned in icy waters. As the trial gets under way, with Alvin Hooks (James Rebhorn) prosecuting Kazuo and Nels Gudmundsson (Max Von Sydow) defending him, reporter Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke) covers the proceedings for the local newspaper. It's difficult for Ishmael to view the trial objectively, as his first love was a Japanese-American girl named Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who later married Kazuo. Now, Ishmael has discovered that, when the Japanese-American residents of San Piedro Island were sent to internment camps during World War II, Carl's mother used their incarceration to scuttle a land purchase by Kazuo's family. This could suggest a motive for murder, but Ishmael is reluctant to step forward with the story. Snow Falling on Cedars was based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, adapted for the screen by Ron Bass and writer/director Scott Hicks. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi