Written by: Kundo Koyama
Cast: Masahiro Motoki , Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kimiko Yo, Ryoko Hirosue
Mentality has proven if it's an Oscar winning movie, it'll sure be boring as hell. Depends on your kind of hell, action packed bullet flying exploding bombs movie lately is a hellish' ride for some because of it's a lame Hollywood cliché and it's time for a fresh change. That's why western is turning their attention to the east, not for the sword slashing martial art movie but a movie with everyday reality.
I won't deny this year Oscar foreign language category winner 'Departures' is a beautifully composed movie, with music score that depends heavily on cello and wide shot of countryside; TOO beautiful maybe but director Yujiro Takita made it a universally appealing. At first glance, you might get fooled by thinking it's about ritual of Japanese culture but actually its universal ritual of handling the deceased.
Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), a hardworking husband is a professional cellist who loses his job when his orchestra goes bankrupt. He and his wife, Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) was forced to move back to his hometown in the Japanese countryside and into his late mother's house. Daigo is slightly haunted by a blurry childhood memories; the whereabouts of Daigo’s father, who walked out on the family when Daigo was a young boy, are unknown. Seeking employment, he responds to a help-wanted ad. The headline reads "Departures," he assumes the position has something to do with the traveling agency. Surprised and shocked but in dire need for a job, Daigo gives the job a try by assisting Mr. Sasaki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) who is in the business of preparing dead bodies for burial. When Mika founds out, she couldn't accept that Daigo will have to work with corpses forever and later leaves him.
The movie dealt on the simple taboo, working with the dead. Call it 'sueh', scary or filthy, in reality somebody has to do it. Ask yourself: If you die, you want your body to be rotten and unattended? Daigo childhood friend felt uneasy and told him to find a better job. Later, he met Daigo again when there is a death in his family. It's not about the process; it not about the work but it's about bringing comfort to distraught families. The dramatic tension works well between Daigo and Mika, Daigo choices to stay or leave the departure business and the closure he needed for his dad. There are two scenes that I really love: the first one is when Daigo discovers there is a death season and the second scene when Sasaki said he can handle all religious death ritual. Mr. Sasaki assistant Yuriko Kamimura, (Kimiko Yo) turn out to be a very lovable character, she portrayed emotions in an unexpected way. Twice she played with Daigo feelings but she couldn’t handle hers when she told the story about her children and actor Kimiko Yo expression gave an astounding acting compared to Masahiro Motoki or Tsutomu Yamazaki and should receive an award.
The story is predictable, no spoiler here but at the climax of the movie, I've watched the same usage of object to remind the dead in another Japanese movie 'Angel's Egg'. It's nothing but it lessen the impact for me, luckily with well written story and great actors gives strength for viewers to enjoy 'Departures'. Most people cover grief with anger and loss with fear. Takita use this foundation for the movie. People tends have negatives thought to what they couldn't understand or handle. The same goes for the moviegoers out there, do not judge an Oscar winning film before watching it.
Kimura (Masato Sakai), the salaryman went missing after running of with a mysterious women. Miki (Tomoko Tabata) gives birth in a mad rush situation to hospital but Kimura can't be contacted and his responsibility falls to the shoulder of school gym instructor Jinno (Yo Oizumi), Kimura's friends since childhood. A coworker takes a picture of Kimura taking a beautiful woman to a hotel. The photo makes it way to the corporate ladder and his company executives hire a porn shop owner/private detective, Shimazaki (Kuranosuke Sasaki) to find Kimura for unknown reasons. Shimizaki finds Jinno, showed him the photo and Jinho agrees to help out the investigation to find Kimura.
Clue after clue was given to the audience which were peeled of slowly but in an acceptable pace. I'm not fimiliar with director/writer Kenji Uchida works (or forgot I've watched it before coz the title 'Stranger Of Mine ' is very fimiliar) works but impressed with his tricky storyline using multiple viewpoints and non linear structure. Uchida clever aproach is he didn't try to challange viewer mind by making things complicated and later giving a long, boring explaination. Infact, he invite the viewer to experience the situation and examine the evidence themselves. He manipulates but never make the audience felt stupid when he reach the story deconstructing point.
If this a typical Hong Kong/Korean/Japan movie, with the appearance of police squad, Yakuza mobsters, detectives and innocent bystander in a restaurant, I'll guarantee they will be a bloodbath in a final gun vs. katana showdown. Uchida manage to succesfully change the extremely tense situation into comedic ending. Some might find 'After School' boring but for me, it have an original twisted story that is good enough to make Hollywood filmakers thinking of a remake but then again, they will make a poor quality remake and give the original version a bad name.
Back to the earlier clichés I mentioned, there is no romance, no sex, no drugs, no violence, no terminal illness and no lesbian kiss scene between the girls to make this movie a success. This is a fine example of a bully victim cry for help and if you read school bully reports in newspaper, a friend is still an effective way to help the victim to ease the pain or being suicidal. I’m not giving out public service announcement but this is an effective way to make a teen film pure and simple by using two girls and their hand phones.
~ESK
Adapted from the best selling manga by Masahito Soda, Subaru and her twin brother Kazuma share a dream to become a professional ballet dancer. Unfortunately, Kazuma succumbs to hereditary illness and Subaru continues pursuing her dream. She accidentally meet cabaret owner Isuzu (Momoi Kaori), a retired ballerina, who recognises her talent and trains her. However, Subaru always got discouraged by her father who wanted her to have conventional education. With much of convincing from her classmate Mana (Sano Miku) and influence from a Korean-American dancer Liz Park (Ara), Subaru enters an international dance competition for a scholarship to any top ballet company in the world. 
You can see the cute and adorable factor from the child actors which can dance more better than the adult Subaru and every time the black cat make its appearance. One more thing, the child actor gives a powerful expression compared to the blank stare that Meisa Kuroki sometimes gives. The story is beautifully constructed and easy to digest but the Hong Kong director Lee Chi Ngai takes a lot of time to built up some scene. When he reaches the climax, it's not special anymore. For example the scene where Subaru tries to feel the space around her using her senses (there's a term in the movie but I couldn't remember): from the point Subaru paint her glasses with a marker, then went into a sudden dance trance in a hip hop club, Liz pull her out to give her advice, she tried again, the slow mo with lighting effect started and finally we understand what the climax of the scene is all about. I got lost after she got into the dance trance as the rest of the scene got draggy.
The plot of buddy dancer turn to enemy was the most interesting of all but they’re afraid to develop more on the romance between Subaru and Kohei (Yuta Hiraoka), possibly because of time constraint. In technical, we usually exposed by Hollywood dance flick with overhead shot, fast track shot, and tight camera shot of the dancer body movement but none of that is being use here. Director Lee use a basic camera shot on most of the final competition dance scene and surprisingly, it works since it gives more classical look. 
The dance routine by Meisa Kuroki is not perfect but after reading an article that she only took four months of intense ballet training at the same time have to master hip-hop, contemporary and bolero, she got my respect for pulling off a believable performance. 'Dance, Subaru!' is filled with drama, tragedy, inspiration, motivation and most importantly passion to fulfill a destiny. Well, it manages to ease the pain of the earlier failed date attempt and somehow motivate me to give it a second try. Hehehe. 
'State of Play', a Hollywood adaptation of the six-part BBC series that first broadcast in 2003 starts with the murder of a young male and a pizza deliveryman at back alleys of Washington DC. Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) a crime reporter at the Washington Globe investigates those two deaths later found out his old college pal Stephen Collins (Affleck), now a Congressman who lost an intern name Sonia Baker that died in a mysterious accident, broke down in tears infront of dozen of media in a public hearing. This sparks a media frenzy on Collins secret affair with Sonia which will jeopardize his career. Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) a young and ambitious tries to persuade Cal to give infos on his college pal got patronise by him for being a blogger not a real journalist. All three death was connected to a military contractor company. McCaffrey and Collins lives is in danger if the secret reach the public. Della teams up with McCaffrey to uncover the conspiracy but could they publish the truth even if they've found it?
The cast is simply superb; Crowe's a lone character who'll find the news he wanted whatever the concequences might be. McAdams as the young and rebelious reporter trying to withstand Cal's attitude. Jason Bateman as the quirky and funny cocaine fixer and Helen Mirren as the comanding editor who wanted every breaking news will be printed on her newspaper. As for Ben Affleck, i suggest he find another job because he's getting worst at acting. If the part goes to his best friend Matt Damon, the politician character will be more believable! 
In the new 'Fast And Furious', it’s been eight years since ex-con Dominic Toretto (Diesel) drove across the Mexican border, committing himself to a fugitive existence. Now, holed up in a beach shack in the Dominican Republic, and living on the run with the sole remnant of his past, Letty (Rodriguez), he tries to piece together a new life. When a tragic death of someone he loves brings him back to L.A., Dom reignites his feud with agent Brian O’Conner (Walker). As they are forced to confront a shared enemy, a drug kingpin who is flooding the U.S. with lethal product, Dom and Brian must give in to an uncertain new trust if they hope to outmaneuver him and avenge the tragedy that he caused their small racing family to endure. 
I'm not against director Justin Lin but actually I forgive him during 'The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift' because it's in a totally different environment (Japan) and cast, so it's okay to try new stuff & make small mistakes. Lin actually impresses me in one scene of 'Tokyo Drift' where he put real drifting legend fishing as the two main actor training drift in the background. This is the little details that make the story special but no special details can be seen in 'Fast And Furious'. Writer Chris Morgan should handle this movie better while uphold the legacy that Gary Scott Thompson created.
I know it's hard to do a race movie (there is two malay race movie which try hard but went nowhere), and forgive my comparison to Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman's 'Days of Thunder' but in that movie, the race scene keep you at edge of your seat, the drama scene really touch your emotion and the romance make you fell in love with both of the character. Even Asian has done good racing movie, I watched 'Initial D' three times in the cinema and love every part of it! Kudos to director of photography, Amir Mokri did a good job capturing the mountainous countryside of the Dominican Republic and the tight scene of precision racing in the tunnel crawls across the floor of the Mexican desert. No worry, I guaranty it will be a box-office hit especially for teenager. I myself drove my car like crazy going back to office after the screening, as if an auto Proton car can race! Hahaha...