Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

Grudge 2, The (2006)

Friday, November 9th, 2007
Genres: Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Gellar, Sarah Michelle | Tamblyn, Amber | Chen, Edison | Kebbel, Arielle | Beals, Jennifer | Palmer, Teresa | Uno, Misako | Roemer, Sarah | Knight, Matthew | Fuji, Takako | Tanaka, Ohga | Cassidy, Joanna | Cousins, Christopher | Jarrett, Paul | Dewan, Jenna
Directors: Takashi Shimizu
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Set within two years after the first film and between two countries. Karen’s sister, Audrey, been affected by the supernatural curse, and trying to find the origin of it in order to find a way to free herself. But what has this quest got to do with the families who are living in Chicago, a photojournalist from Hong Kong,and the three schoolgirls from Tokyo’s International High School?

Black Rain (1989)

Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
Genres: Action | Crime | Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Douglas, Michael | Garcia, Andy | Takakura, Ken | Capshaw, Kate | Matsuda, Yusaku | Kôyama, Shigeru | Spencer, John | Ishimatsu, Guts | Uchida, Yuya | Wakayama, Tomisaburo | Ono, Miyuki | Guzmán, Luis | Costelloe, John | Root, Stephen | Riehle, Richard
Directors: Scott, Ridley
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Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. In Japan, however, he manages to escape. As they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game the Japanese way.

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Saturday, August 18th, 2007
Genres: Action | Drama | History | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Phillippe, Ryan | Bradford, Jesse | Beach, Adam | Hickey, John Benjamin | Slattery, John | Pepper, Barry | Bell, Jamie | Walker, Paul | Patrick, Robert | McDonough, Neal | Lynskey, Melanie | McCarthy, Thomas | Bauer, Chris | Ivey, Judith | Turley, Myra
Directors: Eastwood, Clint
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In February, 1945, one of the fiercest battles of the Pacific theater of World War II occurs on the tiny island of Iwo Jima. Thousands of Marines attack the stronghold maintained by thousands of Japanese, and the slaughter on both sides is horrific. Early in the battle, an American flag is raised atop the high point, Mount Suribachi, and a photograph of the raising becomes an American cause celebre. As a powerful inspiration to war-sick Americans, the photo becomes a symbol of the Allied cause. The three surviving flag raisers, Rene Gagnon, John Bradley, and Ira Hayes, are whisked back to civilization to help raise funds for the war effort. But the accolades for heroism heaped upon the three men are at odds with their own personal realizations that thousands of real heroes lie dead on Iwo Jima, and that their own contributions to the fight are only symbolic and not deserving of the singling out they are experiencing. Each of the three must come to terms with the honors, exploitation, and grief that they face simply for being in a photograph.

Pearl Harbor (2001)

Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Genres: Action | Drama | Romance | War
Countries: USA
Actors: Affleck, Ben | Hartnett, Josh | Beckinsale, Kate | Gooding Jr., Cuba | Voight, Jon | Baldwin, Alec | Sizemore, Tom | Scott, William Lee | Zola, Greg | Bremner, Ewen | King, Jaime | Kellner, Catherine | Garner, Jennifer | Rue, Sara | Shannon, Michael
Directors: Bay, Michael
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The above summaries do a great job of describing the dynamics of the love triangle that develops between the two pilots that fall in love with the same nurse. The movie also does a credible job of displaying the war from the American side with FDR and our side. It also shows the strategy of Japan as they plan for and execute all facets of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While all details may not be historically correct, I believe that they do the job well - all things considered. Historic events that were altered were probably done so in an attempt to also make this movie the entertaining epic that it is.

007 You Only Live Twice (1967)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Countries: UK
Actors: Connery, Sean | Wakabayashi, Akiko | Hama, Mie | Tamba, Tetsuro | Shimada, Teru | Dor, Karin | Pleasence, Donald | Lee, Bernard | Maxwell, Lois | Llewelyn, Desmond | Gray, Charles | Chin, Tsai | Fanene Maivia, Peter | Kwouk, Burt | Chow, Michael
Directors: Gilbert, Lewis
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When an American space capsule is swallowed up by what they believe to be a Russian spaceship, World War 3 nearly breaks out. The British Government, however, suspect that other powers are at work as the space craft went down near Japan. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is the force behind the theft, as James Bond discovers, but its motives are far from clear, and he must first find out where the captured space capsule is held before America and Russia initiate another world war.

Brother (2000)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Crime | Drama | Thriller
Countries: Japan | UK | USA
Actors: Kitano, Takeshi | Epps, Omar | Maki, Kuroudo | Kato, Masaya | Terajima, Susumu | Watkins, Royale | Boyar, Lombardo | Osugi, Ren | Ishibashi, Ryo | Shigeta, James | Ali, Tatyana | Otake, Makoto | Okumura, Kouen | Musaka, Naomasa | Katase, Rino
Directors:
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A Japanese Yakuza gangster is exiled to the United States. Takeshi settles in Los Angeles where his younger, half brother lives and finds that although the turf is new, the rules are still the same as they try to take over the local drug trade.

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Genres: Drama | History | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Ohgo, Suzuka | Igawa, Togo | Mako | Futerman, Samantha | Sung, Elizabeth | Ikeda, Thomas | Gong, Li | Chin, Tsai | Momoi, Kaori | Weizenbaum, Zoe | Okihiro, David | Tachibana, Miyako | Kawamura, Kotoko | Yune, Karl | Yuan, Eugenia
Directors: Marshall, Rob
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In 1929 an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto’s Gion district and subjected to cruel treatment from the owners and the head geisha Hatsumomo. Her stunning beauty attracts the vindictive jealousy of Hatsumomo, until she is rescued by and taken under the wing of Hatsumomo’s bitter rival, Mameha. Under Mameha’s mentorship, Chiyo becomes the geisha named Sayuri, trained in all the artistic and social skills a geisha must master in order to survive in her society. As a renowned geisha she enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. As World War II looms Japan and the geisha’s world are forever changed by the onslaught of history.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
Genres: Comedy | Drama
Countries: Japan | USA
Actors: Johansson, Scarlett | Murray, Bill | Takeshita, Akiko | Minamimagoe, Kazuyoshi | Shibata, Kazuko | Take | Baba, Ryuichiro | Yamaguchi, Akira | Lambert, Catherine | du Bois, François | Leffman, Tim | Pekar, Gregory | Allen, Richard | Ribisi, Giovanni | Yukai, Diamond
Directors: Coppola, Sofia
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Bob Harris is an American film actor, far past his prime. He visits Tokyo to appear in commercials, and he meets Charlotte, the young wife of a visiting photographer. Bored and weary, Bob and Charlotte make ideal if improbable traveling companions. Charlotte is looking for “her place in life,” and Bob is tolerating a mediocre stateside marriage. Both separately and together, they live the experience of the American in Tokyo. Bob and Charlotte suffer both confusion and hilarity due to the cultural and language differences between themselves and the Japanese. As the relationship between Bob and Charlotte deepens, they come to the realization that their visits to Japan, and one another, must soon end. Or must they?

Last Emperor, The (1987)

Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Genres: Biography | Drama | History
Countries: China | France | Italy | UK
Actors: Lone, John | Chen, Joan | O'Toole, Peter | Ying, Ruocheng | | Dun, Dennis | Sakamoto, Ryuichi | Han, Maggie | Young, Ric | Wu, Vivian | Tagawa, Cary-Hiroyuki | Go, Jade | Ikeda, Fumihiko | Vuu, Richard | Tijger, Tsou
Directors: Bertolucci, Bernardo
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A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People’s Republic.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Genres: Action | Adventure | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Thurman, Uma | Liu, Lucy | Fox, Vivica A. | Hannah, Daryl | Carradine, David | Madsen, Michael | Dreyfus, Julie | Kuriyama, Chiaki | Chiba, Sonny | Liu, Chia Hui | Parks, Michael | Bowen, Michael | Kunimura, Jun | Ohba, Kenji | Kazamatsuri, Yuki
Directors: Tarantino, Quentin
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“The Bride” was once part of a group of world class female assassins, until the group leader, “Bill” and the other assassins turn against her. Four years later “The Bride” awakens from the coma the assassins left her in and heads out to seek bloody revenge. Unlike conventional movies, Kill Bill is told in chapter format making the narrative flow more like a book than a film.