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| Fumi Nikaido in "Why Don't You Play In Hell?" |
Been spending so much time watching all the recent domestic DVD releases (including The Monuments Men, Inside Llewyn Davis and the awesome Blue Jasmine) that I realized it had been awhile since I checked out any Japan flicks. Visiting the good old Plotboxes forum, I found that they’d gotten up a few great movies I’d been wanting to check out, and I spent the last couple of days catching up!
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| Gen Hoshino and Fumi Nikaido |
The first of them was the highly explosive and bloody Why Don’t You Play In Hell (Jigoku de Naze Warui), the supercharged tale of a former child-star mob daughter named Michiko caught between two rival mob families and a troop of amateur filmmakers, all of whom have one thing uniting them: to make the cinematic masterpiece that will stand the test of time!
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| Child Star Michiko Muto (Nanoka Hara)... |
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| ...and the grown up gun- totin' Michiko (Fumi Nikaido) 10 years later! |
Child Star Michiko is the daughter of Mob Boss Muto (Jun Kunimura), but during a failed attempt on his life, she happened to meet Mob Boss Ikegami (Shinichi Tsutsumi) as he lay injured, and since then he’s been completely charmed and obsessed with her.
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| Charmed: Michiko (Nanoka Hara) meets Ikegami (Shinichi Tsutsumi) |
10 years later, Michiko’s acting career has fizzled out and she’s taking the path of her mob father, but her father still hopes to make her a star, meanwhile, Ikegami firmly believes if HE was in charge, Michiko’d be a star by now, and wants to kidnap her so HE can make a movie with her.
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| At odds: Two Mob Bosses Muto and Ikegami |
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| Amateur Filmmakers the "F*ck Bombers" hit the road! |
Add in the upcoming gangland massacre between the clans and those aforementioned amateur filmmakers and you know things are gonna be caustic!
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| How To Film a Gangland Massacre 101 |
The movie starts out quirky and eccentric,(think Miki Satoshi) but slowly but surely as the film moves along, the movie gets weirder and weirder, til it cumulates in the most absolutely over-the-top looney tunes shoot out for the ages! A truly WTF movie if there ever was one!
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After that zany brouhaha, I was ready for something a bit more subdues, and Hiroshi Abe came to the rescue with the latest in the strong SHINZANMONO pantheon, the smooth and cool Nemuri No Mori, a television special following the intense Wings Of The Kirin (Kirin No Tsubasa) from 2012. I couldn't wait to dig in!
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| Ishihara Satomi as Black Swan in Nemuri no Mori |
In this one, a routine investigation following a would-be self defense homicide leads Koichiro Kaga (Abe) into the obsessive and unforgiving world of Ballet where everyone seems to be keeping secrets- It’s up to Kaga and his team to find out how they’re all connected and unveil the truth behind the murder.
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| Kaga Koichiro (Abe Hiroshi) Back on the Case! |
This was one interesting story that had me guessing throughout the show, but even MORE awesome was how pretty all of the actresses playing the suspect ballerinas were! With actresses Ishihara Satomi, Otozuki Kei, Otani Eiko and Kinami Haruka as the primary girls (suspects), there was enough eye cnady to keep me going no matter WHAT the storyline, LOL
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| Ishihara Satomi |
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| Kinami Haruka |
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| Otozuki Kei |
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| Otani Eiko |
AHAHA, and if THAT wasn't enough, they even had fantastic Nakama Yukie make a hilarious and cute cameo appearance as Kaga’s omiai prospect! Leave it to Yukie to be the girl who can really put Abe in his place! Too Funny!
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| Abe Hiroshi with Nakama Yukie |
Well, I have to say it's been quite a rewarding moviewatching time these past two days, and looks like I've got a few more up on the grill, so I'll be checking those out soon as well!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
