Shinji Sômai

Synopsis
The movie takes place in the five-day period before, during and after a ferocious, seemingly liberating typhoon, which several students endure while marooned in their school gymnasium.Read More »

A teenage delinquent schoolgirl named Izumi Hoshi inherits her father’s Yakuza clan.Read More »

Kinema Jumpo “Best movie”-winner of 2000.

Quote:
Veteran director Shinji Somai lensed this heart-warming family drama about a shabby looking coot claiming to be the father of an elite salaryman. Hiroshi Nirasaki (Koichi Sato) is a securities broker desperately trying to keep the fact that his company is about to go belly-up from his high-strung upper-class wife (Yuki Saito). One day, while walking home from a particularly bad day at work, he gets accosted by an old bum (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who demands to be taken in by his son. Though his mother told him that his dad died when he was born, the drunken geezer knows enough about him and his short order cook mother (Sumiko Fuji) that he is almost convinced. Read More »

Synopsis: A mountain man from Hokkaido comes to Tokyo in search of the woman he loves, but has to brave the city’s dystopic underworld of gladiatorial fights and underground opera to rescue her.Read More »

A haunting tale of destiny and life’s unpredictability: an elite bureaucrat, humbled by an incident which ruined his promising career, has a chance encounter with a glamorous hostess, heartbroken by her husband’s death.Read More »

Quote:Looking at the title and poster art, Love Hotel may seem like just another late roman porno film by the Nikkatsu Studios. That, however, could hardly be further from the truth. The talent involved in this production alone should be a enough to make Love Hotel one of the most interesting films from Nikkatsu’s roman porno era. And, one of the best, too.Read More »

Tuna fishing. It doesn’t exactly evoke the stuff of drama, yet very dramatic is this gripping yarn (puns intended) about the solemn, solitary lives of the men who catch what ends up as our sushi and sashimi. Opening with a shot of a young couple traversing sand dunes, the woman posits a question – women or fishing? This question fuels the drama of the next two-plus hours. – See more at: linkRead More »

Synopsis:
High school student Hoshi Izumi (Yakushimaru Hiroko) is just a normal teenaged schoolgirl, except for the fact that her father is a yakuza boss. When her father suddenly dies, Izumi inherits his position as the clan head. Pulled into the wheeling, dealing, and fighting of the mob world, Izumi slowly comes into her own as she leads the gang in search of her father’s murderer.Read More »

Aspiring to be admitted to a good university and to become a lawyer, Tasiro Yuusuke, a tenth-grader from Kyushu, enrols in a prestigious high school in Tokyo. Plans are made for him to live in his uncle’s house, part of which is rented out while his uncle is abroad on business. A realtor’s mistakes leaves Tasiro sharing the house with Kei Yamaba, the most beautiful girl in the school, who is also his classmate. There is the risk that their unexpected ‘co-habitation’ will be discovered by the school authorities. While he grows increasingly attracted to her, he is often irritated by her innocent and nonchalant attitude towards their predicament. They each develop other romantic attachments, but end up turning to each other.Read More »