Category: Movie reviews

Based on a 2007 novel by Gabrielle Zevin which struck a chord with teens, the film version of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (Dareka ga Watashi ni Kiss wo Shita) is quite unique among adaptations of popular books in that its a Japan/US co-production and therefore has been contorted in various ways to fit a new setting and culture. Certain plot elements were added and others were ditched in the process, but the overarching story remains the same even if certain nuances have been lost in translation. While the book was, above all else, an exploration of identity and its relation to growing up, the film version plays more like veritable catnip for any teenage girls harboring a center-of-attention fantasy.

It’s a plot setup that’s been rehashed countless times: have a seemingly average teenage girl—preferably someone likable and non-threatening enough to be a stand-in for the female audience—suddenly thrust into a situation in which she’s surrounded by an eclectic mix of super cool, good-looking guys who universally like her and occasionally fight over her through no fault of her own. This formula has recently worked wonders for everything from Hana Yori Dango to the Twilight series, and seemingly never fails to capture the imaginations (and cash) of the target audience.

Based on an award-winning 2002 novel by Shuichi Yoshida, Isao Yukisada’s Parade offers a window into the lives of four roommates in a 2-bedroom Tokyo apartment. Although they’re all friends and live in cramped quarters, they each keep certain aspects of their lives closely guarded, maintaining the blissful atmosphere of their living arrangement by turning a blind eye when need be. To call it a comment on modern-day Japanese society would be a bit myopic, as the themes explored apply to just about anyone who doesn’t blurt out their life story to every acquaintance. In truth, we each share what we want to share and hear what we want to hear from others, hiding or ignoring the rest as we see fit.

The film is broken down into four parts, with each focusing on a separate character within the apartment as time progresses forward. Because of this, the viewer’s perspective of their individual lives becomes as incomplete as any of the roommates themselves. We may get a brief peek into what they’re up to at a specific moment, but as one of the characters points out, it’s impossible to ever really know someone completely; we each form a unique perspective of others based on our own experiences with them.

It’s not often that a coming-of-age story revolves around a 29-year-old chronic masturbator who still lives with his mom, but that’s just one example of the many ways Daisuke Miura's Boys on the Run is refreshingly atypical. The film is based on a manga by Kengo Hanazawa which was originally serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits from 2005-2008, and although the adaptation is fairly loyal visually, the overall tone has been changed both in how the characters behave and how the story arc is presented.

When we first meet our hapless hero, Tanishi (Kazunobu Mineta), he’s spending his 29th birthday in a telekura, arranging to meet a woman who turns out to be rather large and extremely disgruntled by his unenthusiastic reaction to her. After surviving a mild beating, he just barely manages to make a run for it down the streets of Ikebukuro.

Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as Shaolin Girl...

Fuyuhiko Nishi has spent a good deal of his career doing everything in his power to push the martial arts action film genre in Japan, something which has been largely bereft of new talent and interest since the early 1980s. From personally introducing Thai stars Tony Jaa and Jeeja Yanin to Japanese audiences via his industry contacts to creating his own films from scratch, it’s pretty obvious the man has a passion for realistic, hard-hitting theatrical combat. Unfortunately, passion and dedication don’t always lead to a good product, and his 2009 film High Kick Girl! is yet another example of that fact.

The film was relentlessly marketed as the coming out party for “karate idol” Rina Takeda, and somewhat appropriately, she’s pretty much the only redeeming aspect of it. Takeda, 17 at the time of filming, is the real deal; this was not a case of some random gravure idol being thrown into an action movie with the help of clever editing and special effects.  She’s a legit black belt in Ryukyu Shorin-ryu Karate and has been training since she first decided to follow in her father’s footsteps at the age of 10. But more importantly for her viability as an action star, her slender frame makes all her movements seem incredibly graceful on film and she reportedly possesses a Jeeja-like threshold for the pain involved in repeating high-impact stunts over and over again.