Kaori Momoi

  • Kôji Wakamatsu – Ware ni utsu yoi ari AKA Ready to Shoot (1990)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaJapanKoji Wakamatsu

    Quote:
    Kabukicho, Shinjuku. A woman chased by a yakuza appears in front of Katsuhiko Goda, the master of the snack “Kashkash`. The woman’s name is Yang Meyrin, a Taiwanese. At that time, the chief of the Sakuradokai group Toida was shot dead. A VHS-C video adapter was left at the murder site, but there was no tape inside. On the other hand, “Kashkash` The store’s closing party, which lasted for 20 years, was held, and Katsuhiko’s former all-out companions, Kiritsuko, Akikawa, and Miyake, gathered there. Meyrin can be seen inside, and it turns out that she is a Vietnamese refugee and a smuggler with a forged passport. Meyrin, who left the store to get her passport for escape, was chased by the Toida group, but Katsuhiko rescued her. Read More »

  • Genjiro Arato – The Girl of Silence AKA Father Fucker (1995)

    Genjiro Arato

    14-year-old Shizuko (Mami Nakamura) dreams of drawing manga in Tokyo to escape her life of poverty and loneliness. Shizuko’s father has left the family, and her mother (Kaori Momoi) — who is desperate for money — takes in an icy, brutal lover (Michio Akiyama) who insists on being called “Father.” He is obsessed with having a “high-class” family and forbids Shizuko to draw her “low-class” manga, which he calls “trash.” When Father discovers that Shizuko has been impregnated by a schoolmate, he inflicts a brutal punishment. Her mother, unable to support the family without him, responds with drunken apathy. In self-defense, Shizuko’s creates manga characters who are gentle and caring.Read More »

  • Yoshitarô Nomura – Giwaku AKA Suspicion (1982)

    1981-1990CrimeDramaJapanYoshitarô Nomura

    Quote:
    A car with two passengers plunges into the sea. The man dies, his wife (Kaori Momoi) is barely scratched. So did she or didn’t she? Shima Iwashita stars as her lawyer.

    1982 Mainichi Film Awards Best Screenplay. Fourth place on Kinema Junpo’s 1982 top ten.Read More »

  • Yôjirô Takita – Kimurake no hitobito AKA The Yen Family (1988)

    Comedy1981-1990JapanYôjirô Takita

    Synopsis
    In Japan’s bubble economy everyone is looking for ways to increase their wealth and assets. But the Kimura family is particularly determined – in fact it is abnormally determined – to accumulate wealth. They don’t want a palatial mansion, they have no outstanding loans and they’re not planning to travel abroad. They just love money so much that they work day and night for even the smallest amounts. And of course nothing is allowed to go to waste.Read More »

  • Shôhei Imamura – Eijanaika AKA Why Not? (1981)

    1981-1990ComedyDramaJapanShohei Imamura

    This 1981 nihilist epic by Shohei Imamura is witty, grotesque, relentless, and beautifully engineered. The setting is the Edo era, when local warlords battle the emperor for control of the country, and all of Japan is under cultural pressure from its long delayed opening to the West. Political loyalties and personal loves disintegrate; the only certainty is money, and even that is crumbling. Imamura follows eight major characters through a bright, bursting, impossibly dynamic mise-en-scene, leading up to the Eijanaika (“What the hell?”) riots—a frightening, exhilarating explosion of empty freedom, the freedom of those who have lost everything. A very important film, and possibly a great one.Read More »

  • Tatsumi Kumashiro – Seishun no satetsu aka Bitterness of Youth (1974)

    1971-1980AsianDramaJapanTatsumi Kumashiro

    Quote:
    “Bitterness of Youth (1974) was Kumashiro’s first non-roman poruno (<– wrong), based on a novel with a family resemblance to Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy “and set in a milieu of imploded student radicalism: A callow law student impregnates the classmate he is tutoring, then dumps her for his wealthy cousin. The most extraordinary scene has the antihero and his ex revisit the ski resort where they began their affair—carrying on in the snow in a long, behavioral sequence that recapitulates their relationship as they roll struggling and screaming downhill toward a raging river.”Read More »

  • Tatsumi Kumashiro – Kushi no hi AKA Love in a Small Room (1975)

    1971-1980AsianDramaJapanTatsumi Kumashiro

    Hirobe is a lonely man. After witnessing her girlfriend die with a terminal illness, he wanders through the city like a shadow. One day, he meets Masako and they begin an affair. Masako is in an unhappy marriage with Yazawa, who is also cheating on her with a younger lover. The tension builds up to an unforgiving, yet quiet climax…Read More »

  • Yôichi Higashi – Mo hozue wa tsukanai aka No More Easy Life (1979)

    1971-1980DramaJapanYôichi Higashi



    Quote:
    Mariko (Momoi Kaori) is living the life of a typical Japanese college student in the 70’s, spending far more of her time balancing boyfriends and part-time jobs than on her schoolwork. She finds herself torn between a former boyfriend (Morimoto Leo) who’s the tough, insensitive-but-sexy, type, and a new acquaintance (Okuda Eiji) who’s more sensitive to her feelings, but who still acts childishly selfish at times. Will she choose one of them, or decide to go her own way?Read More »

  • Kazuo Kuroki – Tomorrow – ashita (1988)

    1981-1990DramaHiroshima at 75JapanKazuo Kuroki

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    On August 9, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This film, based on a story by Mitsuharu Inoue, describes the daily life of people in Nagasaki the day before that fateful event. It presents the human drama of people’s lives, and their feelings of joy and sadness. These include a newlywed couple, an expectant mother, an American prisoner of war, and star-struck lovers who must say farewell because the boy is called to serve in the army. Each of these people, like others in the city, hoped to live with their dreams for ‘tomorrow’. However, tomorrow never comes for them, as their lives are brought to an abrupt and unexpected end. But in this case, knowing how the story ends doesn’t detract from the experience at all; rather, it heightens the emotional impact, which is further enhanced by the poignant musical score from Teizo Matsumura. ‘Ashita’ is the first film in Kazuo Kuroki’s ‘War Requiem Trilogy,’ which also includes ‘Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima’ (2002) and ‘Chichi to Kuraseba’ (2004).Read More »

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