News

There are plenty of directors who masterfully tackle diverse genres and types of films, but few can compare to Takashi Miike, who literally has more than 100 films to his name and hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Miike is sometimes reduced to an excessive, sensationalist filmmaker who gleefully pushes boundaries. This is certainly true to some extent, but Miike has also directed his share of more intimate character-driven dramas that don’t feel the need to drench the screen in blood or…other fluids.

Miike’s fearlessness can create a numbness to these extremes where the audience takes these spectacles for granted. For a director where nothing is off limits, the most impressive thing is sometimes to show restraint and rein things in. Sham is an emotional uppercut that is hardly Miike’s most “normal” movie. However, it uses the everyday horrors that hide in plain sight to...

Set in a charming location in Hokkaido, “Bread of Happiness” could easily pass as a promotional film for the region’s tourism board. In fact, it was originally intended as part of a series of films written and directed by Yukiko Mishima, showcasing the natural beauty of northern Japan. It was followed in 2014 by “A Drop of the Grapevine”, which is, so far, the last instalment of this Hokkaido project.

Bread of Happiness is streaming on Jff Theater until 2025/05/01 11:00:00 [Jst]

The story takes place across the four seasons. It begins with a lovely fairytale, “Tsuki to Mani” (The Moon and Mani), which Rie (actress and singer Tomoyo Harada) used to read as a child. She loved Mani for his kindness, care, and support for the melancholic Moon, and she dreamed of finding her own Mani one day. But life takes you in different directions, and as she grew up,...

Comprising international premieres, short programs, and some of the country’s finest-ever films in new restorations, 2024’s Japan Cuts––running July 10-21 at New York’s Japan Society––has been unveiled. It’s in the festival’s nature that numerous works and directors are lesser-known on American shores, though a cursory search has one regularly stopping: new films by Takeshi Kitano (Kubi), Shunji Iwai (Kyrie), Shinya Tsukamoto (Shadow of Fire), and Gakuryu Ishii (The Box Man) populate the selection. Meanwhile, Hideaki Anno’s modern classic Shin Godzilla debuts in a new, black-and-white cut Shin Godzilla: ORTHOchromatic.

Its classics section is three-for-three: Ishii’s August in the Water, Shinji Somai’s Moving, and Toshiharu Ikeda Mermaid Legend, which is more or less one of the greatest films ever made. One can anticipate at least a couple of Japan Cuts’ current unknowns are tomorrow’s figureheads.

See the full lineup below:...

Everyone of us dreads the moment when we hear the news we may not have the amount of time on earth we thought we had. Even though we will all have to face this day at some point in our lives, it is something we likely keep distant from ourselves and those around us, making it a taboo topic. However, once the knowledge is there, it brings about a change linked to us thinking back on our lives and maybe even regretting some of the events and decisions that turned us into the person we are. In his new feature “Dreaming in Between”, actor and director Ryutaro Ninomiya tells us the story of a man who, after having heard the news he does not have many years left, goes through a period of change. The feature, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival last year, deals with a topic we have seen in many features before,...

After his quiet, moving drama “Small, Slow, but Steady” (2022) based on the autobiographical book by Keiko Ogasawara about her life as the first professional boxer with disability in this sport, Japanese helmer Sho Miyake is back on the international festival track with another little marvel of a film “All The Long Nights”. Just like its predecessor, the film had its world premiere at the Berlinale to critical acclaim. Another thing they have in common is that “All The Long Nights” is also based on a (eponymous) novel by Maiko Seo (published in 2020), adapted into a screenplay by Wada Kiyoto and the helmer himself.

All The Long Nights screened at Red Lotus Asian Film Festival Vienna

In a sense, the premises of both films are comparable: people coming to terms with their specific health-related conditions and living their lives to the best. This time, in focus are a young woman with...

Shô Miyake’s All the Long Nights is a film about small things: decency, kindness, why people help each other out, how those acts can inspire others. The first character we meet is Misa (Mone Kamishiraishi), a sensitive type who suffers from premenstrual syndrome. In the opening scene, this causes Misa to lose her cool at work, and while the situation is smoothed over, she quits out of shame. Leaving the city, she lands a gig in a suburban company, assembling astronomical sets, and meets Takatoshi (Hokuto Matsumura), a young, panic attack-prone man who recently left a job under similar circumstances. After an initial misunderstanding, their orbits align into something that looks like love but never skews romantic.

If that all sounds a bit saccharine, bear with it: in Miyake’s previous film, Small, Slow But Steady, the director took the autobiography of Keiko Ogasawara, a hearing-impaired female boxer, and...

Nobody is broken in Shô Miyake’s films; nobody is quite beyond repair. But over the course of his last few features, the Japanese director has centered characters who are at at least mildly sprained, and trying hard to get by on hope and a homemade splint. In his previous movie, “Small Slow But Steady” — a title that incidentally could be a manifesto for Miyake’s soft, low-key style — a deaf female amateur boxer battled self-doubt and the looming closure of her beloved gym. And his new film, “All the Long Nights” offers a similar kind of balm, this time focusing on a young woman whose major challenge comes from debilitating Pms. It’s an affliction rarely described with this much compassion, when it is mentioned at all outside its regular context as the lazy punchline to a thousand sexist jokes.

Here it is treated with a sensitivity that does...

The official website for the upcoming live-action drama of Hakubo no Chronicle , adapting Masami Yuki's ( Mobile Police Patlabor ) mystery manga, released a main trailer today alongside a poster visual featuring the two protagonists, Tomohiro Kamiyama as Kai Yukimura and Airi Matsui as Akari Fusegi. The clip introduces the theme song "Fate" performed by Smile-up's (formerly Johnny & Associates) male idol group West. Kamiyama is a member of the group. Poster visual Related: Hakubo no Chronicle Live-Action Drama Announces Main Female Cast The main cast includes: Kai Yukimura played by Tomohiro Kamiyama (West.) Akari Fusegi played by Airi Matsui Tadahito Takenouchi played by Terunosuke Takezai Karasawa played by Tsutomu Takahashi Juichiro Sanetou played by Ryosuke Obayashi Kaoruko Azechi played by Ayumu Ito Mikiya Kubozono played by Ken Mitsuishi Hakubo no Chronicle ran in Shogakuan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine from August 2013 to May 2017 and is compiled in 11 tankobon volumes. The...

A woman buries her anger deep under a lake of serenity only to discover that every small action or decision can set off a chain of reverberating ripples, in the latest movie from director Naoko Ogigami, aptly named “Ripples” (波紋 Hamon). Her trademark quirky comedy style and unique perspective are still here, but this time her narrative voice is a notch more dramatic.

Ripples is screening at Five Flavours

A prologue set in the aftermath of a fictional eco-disaster, introduces the Sudo family living in a tranquil suburban neighbourhood. Yoriko Sudo (Mariko Tsutsui) is a woman in her 50s, defined by her roles of wife of a salaryman, mother of a disaffected young man and reluctant carer of Osamu's bedridden – but well able to fondle her – father. Water is scarce, as probably contaminated after the earthquake, and bottled water has become a precious good. One ordinary day, Yoriko calls everybody...

A woman buries her anger deep under a lake of serenity only to discover that every small action or decision can set off a chain of reverberating ripples, in the latest movie from director Naoko Ogigami, aptly named “Ripples” (波紋 Hamon). Her trademark quirky comedy style and unique perspective are still here, but this time her narrative voice is a notch more dramatic.

Ripples is screening at Camera Japan

A prologue set in the aftermath of a fictional eco-disaster, introduces the Sudo family living in a tranquil suburban neighbourhood. Yoriko Sudo (Mariko Tsutsui) is a woman in her 50s, defined by her roles of wife of a salaryman, mother of a disaffected young man and reluctant carer of Osamu’s bedridden – but well able to fondle her – father. Water is scarce, as probably contaminated after the earthquake, and bottled water has become a precious good. One ordinary day, Yoriko calls...

If the combination of increased streaming platforms and closures following the Covid pandemic have put doubts on the place of cinema as an important cultural hub, then Katsuya Honda's “Kitakyushu, the City of Movies” is not particularly the remedy.

“Kitakyushu, the City of Movies” is screening at Busan International Short Film Festival

Kenichi (Ken Mitsuishi) runs a local cinema in north Kyushu. Single-minded, his love of cinema is clear, treating his projector with great care and reverence. Making sure the cinema is at its best, he is preparing for its reopening following the pandemic. Shouting the news to everyone around, many are skeptical, not believing it will open again. Despite the concerns of others, however, Kenichi is confident an audience will come, which they do, filling the cinema, including a young boy who reminds Kenichi of himself at that age.

Shown as part of “The Death of Cinema(s)” strand at Busan,...

Yoriko Sudo (Mariko Tsutsui) is a woman in her 50s. She draws fine ripples in the sand every morning as she tends to the Zen garden in her yard, which seems incongruous with her modern house in its quiet residential area. Yoriko is devoted to a cult-like religion, the Ryokumei-kai or the Green Life Water Society, and spends her days in prayer and study. One day, her husband Osamu (Ken Mitsuishi), who abandoned her and their son several years ago, comes back. His return is like a rock that makes ripples on the quiet surface of her life. The earthquake, nursing care for the aged, new religions, discrimination against the handicapped – the unexplained darkness in the world appears in the Sudo family. When Yoriko’s emotions which have been stifled are revealed, the film rises from despair to entertainment. (Source: Japanese Film Database)

Ripples is written and directed by Naoko Ogigami...

Warner Bros. International Television Production and Japanese pay-tv broadcaster Wowow are partnering for a third season of Japan's hit local-language remake of Cold Case.

The new season, titled Cold Case: The Door to the Truth, will star Yo Yoshida, Kento Nagayama, Kenichi Takito, Ken Mitsuishi and Tomokazu Miura. Directors include Takafumi Hatano, Akira Uchikata and Toshiyuki Morishita. The third season, which will again be 10 episodes, will premiere in Winter 2020.

The commission will bring the series to 30 episodes in total — the requisite number for global licensing and distribution deals.

The first two seasons of Cold Case achieved ratings ...

The family drama has always been one of the flagships of Japanese cinema, with local filmmakers having perfected a style that was initiated in the 50’s and was established in its current form through the films of Hirokazu Koreeda. “Goodbye, Grandpa” follows these lines, closely.

Goodbye, Grandpa screened at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian cinema, running from January 7 to February 14.

The story uses the regular “trick” of the death that brings the family together. This time the deceased is the grandfather, Isao, whose funeral brings together all members of the household of Harunos to the rural place Isao’s children grew up. Akio is the older brother, whose wife, Jun, has divorced him, and has two children he seems to know very little about; Yohei, the older son who has some psychological problems rarely leaving his house and Chiharu, a high-school student who seems really cool and mature for her age.

It devastated a nation and left billions across the world speechless. Swallowing whole regions deep into the sea, the merciless waters claimed the lives of almost sixteen-thousand men, women, and children and some two-and-a-half thousand souls remain missing to this day. Livelihoods and relationships levelled, lost, and left to ruin. Adding insult to misery came the nuclear fallout, rendering farmlands, villages and whole towns uninhabitable, like the ending of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ghostly “Pulse”; a haunting playground of homes, shops, offices, arcades. These scars are still felt to this day, etched into the faces of those survivors forced to carry on living, trying to find some sense of normality, of happiness. For the characters in Ryuichi Hiroki’s torturous odyssey “Side Job” (‘Kanojo no Jinsei wa Machigai Janai / Her Life Is Not At Fault’), trapped in-situ within their self-loathing, within their numb forlorn shells, the thought of moving on, or going back to before,...

The family drama has always been one of the flagships of Japanese cinema, with local filmmakers having perfected a style that was initiated in the 50’s and was established in its current form through the films of Hirokazu Koreeda. “Goodbye, Grandpa” follows these lines, closely.

Goodbye Grandpa is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival

The story uses the regular “trick” of the death that brings the family together. This time the deceased is the grandfather, Isao, whose funeral brings together all members of the household of Harunos to the rural place Isao’s children grew up. Akio is the older brother, whose wife, Jun, has divorced him, and has two children he seems to know very little about; Yohei, the older son who has some psychological problems rarely leaving his house and Chiharu, a high-school student who seems really cool and mature for her age. The younger brother is Seiji,...

Stars: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Ôsugi, Akira Emoto, Kengo Kôra, Mikako Ichikawa, Jun Kunimura, Pierre Taki, Kyûsaku Shimada, Ken Mitsuishi, Shingo Tsurumi, Kimiko Yo | Written by Hideaki Anno | Directed by Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi

Godzilla, officially The King of the Monsters, returns to his Japanese roots following the 2014 Gareth Edwards directed Us film in Shin Godzilla. Set in present-day Japan, the film sees an unexplained seismic event occur off the coast of Shinagawa, causing ripple effects all the way to the capital. Ministers scramble to figure out what’s going on but only cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi knows what the audience already does. That Godzilla has majestically returned and has his fire-breathing, stomping sights on Tokyo once more…

It’s hard to belive that Godzilla, such a symbol of the nuclear fallout of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and (to a lesser extent) the Daigo...

Stars: Hiroki Hasegawa, Yutaka Takenouchi, Satomi Ishihara, Ren Ôsugi, Akira Emoto, Kengo Kôra, Mikako Ichikawa, Jun Kunimura, Pierre Taki, Kyûsaku Shimada, Ken Mitsuishi, Shingo Tsurumi, Kimiko Yo | Written by Hideaki Anno | Directed by Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi

Godzilla, officially The King of the Monsters, returns to his Japanese roots following the 2014 Gareth Edwards directed Us film in Shin Godzilla. Set in present-day Japan, the film sees an unexplained seismic event occur off the coast of Shinagawa, causing ripple effects all the way to the capital. Ministers scramble to figure out what’s going on but only cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi knows what the audience already does. That Godzilla has majestically returned and has his fire-breathing, stomping sights on Tokyo once more…

It’s hard to belive that Godzilla, such a symbol of the nuclear fallout of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and (to a lesser extent) the Daigo...

Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi, Miyuki Matsuda, Toshie Negishi, Ren Ôsugi, Shigeru Saiki, Ken Mitsuishi, Yuriko Hiro’oka | Written by Daisuke Tengan | Directed by Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike’s Audition will always be a special movie to me, because it sparked off my obsession with Takashi Miike. It also put me off the meal I was eating when I first watched it, so it impressed me too. The fact that Arrow Video have given it a special edition should be enough to make it a must buy, but do they do the film justice with their release?

Audition (Ôdishon) is the story of Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) a widower who “auditions” prospective women to date under the rues of a film role. When Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) is interviewed she catches his eye, and he takes her on a first date. Little does he...

The award ceremony was held on February 7th in the Yokohama Kannai Hall and the winners were:

Best Film: Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Our Little Sister) Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three stories of Love)

Yoshimitsu Morita Memorial Best New Director: Daishi Matsunaga(Pieta in the Toilet)

Best Screenplay: Shin Adachi (100 Yen Love, Obon Brothers)

Best Cinematographer: Mikiya Takemoto (Our Little Sister)

Best Actor: Masatoshi Nagase (Sweet Red Bean Paste) Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Obon Brothers, Areno)

Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)

Best Supporting Actor: Ken Mitsuishi (Obon Brothers, Three stories of Love)

Best Supporting Actress: Aoba Kawai (Obon Brothers, Kabukicho Love Hotel)

Best New Talent:Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister) Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet, The Pearls of the Stone Man) Ryoko Fujino (Solomon’s Perjury)

Special Jury Prize: The cast and staff of Bakuman

Special Grand Prize: Kirin Kiki

Top Ten Movies:

1. Our Little Sister...

Internationally-renowned actor-director Takeshi Kitano returns with Beyond Outrage, his follow up to 2011's Outrage. We have an exclusive TV spot for fans to check out, before this action-packed sequel arrives on iTunes and other VOD formats November 28, ahead of its theatrical debut on January 3, 2014. This explosive thriller co-stars Ryo Kase, Toshiyuki Nishida and Shun Sugata.

With Beyond Outrage, action cinema master Takeshi Kitano returns to the hard boiled characters, black comedy and unflinching violence of his crime masterpiece Outrage. This time, a manipulative police crackdown on organized crime has ignited a tricky power struggle in the yakuza underworld.

The Sanno crime family has grown into a massive organization dominated by young executives whose new approach to running the family is causing frustration and pent-up resentment with the old-guard members. This vulnerability in the Sanno hierarchy is exactly what anti-gang detective Kataoka has been looking for, as the police force prepares a full-scale crackdown.

When it comes to Venice Film Festival, Japanese director Takeshi Kitano is definitely not a stranger. I’m sure you all remember his Hana Bi from 1997 (for which he recevied the Golden Lion), or 2003 Zatoichi project (Silver Lion statue).

Well, guess what, Kitano is now back In Competition with his completely new project, titled Outrage Beyond. And, in case this sounds like it has something to do with Kitano’s Outrage movie from last year’s Cannes film festival – relax, you’re not tripping – it’s just a sequel to the original story…

So, this time we have the Sanno crime family all grown into a huge organization, expanding its power into politics and legitimate big business. The Sanno’s upper ranks are now dominated by young executives, and the old-guard members are penting up resentment while being pushed to the sidelines.

This vulnerable spot in the Sanno hierarchy is...

Director: Sion Sono. Review: Adam Wing. If you thought Sion Sono might fancy a change of pace after disturbing the world with the likes of Cold Fish and Guilty of Romance you’ve got it all wrong. Himizu starts life as a teen romance but soon descends into bitterness, violence and madness. Sono had just finished adapting the hugely popular manga ‘Himizu’ into a screenplay when the largest earthquake in recorded history struck the coast of Japan. He put the project on hold to help with the volunteer effort in Fukushima, and as a result, changed the setting of his story in order to show the world what happened. Sumida (Shota Sometani) and his schoolmate Chazawa (Fumi Nikaido) are 15-year-old school kids living a dystopian existence. Sumida wants to live an ordinary life ‘quietly like a mole’, and Chazawa dreams of living with the man she loves, believing that they...

Adding just over a dozen features and four shorts to the lists of previously announced titles (first round and Dokumente), the Berlinale announces that the Panorama program for this year's edition (February 9 through 19) is now complete. The breakdown: "53 feature films: 18 in the main program, 15 in Panorama Special and 20 in Panorama Dokumente.... 34 productions from 37 countries are screening as world premieres. Seven fictional films are directorial debuts. There are 12 German productions, and 24 women filmmakers presenting 16 films."

New narrative features:

Bugis Street Redux by Yonfan, Hong Kong. With Hiep Thi Le, Michael Lam, Greg-O and Ernest Seah.

Cherry by Stephen Elliott, USA. With Ashley Hinshaw, James Franco, Heather Graham, Dev Patel and Lili Taylor. World Premiere. The site.

Chocó by Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza, Columbia. With Karent Hinestroza, Esteban Copete, Fabio García, Daniela Mosquera, Jesús Benavides. Wp.

Glaube, Liebe, Tod (Belief, Love, Death) by Peter Kern, Austria. With Traute Furthner, Peter Kern, Joao Moreira Pedrosa.

Writer/director Yosuke Okuda’s “Tokyo Playboy Club” strongly resembles something cult legend Takashi Miike would have crafted during his hungrier days. It’s filled with peculiar characters, graphic violence, and plenty of yakuza-related tomfoolery. And while these elements aren’t exclusive to Miike’s body of work, it’s hard to see them in a low-budget J-cinema setting without being immediately reminded of his work. No offense to Okuda, of course, as “Tokyo Playboy Club” looks to be a fine film. I’m extremely anxious to check it out. Here’s what the film is all about: Set within the Tokyo underworld, Katsutoshi (Nao Omori) finds trouble at work and hides out at his friend Sekichi’s (Ken Mitsuishi) night club “Tokyo Playboy Club.” Kasutoshi’s run in with a waiter (Yasushi Fuchikami) at the club and the waiter’s girlfriend Eriko (Asami Usuda) leads to far bigger troubles & then unexpected consequences.

On Wednesday, Bitters End uploaded a trailer for Yuya Ishii’s Azemichi no Dandy to their channel on YouTube.

The film stars Ken Mitsuishi as a 50-year-old single father named Junichi Miyata. Back in junior high, Junichi was bullied and made a promise to himself that he would grow up to be really cool.

Junichi has been raising his two children, an unemployed 19-year-old named Toshiya (Ryu Morioka) and an 18-year-old high school senior named Momoko (Jun Yoshinaga) on his own since his wife died of cancer 15 years earlier. He works extremely hard as a truck driver to buy whatever he thinks his kids want; and even though money is tight, he never lets it show.

One day, Junichi feels ill and becomes obsessed with the idea that he may be dying of cancer like his wife. Convinced his life will soon be ending, he begins putting his affairs in...

24-year-old Yosuke Okuda is set to make his commercial film debut with Tokyo Playboy Club, starring Asami Usuda and Nao Omori.

Okuda won the Grand Prix of last year’s Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival with his independently-produced feature-length debut Hot as Hell: The Deadbeat March, which he dedicated to his personal hero, Quentin Tarantino.

The Fukushima-born director admitted this is a particularly tough time to start shooting a movie. His house is located inland, so his family was safe from the recent tsunami. However, his parents’ tofu business and various other locations were severely damaged by last month’s disaster. He was convinced to go ahead with the film by his father, who bluntly told him, “You concentrate on your movie.”

The new film is set in the Tokyo underworld, with pacing, violence, and humor that’s being compared to Battles Without Honor and Humanity.

Omori plays a man...

Ntv has posted a trailer for Kana Matsumoto‘s Mother Water, a new film featuring many of the same cast and staff from “Kamome Diner”, “Megane”, and “Pool”.

The film is set in Kyoto, and the title is a reference to the city’s large river and many waterways. In keeping with that theme, the story revolves around three women for whom water is of prime importance. Hatsumi (Mikako Ichikawa) makes and sells tofu, Takako (Kyoko Koizumi) opens a coffee shop, and Setsuko (Satomi Kobayashi) owns a whiskey bar. Like the water of Kyoto, the three women have a subtle but important impact on the people around them. Ken Mitsuishi and Ryo Kase also star as a public bath owner and furniture salesman, respectively.

The film marks the first time former classmates Koizumi and Kobayashi have acted in a movie together.

“Mother Water” will open at Cine Switch Ginza and...

Director: Toya Sato. Review: Adam Wing. Gambling is a matter of life and death in the 2009 thriller Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler from director Toya Sato. Death Note fans rejoice. Tatsuya Fujiwara stars as Kaiji, the hero of the title who gambles for his life upon a ship that promises salvation. A ship that promises hope but serves up cold beer, hot chicken and what was the other thing again? Oh yes, that would be life as a slave then. We're talking about the lucky ones of course, for many hapless participants the endgame is death. Based on Fukumoto Nobuyuki's manga, the film reunites Fujiwara with Kenichi Matsuyama, otherwise known as "L" from the Death Note series. The impressive cast also includes Yuki Amami, Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata), Taro Yamamoto and Ken Mitsuishi (Noriko's Dinner Table). Who will master the cards and the mind games for the ultimate victory? The answer...

Earlier today, a press event was held in Kyoto to announce the production of a new film called Mother Water, which involves many of the same cast and staff who previously brought us “Kamome Diner”, “Megane”, and “Pool”. The film’s seven main cast members were all in attendence: Satomi Kobayashi, Kyoko Koizumi, Ryo Kase, Mikako Ichikawa, Kento Nagayama, Ken Mitsuishi, and Masako Motai.

Set in Kyoto, the breezy tale focuses on circumstances surrounding three women and their relationships with other people around town. Much like “Kamome Diner”, the film has a peaceful, indifferent theme and involves ordinary characters brought together by a local establishment. However, instead of focusing entirely on one place, several different characters run their own businesses.

Kobayashi plays a whiskey bar owner named Setsuko, Ichikawa plays a tofu maker named Hatsume, Kase plays a used furniture dealer named Yamanoha, Mitsuishi plays a public bath owner named Otome,...

Opens Friday, March 7

New York

A convoluted, time-twisting, sexually tinged thriller that owes more than a small debt to "Vertigo", Hideo Nakata's "Chaos" is the sort of intellectual cinematic parlor game that will best appeal to those who like their mysteries as complicated as possible. Resembling "Memento" in its intricacies if not its elegance, the film has already been slotted for an American remake directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Robert De Niro and Benicio Del Toro. No doubt, the complexities of its plot will be somewhat smoothed out for domestic consumption. The film is currently playing an exclusive theatrical engagement at New York's Cinema Village.

The story begins simply enough, with the kidnapping of the wife of a successful Japanese businessman after the two have had lunch together in a restaurant. We soon learn, however, that the kidnapping is a ruse, staged by Satomi (Miki Nakatani), the wife, with the aid of her handyman Takayuki (Ken Mitsuishi) to better test the fidelity of her husband Goro (Masato Hagiwara). Showing up at Takayuki's house after the "abduction," she willingly submits to his suggestion that he tie her up, with the inevitable kinky sex resulting. But even here, things are not quite what they seem, with the plot further evolving into a nearly indecipherable morass of twists, double-crosses and illusions.

Complicating matters even further, the story is told in nonchronological fashion, providing only the subtlest of hints to clue us in as to the sudden shifts in time. The results demand the closest of attention, with even the most attentive viewers likely to become lost at some point, though the numerous homages to "Vertigo" provide handy reference points.

Ultimately, the willful obfuscation becomes more frustrating than entertaining, and director Nakata ("Ringu" and "Ringu 2") fails to provide enough of a visual style or sustained mood to sustain interest. Not helping matters are the inexpressive performances by the male leads. The beautiful Nakatani, however, demonstrates that she has what it takes to be a femme fatale in the best noir tradition.

CHAOS

A Kino International release

Tidepoint Pictures/Viz Films and Kino International

Credits:

Director: Hideo Nakata

Screenwriter: Hisashi Saito

Producers: Takeo Kodero, Satoshi Kanno, Kimio Hara

Executive producer: Naoki Kai

Director of photography: Tokusho Kikimura

Music: Kenji Kawai

Cast:

Goro Kuroda: Masato Hagiwara

Satomi Tsushima: Miki Nakatani

Takayuki Komiyama: Ken Mitsuishi

Detective Hamaguchi: Jun Kunimura

Running time -- 104 minutes

No MPAA rating...