Masaru Usui

Movies

Single8
Sound
In the summer of 1978, Hiroshi, a high school student, is so inspired by "Star Wars" that he wants to film a giant spaceship himself, so he builds a miniature one with his best friend, Yoshio, and films it with his 8mm movie camera. Terao, a camera shop clerk, suggests turning it into a narration, so he decides to make a short film to be screened at the next school festival and asks his friend Sasaki, a film fan, to help him develop a script. As he learns that his movie camera has the ability to film backwards, he comes up with a story called "Time Reverse", in which aliens attempt to reverse time on Earth in order to redo human evolution. Natsumi, a girl from his classroom, agrees to play the heroine at the last minute, so he can finally start filming it.
GHOST MASTER
Sound
While shooting the horror film Ghost Master, Akira Kurosawa, an untalented assistant director, is struggling. Continuing with the film sends him into a rage that awakens an evil spirt. Now possessed, Akira wreaks revenge on those who have been cruel to him on set, killing the cast and crew one by one.
Vamp
Sound Recordist
A troubled teenager who is about to kill herself has a life changing encounter with a female vampire.
Chronicle of the After-School Wars
Sound Recordist
It is not Tag. It is not Battle Royale. It is Battle Royale Tag. Sena walks up to the school rooftop to return Yudachi's handkerchief. Yudachi is not there and Sena falls asleep waiting. It is dark, she is confined and locked up at her school when Sena wakes up. The school has turned bloody red and the girls have to fight to the death. Who will survive the carnage is up to the girls.
What I Long For
Sound Effects
High school student Juri leaps to her death. Afterwards, Juri wanders to her house, school and street. She feels loneliness as nobody else is able to see her. She talks to those that she comes across including her mother and classmates, but nobody responds to her comments. Juri then sees a horrifying monster, which she never saw prior to her suicide. She calls the scary monster "Bug Man". When the mind of humans become weak, the Bug Man tempts those to commit suicide. One day, Juri walks along the street as usual. She then meets a girl that is able to see Juri. Juri names the girl Ringo-chan and plays at the park with her. Their happy moments does not last long. When they come back from the park, Juri sees Ringo-chan's mother with a grim face. The Bug Man is standing behind her mother.
What I Long For
Sound Recordist
High school student Juri leaps to her death. Afterwards, Juri wanders to her house, school and street. She feels loneliness as nobody else is able to see her. She talks to those that she comes across including her mother and classmates, but nobody responds to her comments. Juri then sees a horrifying monster, which she never saw prior to her suicide. She calls the scary monster "Bug Man". When the mind of humans become weak, the Bug Man tempts those to commit suicide. One day, Juri walks along the street as usual. She then meets a girl that is able to see Juri. Juri names the girl Ringo-chan and plays at the park with her. Their happy moments does not last long. When they come back from the park, Juri sees Ringo-chan's mother with a grim face. The Bug Man is standing behind her mother.
The War and a Woman
Sound Designer
Set towards the end of World War II, Nomura (Masatoshi Nagase) is a writer who is in despair. A woman works in bar and is a former prostitute. Many years ago, her father sold her to a brothel due to the family's severe financial hardships. The writer and the woman then agree to live as husband and wife until the war ends. The woman doesn't feel sexual pleasures due to her past, while the man lusts for the woman's body. Meanwhile, Ohira (Jun Murakami) fought for Japan in China. He participated in unconscionable acts against civilians in the name of war. He returns to Japan with only one arm. Ohira then begins to prey on innocent women.
The Tang of Lemon
Sound Recordist
Twenty-year-old Kaori, an aspiring accessory designer, spends her days troubled by her mother's violence and excessive meddling. Meanwhile, forty-year-old secretary Kaori, whose daughter is a shut-in, can't stop shoplifting and having casual sex.
The Clone Returns Home
Sound
Kohei Takahara, an astronaut who dies in the line of duty, is legally resurrected as a clone: however, contrary to the scientists’ expectations, he reverts to his childhood memories when his twin brother drowned sacrificing his life for Kohei. Kohei’s clone discovers the body of his former self mistakenly believing that it is his deceased twin. Reliving his tragic past, he sets off carrying his corpse body to the beautiful hometown where he lived with his now dead mother.
I Like You, I Like You Very Much
Sound Recordist
Japanese student You throws his relationship with boyfriend Shin into jeopardy when he begins an affair with an attractive man he meets at a train station. You attempts to come clean with his secret, but ending the affair proves too difficult. As a complicated and dangerous love triangle develops between these three men, each one begins to closely examine his identity, sexuality and intentions.
I Like You, I Like You Very Much
Lighting Technician
Japanese student You throws his relationship with boyfriend Shin into jeopardy when he begins an affair with an attractive man he meets at a train station. You attempts to come clean with his secret, but ending the affair proves too difficult. As a complicated and dangerous love triangle develops between these three men, each one begins to closely examine his identity, sexuality and intentions.
Tarch Trip
Sound Designer
A film like an Impressionist painting; the kind of paintings to have titles like 'urban view from the artist's studio'. The film is largely set in the film-maker's home and the street in the provincial town of Aichi where he lives. Minor everyday incidents are observed poetically; the melancholy mood of the images is boosted by serene electronic music. There is no dialogue; the sound track only comprises streets sounds as well as the music. Loose, almost nonchalant impressions of the street or of cloudy skies are juxtaposed with posed, almost photographic mildly homo-erotic portraits of friends of the film-maker. Tarch Trip is made up of fragments of a cinematographic diary, which are however not edited chronologically. Two periods alternate. One is characterized rain and dark cloudy skies. The other is sunny and repeatedly accompanied by three friends
A Touch of Fever
Sound
The story of two young hustlers, Tatsuro and Shin. They each have a lady friend, and everything seems to work, until the day Shin declares he's in love with Tatsuro.
Tokyo Decadence
Sound Recordist
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Tokyo Decadence
Sound
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.