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Reviews
Nippon y Yokoso (2005)
Filmed on location in Japan during 2002 World Cup
Filmed entirely on location in Japan during the 2002 World Cup by director Pablo Aldrete, Nippon e Yokoso is a 75-minute feature about a Mexican soccer fan named Daniel (Nacho Sanchez) who confronts a young Japanese woman named Naoko (Honaga Yoko) after she steals his wallet on the subway. Daniel surprises Naoko by inviting her to go out for a meal, but she has other things on her mind: a yakuza boss assigned her to steal the wallet of an Asian man and she completely bungled it by targeting a Mexican guy
who is now asking her for a date. Is he out of his mind? Realizing that the yakuza is closing in on her, she agrees to go with Daniel to buy herself some time. It's a simple plot with minimal dialogue, but set against the backdrop of the World Cupan exciting time to be in Japanthe film works well as a love story and travelogue/road movie, that is, if you like slow-paced films. The two talented young actors have excellent chemistry and Honaga, a butoh dancer, is a real discovery. She could be a real star someday. Perhaps Mexican directors just have a knack for guiding young Japanese actresses.
Tokyo Breakfast (2001)
Ha Ha Ha Japanese people using the N Word
This short was awful. I don't think there's anything offensive about it, the whole premise was stupid. First of all, hip hop is very popular in Japan and there are plenty of good Japanese rappers. There's nothing unusual about Japanese dressing in hip hop fashion or trying to emulate African Americans. Go online and listen to MP3s of Kick The Can Crew and Rip Slyme. The directors of this film are two unfunny white guys who thought it would be hilarious to have a Japanese family say Whas up ni**er every 5 seconds. The acting was horrible. People who like the FOX show Banzai probably thought this was funny. It might have been good if they set it in a country where hip hop is unknown, like Saudi Arabia.
PS: Congratulations on The Onion Movie going straight to DVD. Kuntz and Maguire will never work in Hollywood again. They're probably down at the bus station begging for change right now. Karma, ain't it grand!
Atout coeur à Tokyo pour OSS 117 (1966)
OK French spy flick filmed in Tokyo
The O.S.S. 117 series of films are based on popular spy novels by author Jean De Bruce about an international spy named Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, the French version of James Bond. Hubert Bonisseur was portrayed by a number of actors (including John Gavin, who was later named Ambassador to Mexico by Ronald Reagan!) which is one of the reasons the series never caught on outside of Europe. Austrian actor took over the role Frederick Stafford took over the role pf O.S.S 117 for the third and fourth films, the latter which was set in Japan and retitled "Terror in Tokyo". In this film, Bonnisseur has to stop a group of industrialists from launching missiles laced with atomic bombs unless the United States government gives into to their ransom demands. Gorgeous actress Marina Vlady plays a woman in the US embassy suspected of leaking secrets to the enemy, and Yoshimura Jitsuko is a Japanese secret agent posing as a nightclub hostess. Bonisseur romances both women and while attempting to save the world from destruction. Not as exciting as the superior 007 films of the era but entertaining in its own way. Look for a great fight scene in which Agent O.S.S. 117 goes up against a humongous sumo wrestler.
Cotton Candy (1996)
Fantastic short film set in Tokyo
Cotton Candy is an outstanding 46 minute film directed by Montreal filmmaker Roshell Bissett (Winter Lily) about an extremely shy and quiet high school girl in Tokyo who is coming of age in a society that offers conflicting images of female sexuality. Naomi (Higashi Yoko) is uncomfortable with her own body. She looks in the mirror and sees a very thin girl with childlike features. At the same time, Naomi is becoming aware that she is surrounded by overtly sexual images of teenage girls in school uniforms. These images are abundant in pornographic comic books that men read on the trains, sleazy late-night TV shows and colorful signs that advertise prostitution.
Naomi is invited to to join a group of girls at her school who date older men for money. Naomi doesn't seem to have much say in the matter--peer pressure and her own curiosity gets the best of her. A popular student named Tomoko coaches Naomi on how to dress and put on makeup. She later introduces Naomi to her first client, a middle aged salaryman who buys Naomi expensive clothes and takes her on an enjoyable outing to an amusement park. The role of the salaryman is played by talented stage actor Yoshimi Kazutoyo, and he brings a human side to an otherwise despicable character. When the salaryman brings Naomi to a love hotel ("just for a minute"), he is eerily convincing that his intentions are honorable.
Higashi Yoko is wonderful as Naomi, a complex character whose emotions are mostly conveyed without words. There's a powerful and disturbing scene where Naomi goes to a bura-sera fetish shop in Shibuya that pays cash to young women for used personal items such as underwear, shoes, lipstick, toothbrushes, gum and even buys their saliva. It's painful to watch the humiliation and confusion on Naomi's face as she removes her panties in front of a sour-looking man behind the counter, who callously hands ¥30,000.
Filmed in 1995, Cotton Candy was made before all of the media hoopla surrounding enjo kosai (compensated dates), and avoids the superficial characterizations of teenage girls found in later films such as Bounce Ko-gals. Music plays an important role in creating the mood of the film, and the soundtrack includes songs by Serge Gainsbourg, Buffalo Daughter (who also appear in the film) and Canadian band Wandering Lucy.
Love in Tokyo (1966)
Fantastic movie filmed in Tokyo with an excellent soundtrack
Love in Tokyo was shot on location in Japan shortly after the 1964 Olympics. The story starts off in India where Ashok (Joy Mukherji) is being pressured to marry a woman he doesn't love. His elderly mother asks him to travel to Tokyo to pick up his eight year old nephew, a recently orphaned boy named Chikoo whom Ashok has never met because his family disowned his older brother after he married a Japanese woman.
Ashok arrives in Tokyo only to discover that Chikoo has no intention of going to India, a country he has never seen before. Ashok hopes to win his nephew over by taking him on an expensive shopping trip, but the boy escapes when his attention is diverted by a beautiful woman named Asha (Asha Parekh), whom he sees performing a traditional Indian dance on television. Asha was also orphaned as a child and raised by her uncle in the Indian community of Tokyo. Asha's uncle wants her to marry a man she despises, a boorish, chain smoking airline pilot named Pran. Asha runs away after she discovers that the two men have cooked up a fiendish plot to get their hands on her sizable inheritance.
Chikoo and Asha both end up in the same hiding place and form an alliance against their uncles. Asha protects the boy by posing as a bearded Sikh until she realizes that she has fallen in love with Ashok. She later pretends to be Chikoo's Japanese aunt in order to win Ashok's heart without being discovered. The movie has subplot involving a friend of Ashok's named Mahesh (popular comedian Mehmood) who comes to Tokyo to marry a woman from a higher class. There's a hilarious scene where Mehmood fools his potential father-in-law by posing as an "international geisha" who just happens to speak Hindi fluently.
Love in Tokyo contains the fast paced witty dialog found in many Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn romantic comedies. It would have made an excellent 90 minute film but the actual length is almost twice that. The second half contains enough melodrama to fill a season of General Hospital and the ending is straight out of a James Bond movie. However it's important to remember that Bollywood is not Hollywood and moviegoers in each country have different expectations.
The film contains two of the most beloved songs from Indian cinema: "Love in Tokyo" by Rafi Mohamed and "Sayonara" by Lata Mangeshkar. The latter is the reason that Japanese tourists in India are often greeted with a cheery "sayonara sayonara".
After One Cigarette (1999)
Interesting film about GI hostess club in Okinawa
Okinawa was often the final destination for US GIs before shipping out to Vietnam in the 1960s. These young soldiers were keenly aware of the dangers that awaited them on the battlefield and they wanted to have a good time drinking and dancing in the many hostess clubs known for cheap drinks, great music and beautiful women. At each of these night clubs there was a "mama-san", a seasoned veteran of the water trade who made sure that things were running smoothly and everyone was enjoying themselves. The mama-san had to show a sweet and tender side to her customers while ruling over her employees with the fist of Stalin. There was a lot of money to be made during the war and the competition for US dollars was fierce. Most of the hostess clubs were owned by the yakuza and the mama-san knew that she could be out on the street if she allowed things get sloppy. After One Cigarette is a fascinating short expose on the life of the mama-san at the China Night, one of the top hostess clubs in Okinawa which was modeled on the Playboy Club in Chicago. "Mama-San" is played by Nobu McCarthy, the beloved actress who graced the screen in memorable roles in films such as Geisha Boy and The Wash, and sadly passed away in 2002. Mama-San is feeling the strain of running the China Night. A ruthless gangster named Tommy (Jim Ishida) is honing in on her business. The only person she can trust is Sammy (Rodney Kageyama), her right hand man who works as an emcee at the club. One day Mama-San opens the newspaper to find that her estranged daughter has been murdered. She suspects that Tommy was behind the killing but quickly disposes of her grief to focus on the day to day activities of the China Night. There's a long line of pretty young women outside her office waiting to be interviewed for jobs as hostesses and Mama-san is known to be very hard person to impress: after one cigarette the interview is always over. One of the women, Michiko (Brittany Ishibashi), bears an uncanny resemblance to her recently deceased daughter, and Mama-san sheds her dragon lady exterior to take a maternal interest in the young woman. When Mama-San discovers that Michiko's life may be in danger she has to decide if its worth the risk of losing the China Night to save her. First-time director Peter Stougaard, Vice President of Advertising & Marketing at Twentieth Century Fox, based the character of Mama-san on the mother of his wife, Jo Oyakama Stougaard (who also contributed to the script). The majority of the film (with the exception of some footage of Okinawa) was shot in Chinatown, Los Angeles but the elaborate set designs, costumes and music will bring the viewer back to a time when Okinawa was the party capitol of the world.