Kazuyoshi Kumakiri

Quote:
Following up on his acclaimed debut feature, Kichiku Dai Enkai — an intense portrait of a band of 1970s radicals who descend into morass of fratricidal blood lust — Kazuyoshi Kumakiri shifts gears completely by offering this understated romantic drama. Ichio (Takeshi Kitano regular Susumu Terajima) runs a rundown eatery on a Hokkaido highway. One day, a couple gets into a spat resulting in the guy — an overly tanned self-satisfied clod — hopping in his red sports car and driving off without her. The woman, Taeko (Rinko Kikuchi), returns to order a meal. When she tries to dash without paying, Ichio nabs her but lets her off with a warning. Ichio soon finds himself similarly stranded when his horseracing-mad father — and owner of the restaurant — swipes Ichio’s car for a crazed gambling road trip with his buddies. Later that night while camping out, Taeko inadvertently burns down one of the restaurant’s sheds. This time around, Ichio puts Taeko to work. Soon, in spite of themselves, a relationship is born.
~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie GuideRead More »

Non-ko (36-sai Kaji Tetsudai), 7th film directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri. Stars Maki Sakai and Gen Hoshino (Shakerock). Nobuko commonly called Nonko who is 36 years old and a once-divorced woman returns Shinto shrine that her family runs, to help out around the house. There is no drive and no place to belong, just a backwards little country town. The only thing she does is riding her bicycle and going to the bar to drink with the owner, an another divorcee. She cannot remember the last time she had sex. One day, Nonko encounters a young man named Masaru who has great expectations about selling chicks at shrine’s festival. Masaru is rather naive and pitiable, but this earnest and straightforward younger man puts a smile back on her face, and she gradually becomes more emotionally and physically receptive…Read More »