Rob's (mostly) Asian movie blog.
20 year old Yuko (Mariko Kaga), a sexually assertive good time gal from the port city of Yokohama finds herself caught between the manipulative sugar-daddy (Takeshi Katô) who wants her to sleep with an American skipper to ensure a business transaction goes through and her young best friend (Akira Nakao) who wants to make an honest woman of her.
One … Read the rest
Wise and charming battle of the sexes comedy in which Komiya (Tatsuo Saito) a meek professor under the thumb of bossy wife Tokiko (Suiko Kurishima) is put straight by his liberated niece Setsuko (Michiko Kuwano after he gets into trouble for concocting an alibi to cover their drunken night out together at a geisha house. Kuwano – who conveys a … Read the rest
Following the death of his grandfather a young airport worker named Tatsuya (Kenichi Hagiwara) returns to his family home in a remote valley and discovers that a curse has been placed on the village by the leader of a band of samurai warriors who were brutally murdered there 400 years earlier. As the bodies begin to pile up fearful villagers … Read the rest
An insatiably curious goldfish princess named Ponyo falls in love with Sosuke, the five-year old boy who saves her after she ends up washed ashore and trapped in a bottle. But Ponyo’s love for Sosuke and subsequent transformation from fish to human alarms her wizard father Fujimoto (who despises humans for their environmental vandalism) and throws nature so terrifyingly out … Read the rest
14th Century Japan; an ageing general named Moronao (Eitaro Ozawa) whiles away his time at a private court. When his courtesan Jijyu (Nobuko Otowa) unwisely hints at a Princess of rare beauty who lives in the area (Woman of the Dunes‘ Kyoko Kishida) the General instantly becomes smitten and begins sending the married woman love verses. The verses … Read the rest
A group of rookie insurance salespeople – Yano (Nobuko Otawa), Tomie (Sanae Takasugi), Mikawa (Taiji Tonoyama), Harashima (Jun Hamamura) and Yoshikawa (Ichiro Sugai) – find themselves unable to make their sales targets. Facing the sack and with their personal lives mired in poverty the group agree to rob a cash delivery truck. But after a successful heist all are undone … Read the rest
After being raped a traumatised woman named Tsuru (Nobuko Otowa) wanders into a squatter camp and is immediately taken advantage of by Toku (Taiji Tonoyama) and Pin (Jukichi Uno), two residents keen to use her to fund their gambling habit. Exploiting Tsuru’s good nature by posing as a hard up student Pin worms his way into Tsuru’s affections and convinces … Read the rest
In 1940 the only son of an aristocratic family commits suicide with his pregnant wife (Keiko Kishi). However the latter survives to eventually give birth to a son, Sutueo (Yusuke Kawazu). 19 years later, with the family having lost its status along with most of its land, the adult Suteo harbours a deep love for his adoptive sister Sakura (Yoshiko … Read the rest
Wealthy university graduate Naomi (Hiroko Yakoshimaru) discovers that her absent father has hired a private detective named Shuichi (Yusaku Matsuda) to keep an eye on her. But when Shuichi’s estranged wife becomes the chief suspect in the murder of a Yakuza employee the irrepressible Naomi throws herself into solving the case whilst wrestling with her increasingly affectionate feelings toward her … Read the rest
A terrific film that vaults into the first rank of my favourite Kurosawa’s alongside Ran, Rashomon, High and Low and Rhapsody in August. Toshiro Mifune is an absolute delight here as the scruffy, indolent, but-light-years-ahead-of-everyone-else warrior who rescues a bunch of witless samurai and then cleans up their corruption difficulties in local government. Two things I loved … Read the rest
