Jun Ichikawa

  • Jun Ichikawa – No raifu kingu AKA No Life King (1991)

    Jun Ichikawa1991-2000DramaJapan

    Via the New York Times: “The solemn, intent faces of the Japanese schoolboys playing video games in Jun Ichikawa’s “No Life King” bespeak a new type of modern horror. Addicted to their favorite new game (from which the film takes its title), these children have become seriously estranged from the real world. The film’s constant emphasis is on the ways in which this has been allowed to happen, and on how emblematic it is of larger attitudes in a technological society. When a young boy trying to converse with his mother must compete with a home computer for her attention, it’s not hard to see why the boy has retreated into his own computer-dominated world.”Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Tonî Takitani AKA Tony Takitani (2004)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanJun Ichikawa

    When technical illustrator Tony Takitani asks his wife to resist her all-consuming obsession for designer clothes, the consequences are tragic.Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Tôkyô kyôdai AKA Tokyo Siblings (1995)

    Jun Ichikawa1991-2000ArthouseDramaJapan

    Quote:
    The film centers on a brother and sister who live in their family’s traditional Japanese house long after both of their parents have died. Kenichi (Naoto Ogata), who is in his twenties, works in a used bookstore while his sister, Yoko (Urara Awata), who has just finished up high school, dutifully takes care of the house. Since his parents are dead, Kenichi is serious about looking after his underaged sister. He even spurns his girlfriend — another clerk at the same bookstore — because she wants to get married before Yoko comes of age. On Yoko’s end, she longs to break out and be free. One day, she brings home a bumptious freelance photographer (Toru Tezuka) whose crude ways do not impress the conservative Kenichi. In spite of this — of perhaps because of this — Yoko beds him and soon is spending more and more time with the lad. With his orderly life coming apart at the seams, will Kenichi be able to get his sister back? ~ Jonathan CrowRead More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Ryoma’s Wife, Her Husband and Her Lover (2002)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaJapanJun Ichikawa

    Film about Sakamoto Ryōma. The focus is on Oryo, the maid who became Ryoma’s wife and lived with him for one year before his death. Directed by Jun Ichikawa.Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata AKA How to Become Myself (2007)

    2001-2010AsianDramaJapanJun Ichikawa

    Plot summary: (from A Nutshell Review)
    Juri (Niko Narumi, you’ll be amazed that she’s only so young, but yet has the capability to take on a character that so layered and yet so subtle in her delivery) plays an ideal girl at home and in school, but this facade is quickly stripped away early in the movie, as we see her loathe her parent’s bickering at home, while putting up a false front of a happy, supportive family to the outside world. In the movie, the spotlight is also shared by fellow classmate Hinako (Atsuko Maeda), a popular girl who in a twist of fate, becomes the victim of classroom politics and bullying. Mere acquaintances, they share a poignant conversation just after junior school graduation, before going their separate ways.Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Bu su (1987)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaJapanJun Ichikawa

    Suzume moved in Tokyo where she will live in aunt’s house, basically a geisha house. She have no interest in any social activity, nor any friendship with classmates. She’s not into geisha life style too. When school is up to celebrate it’s 100 year anniversary class have to prepare something for culture fest and, after chain of misfortune events, she decides to made it on stage with old dance, somewhat of her mothers legacy.Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Tôkyô Marîgôrudo AKA Tokyo Marigold (2001)

    2001-2010AsianJapanJun IchikawaRomance

    21-year-old Eriko breaks up with her boy friend after their date at the circuit. But life without a boy friend is indeed dull. Boredom occupies her even after she completely switches her job. Then she meets Tamura at a party. Eriko takes a liking to Tamura. A few days later, when Eriko asks him out on date, Tamura happily accepts. However, during their date Tamura abruptly announces that he had a girlfriend studying in the U.S. Tamura’s innocent look enhances Eriko’s shock, as she returns home completely dumb struck. After this incident Eriko tries to give up on Tamura, but fate plays with her. A few days later, Eriko bumps into Tamura at a mini theater in. In seeing Tamura innocently laughing at the play, Eriko realizes her true feelings for him. Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Byôin de shinu to iu koto AKA Dying at a Hospital (1993)

    1991-2000JapanJun Ichikawa

    Quote:
    In the early 1990s a spate of hospital films were released in Japan, including Takita Yojiro’s two Let’s Go to the Hospital comedies, Itami Juzo’s drama The Last Dance and Ichikawa Jun’s Dying at a Hospital, shot in a semi-documentary style almost as straightforward as its title. Perhaps these films reflected the greying of Japanese society or, as Ichikawa suggested in an interview, a world afflicted by famine, AIDS and environmental destruction. Working from a book by Yamasaki Fumio, a practicing doctor, Ichikawa follows the progress of five cancer patients from the time they are admitted to the hospital to the end. For much of the film, we are literally standing at the foot of their beds, watching their lives unfold from the middle distance.Read More »

  • Jun Ichikawa – Tony Takitani (2004)

    2011-2020ArthouseAsianJapanJun Ichikawa

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Alone and self-sufficient since childhood, Tony shuns emotions as illogical and immature. After finding his true vocation as a technical illustrator, he becomes fascinated with Eiko, whom he marries. His life changes, he feels vibrantly alive, and for the first time, he understands and fears loneliness. But when Eiko’s all consuming obsession for designer clothes ends in tragedy, Tony finds himself alone again, sitting in his wife’s closet, gazing at her treasured couture pieces, the whispering ghosts of her soul. Finally, Tony places an ad in the paper searching for a woman who fits Eiko’s measurements perfectly.Read More »

Back to top button