ガラスの脳 (2000)

某テレビ局のディレクターである浅川玲子は、都市伝説にまつわる取材の中で、見た者を1週間後に死に至らしめる「呪いのビデオ」に関わったと噂される男女が、数日前に奇怪な死を遂げた自分の姪、大石智子と同日の同時刻に死亡していることに気づく。調査を進めた玲子は、同時に死んだ智子たち4人の間には交友関係があり、彼らが1週間前に伊豆の貸し別荘「伊豆パシフィックランド」に宿泊していたこと、そしてその際に撮影されたフィルム写真上の4人の顔が不気味に歪んでいることに着目する。彼らの死の謎を突きとめようとして問題の貸し別荘を訪れた玲子は、そこで貸出されていた不審なビデオの映像を見てしまい、直後に不気味な無言電話を受け取る。これを境に、玲子自身の写真もまた死んだ4人と同様に歪んだ顔で写るようになってしまう。

Gay fashion designer Yiu Chun Man (Ekin Cheng) is visited in Hong Kong by his straight twin brother, Yiu Chun Kit (also Ekin Cheng). Kit borrows his brother’s driver’s license, and is then involved in a car crash in which a woman dies (see also Ab-normal Beauty), and Kit falls into a coma. With no ID card, Man is unable to prove his identity, so he assumes the identity of his brother, and takes up with Kit’s girlfriend, Jane, (Charlene Choi), and goes with her to Thailand. Jane, however, is having some money problems, and is deeply indebted to a loan shark (Dayo Wong), who pursues Man and Jane. Kit comes out of his coma and finds himself struggling to fend off the amorous advances of Man's boyfriend (Jan Lamb), who is a high-ranking Hong Kong police officer.

Set in the late 1950s, when geisha culture was threatened by moral crusades, it tells the story of Omacha (Miyamoto Maki), a young girl who sees the geisha life as a way to lift her poverty-stricken family from their hand-to-mouth existence. Through her eyes, we see the protocols and complex financial relationships which dictate the running of the geisha house. Fukasaku's film is a work of great delicacy with moments of hypnotic beauty, and his tender direction, often touched with a sense of wonder, fills the screen with lovingly constructed scenes. At its heart is the poignant situation of the women who must sacrifice their normal relationships to live an ambiguous life in which they are a key part of society while being kept, for the most part, on its periphery, like perpetual mistresses.

When a young man is sent to a prison workhouse for a crime he did not commit his friend on the outside must find evidence to clear his name.

時代劇のメッカ、京都撮影所。人情に篤いが激情家なのが玉にキズの大スター銀ちゃんと、その銀ちゃんに憧れる大部屋俳優のヤス。ある日、ヤスのアパートに銀ちゃんが女優の小夏を連れてやって来た。銀ちゃんの子を身ごもった小夏をスキャンダルになるからとヤスに押し付けに来たのだった。

Hapless hustler Bank, rescues a miserable young prostitute, Som, from street thugs, and the two begin a quiet romance. When Bank has the opportunity to become a drug-runner for an affluent dealer, he resolves to raise enough money to rescue Som from the sex trade. But, as Bank descends deeper into Bangkok's violent criminal underworld, the possibility of leaving his old life behind grows ever more distant.

刃傷騒ぎで殺された前任者の代わりに、派手な装束の美青年、奥田右京亮が南町奉行として赴任する。彼は若いながらも老中酒井に引き立てられた野心家だった。一方、同奉行所の同心にして仕事人の主水は、江戸市中を暴れ回る旗本愚連隊の事件を担当していた。長屋で愚連隊に殺された浪人について探りを入れる主水は、子連れの仕事人・文七やなじみの店のおかみ・おふくらの情報から、事件の裏に右京亮が潜んでいることに気付く。

邦彦がまち子に会ったのは、母の納骨の日の早朝だった。彼が大黒橋の上で道頓堀の絵を書いている時に、足の悪い犬を追ってきた彼女と会ったのだ。邦彦は道頓堀川に面した喫茶店「リバー」の二階に住み込み昼は美術学校に通い、夕方からは店で働いていた。「リバー」のマスター武内の一人息子・政夫は邦彦の高校時代の同級生であり、日本一の玉突きの名人になるといい武内と衝突、家を出ていた。武内は納骨を済ませたその日、精進おとしだといって、邦彦を行きつけの小料理屋「梅の木」に連れていった。邦彦はそこでまち子に再会した。彼女は店のママで、もとは芸者だが今は不動産業を営む田村がパトロンだった。その日から邦彦はカンバスにまち子と足の悪い犬の絵を書くようになった。しばらくして犬がいなくなり、邦彦とまち子は道頓堀川筋を探したが見つからなかった。そのお礼にとまち子は邦彦を夕食に誘い、その夜「梅の木」の二階で二人は結ばれた。息子の不始末を知った武内は政夫を探して、千日前のビリヤード「紅白」を訪れ、そこの女王人ユキから政夫が東京まで勝負に出かけたこと、そして、ユキがかつてビリヤードしていた武内にどうしても勝てなかった玉田という老人の孫娘であることを知らされる。武内は息子と未来を賭けて勝負しようと思い「紅白」で特訓を始めた。その頃まち子はパトロンと別れアパートを借り、邦彦と生活しようと邦彦を探し、口説いた。邦彦が学校を卒業するまでの二年間だけでいいから一緒にいたいというまち子に、邦彦は大きくうなずいた。「紅白」では東京から勝負に負けて帰った政夫と武内の試合が始まった。試合中に武内は政夫が幼ない頃、ビリヤードのために妻の体を他の男に売り、金を作ったことを告白した。父と子の争いを見ていられなくなった邦彦は外へ出ると、「リバー」の常連のかおるが、幇間の石塚に包丁を振りかざしているのを見る。それを止めようと二人の間に入るが一つきに刺されてしまう。帰りの遅い邦彦を待ちながらまち子は窓の外を見ると、いなくなったあの犬がエサを漁っていた。犬を抱き上げ頬ずりするまち子の後を、赤く点滅させたパトカーが、道頓堀の方向へ消えていった。

A Takashi Miike film that is, to a degree, autobiographical-- Young Thugs: Innocent Blood follows three friends through their first year after leaving high school. Having robbed their teacher on their last day, Ryoko gets a job in a hair salon, while the two boys settle down into a career of enforcement and protection.

After a convenience store robbery, three unidentified men hold a group of people hostage in a hospital. Inspector Ishida and Captain Tohno handle the negotiations while one of their colleagues, Lt. Ando, tries to find out why the men decided to take the hospital hostage. Through flashbacks, relevant information is revealed to the audience. When the negotiations are finished, most things seem to be fine until they lose track of the criminals. Then, the story unveils from a different perspective, its roots in feelings of love and vengeance.

Nostalgia is Takashi Miike’s favorite film of his considerable body of work. Including biographical elements, Nostalgia centers around the home and school of a young boy, whose family mix the violent and dysfunctional with the comic and the loveable. Though containing elements of the sudden and shocking brutality that many associate with this director, Young Thugs – Nostalgia is more concerned with a child’s moment of leaving the internalized world of fantasy, and passing on eagerly to the next stage of life. A wonderful, touching, startling vision that is uniquely Miike’s.

Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, Yokohama yakuza has to take the lead of his gang after the death of his boss. His small group is is taken in a crossfire between a big yakuza group from Osaka at war with the Tokyo alliance for the control of the city. He tries to keep to the old yakuza code but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honor.

If You Were Young: Rage highlights the other side of post-war Japanese prosperity, focusing on the throngs of young people who missed out on the boom. We follow a group of young men that can't seem to get ahead, despite their willingness to try. Then one hits upon a plane - to work together to save for a dump truck and thus become independent contractors and be their own bosses at last. Ultimately life presents obstacles: jail for one, violence at the hands of the police for another and a girlfriend and subsequent children for the third. An early Kinji Fukasaku gem that imports the freewheeling style of the French New Wave and the hip detachment of American noir.

In Hong Kong, the successful designer Ming lives with his beloved girlfriend Wai Luk and her younger sister who loves ghost story comic books. When Wai is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Ming's life is turned upside-down, and he sacrifices his career to spend more time with Wai. He finds a new job in a lower position and out of the blue he finds that his new boss, Chu Fong, was his old friend in elementary school. When Wai gives up chemotherapy she decides to treat herself in accordance with the traditional Chinese medicine guided by her aunt. She has a weird behavior at home, and her frightened sister insists that she is a ghost. Meanwhile, Ming gets closer to Fong, who is a successful entrepreneur but a woman needy of love. During a trip to Peking, they have one night stand. Over the next days, Ming and Fong have a love affair and Ming believes that Wai is a spirit resolving her issues to move to the next level.

In this continuation of "Family", it is discovered that the one who gave the order to assassinate the Mitsumikai Boss is the one and only Boss of the Japan Mafia: Mr. Nishiwaki. Hideshi finds something odd about the killing and begins to investigate, uncovering the true motives behind this murder. Miike's sequel is chock full of harrowing Boat chases, big explosions, beautiful women sex and drugs! Takashi Miike's Family, Part 2 continues the tale of the yakuza gangster named Hideshi, who must uncover the identity of the man who killed a powerful crime boss.

寛永の時代のある夜、島原の乱で殉死したはずの天草四郎が再び命を取り戻す。彼は自分と同じように不本意な死に追いやられた人々を集め、時の将軍家綱に復讐を開始するが、彼ら魔界衆の前に柳生十兵衛が敢然と立ちふさがった。

A repressed artist receives ritual abuse from those who pass him as he paints portraits in the park. Gradually becoming more frustrated, anger builds up within the artist, leading him to embark upon a quest to gain revenge on all those who have humiliated him.

When the mobster Iwaida Nishikawi is executed by the hit man Takeshi, his family chases the killer. Takeshi's brothers Takashi and Hideshi Miwa try to find Takeshi, who is hidden with the nurse Rie Ishibashi, to protect him and Hideshi discovers that Takeshi was secretly sent by their Yakuza boss to eliminate Iwaida. Meanwhile, the mobster Kenmoshi abducts Takashi's wife Mariko and rapes her, trying to force Takashi to deliver his brother to him.

A man gets involved in a kidnapping scheme with the wife of a wealthy businessman. She lets herself be tied up and confined in his house while he sends the ransom demand. When he returns home that night, however, he finds her laying dead on the floor. In a panic he buries her body deep in the woods and tries to return to his ordinary life. One day, he thinks he spots her walking down the street. Is his mind playing tricks on him, or has she somehow returned from the grave?

Though he has come from a rough background on the streets, Muraki (Horoki Matsukata) quickly rises through the ranks by means of his well-honed blackmailing instincts. Desperate to keep rolling with his freewheeling lifestyle, Muraki sees his luck begin to crumble when he sets his sights on the business partners of a powerful gang boss.