The second “Hana Yori Dango” series, which aired on TBS in 2007 to massive ratings, concluded with a storybook ending—leaving the oft-sabotaged lovers Tsukushi Makino (Mao Inoue) and Tsukasa Domyoji (Arashi’s Jun Matsumoto) quite happy together and engaged following their senior prom. That probably would have been a perfectly legitimate spot to end the story; but if you’ve got a cash cow on your hands, one final harebrained adventure before the marriage ceremony surely can’t hurt. As expected, Hana Yori Dango: Final raked it in at the box office earlier this year, catering to female fans of all age groups by rehashing the whole “on-again, off-again” theme of the main couple’s relationship. Unfortunately, the extreme concentration on romance may alienate fans who enjoyed the original series more for its comedy and wacky cast of side-characters—none of whom really get a fair shake in the theatrical cut. On the other hand, if you’re in it for the romance and sappy love confession moments, this film may just make your head explode with glee.

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Yusuke Yamada’s best-selling novel, “Real Onigokko”, was set in the year 3000 and centered around an arrogant king who dealt with overpopulation by coming up with a sadistic game in which everyone with the surname “Sato” would be chased down and murdered for sport. Director Issei Shibata only had about 100 million yen (~$1 million USD) to film his live-action adaptation, pretty much ruling out any shot of setting it in the year 3000. Instead, he based his version in an alternate version of modern-day Japan. He probably could have stopped there, but he also felt the need to give the film’s main character the “special power” of shifting back and forth between the normal world and the alternate world where the chasing game exists. Unnecessary? Probably. Convoluted? Hell yes. But the basic elements of the original story are kept mostly intact, and those are still pretty damn cool.

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Takashi Miike’s Crows Zero was a huge hit in Japan in 2007, raking in over 2.4 billion yen by finding a way to make a movie about high school boys beating the crap out of each other appeal to teenage girls—casting heartthrobs Shun Oguri and Takayuki Yamada as the main beaters. Whenever you have such a memorable movie reach so many people, it stands to reason that a spoof can’t be far behind. Thus, in the summer of 2008, long-time pinku director Hideo Jojo released Gachi-ban: a low-budget V-cinema homage to some of the sillier aspects of Miike’s source material. Of course, with Jojo having pretty sophomoric sensibilities in general, his spoof is far more focused on bathroom humor and dick jokes than actual gang combat.

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Director Nobuhiro Yamashita has a knack for weaving enjoyable tales without having to forcefully push any emotional buttons or amp up conflicts to typical theatrical levels. In his breakout indie hit Linda Linda Linda he accomplished this with an incredibly accurate portrayal of what high school is like, with every minor setback and success magnified to levels that seem to be exclusive to that time in one’s life. In A Gentle Breeze in the Village, most of the turmoil takes place only in the overtly sensitive main character’s head. For the people closest to her, who remain blissfully unaware of the panicky nature of her inner monologue, things couldn’t be better in their quaint little town.

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In this post-J-horror landscape, where fresh new ideas for supernatural stories are scarce and financing is even scarcer, author Otsuichi has been sort of a one-stop shop for intriguing setups that haven’t necessarily been done to death already. The Japanese film industry absolutely loves him because he has the unique ability to write stories that speak directly to teens and preteens that feel misunderstood, neglected, or downright ignored. They do, however, have the yen to buy up books, manga, and movie tickets. Case in point is his short story “Kizu / Kids” (a play on how the word for wound sounds a lot like “kids” in Japanese) which revolves around a young boy with the ability to take the injuries of others onto himself and his close friendship with a fellow outcast, Takeo. It’s a nice, somewhat dark story about a boy who finally finds someone willing to share his burden after being betrayed by everyone else in his life. Unfortunately, the makers of the film adaptation chose to go the saccharine, melodramatic route and the end result plays more like a run-of-the-mill TV drama than an actual movie.

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