Yôjirô Takita

Quote:
A powerhouse reenactment of a 1985 ethics scandal that rocked the Japanese journalistic world. Pop star Yuya Uchida plays a TV entertainment reporter who is egged on by his bosses to “pump up” his telecasts. He gets his opportunity when a prominent investment manager, caught in the middle of a fraudulent gold investment scheme, locks himself in his lavish home. While Uchida and the other reporters try to gain entrance, two disreputable-looking gentlemen, announcing that they’ve been paid to assassinate the crooked investor, walk into the home unmolested–then walk out a few moments later, soaked in blood. No one lifts a finger to stop the two hit men from leaving….and it sure makes a swell TV story. Astonishingly, many of the characters in Comic Magazine–reporters, investors, even a pair of Yakuza mobsters-are the genuine article. Voyeuristic to the nth degree, Comic Magazine was highly praised when it was first released in Japan under the title Komikku Zasshi Nanka Irani. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

Based on a novel by actress Mieko Harada, screenwriter Hiroshi Saito won the “Best Screenplay” award at the Yokohama Film Festival for this film.
Sex isn’t something one plans. It just happens. Yoko is a 23 year old pink collared worker. After college she is kept close with Yokoyama and Ishida, two male college friends who both harbor feelings for her. Yokoyama is straight as an arrow, yet impulsive when it comes to love. Ishida is more the outspoken type. When Yokoyama proposes to her, Yoko wonders if the old marriage myth is true. Is settling down with an ‘ordinary’ guy the key to a happy marriage?Read More »

Synopsis
In Japan’s bubble economy everyone is looking for ways to increase their wealth and assets. But the Kimura family is particularly determined – in fact it is abnormally determined – to accumulate wealth. They don’t want a palatial mansion, they have no outstanding loans and they’re not planning to travel abroad. They just love money so much that they work day and night for even the smallest amounts. And of course nothing is allowed to go to waste.Read More »

With the breakup of his Tokyo orchestra, a young cellist returns with his adoring wife to his hometown. Searching for work, he responds to a cryptic ad for work in “Departures”, only to find out that the position is in the ritual preparation of corpses.Read More »

Kanichiro Yoshimura is a Samurai and Family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan, he is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them. In his search he joins a notorious clan, known as the Shinsengumi where he does as much as possible to get money. Looked at as a money grubber,Yoshimura proves his strength physically and mentally by being loyal to his honor. During the dramatic period, with the rise of the Emperor and the fall of the Shogun. Yoshimura shows us the struggle of life in a personal way, by changing the lives of the people he meets and the way life is looked at.Read More »

Synopsis
Departures follows Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures,” thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a “Nokanshi” or “encoffineer,” a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.Read More »