Jun Ichikawa

Plot summary: (from A Nutshell Review)
Juri (Niko Narumi, you’ll be amazed that she’s only so young, but yet has the capability to take on a character that so layered and yet so subtle in her delivery) plays an ideal girl at home and in school, but this facade is quickly stripped away early in the movie, as we see her loathe her parent’s bickering at home, while putting up a false front of a happy, supportive family to the outside world. In the movie, the spotlight is also shared by fellow classmate Hinako (Atsuko Maeda), a popular girl who in a twist of fate, becomes the victim of classroom politics and bullying. Mere acquaintances, they share a poignant conversation just after junior school graduation, before going their separate ways.Read More »

Suzume moved in Tokyo where she will live in aunt’s house, basically a geisha house. She have no interest in any social activity, nor any friendship with classmates. She’s not into geisha life style too. When school is up to celebrate it’s 100 year anniversary class have to prepare something for culture fest and, after chain of misfortune events, she decides to made it on stage with old dance, somewhat of her mothers legacy.Read More »

21-year-old Eriko breaks up with her boy friend after their date at the circuit. But life without a boy friend is indeed dull. Boredom occupies her even after she completely switches her job. Then she meets Tamura at a party. Eriko takes a liking to Tamura. A few days later, when Eriko asks him out on date, Tamura happily accepts. However, during their date Tamura abruptly announces that he had a girlfriend studying in the U.S. Tamura’s innocent look enhances Eriko’s shock, as she returns home completely dumb struck. After this incident Eriko tries to give up on Tamura, but fate plays with her. A few days later, Eriko bumps into Tamura at a mini theater in. In seeing Tamura innocently laughing at the play, Eriko realizes her true feelings for him. Read More »

Quote:
In the early 1990s a spate of hospital films were released in Japan, including Takita Yojiro’s two Let’s Go to the Hospital comedies, Itami Juzo’s drama The Last Dance and Ichikawa Jun’s Dying at a Hospital, shot in a semi-documentary style almost as straightforward as its title. Perhaps these films reflected the greying of Japanese society or, as Ichikawa suggested in an interview, a world afflicted by famine, AIDS and environmental destruction. Working from a book by Yamasaki Fumio, a practicing doctor, Ichikawa follows the progress of five cancer patients from the time they are admitted to the hospital to the end. For much of the film, we are literally standing at the foot of their beds, watching their lives unfold from the middle distance.Read More »

Alone and self-sufficient since childhood, Tony shuns emotions as illogical and immature. After finding his true vocation as a technical illustrator, he becomes fascinated with Eiko, whom he marries. His life changes, he feels vibrantly alive, and for the first time, he understands and fears loneliness. But when Eiko’s all consuming obsession for designer clothes ends in tragedy, Tony finds himself alone again, sitting in his wife’s closet, gazing at her treasured couture pieces, the whispering ghosts of her soul. Finally, Tony places an ad in the paper searching for a woman who fits Eiko’s measurements perfectly.Read More »