The best Ren Osugi’s romance movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Ren Osugi’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Ren Osugi.
The Twilight Samurai
8.1/10
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?
Dolls
7.5/10
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Neo Chinpira: Zoom Goes the Bullet
6.5/10
Junko (Sho Aikawa) is a low-level yakuza in the service of Yoshikawa (Toru Minegishi), despite the misgivings of his uncle (Jo Shishido). He lives off of the money earned by his girlfriend and is more interested in trying to look cool than anything else. He meets Yumeko (Chikako Aoyama), an innocent but dangerous narcoleptic runaway, after she steals his car, and she soon moves in with him. Following the assassination of a high-ranking member by the Kazama Family, Junko is called on to be the lookout while the family gets revenge. However, the other men quickly "zoom", or escape from their duty, leaving the task to Junko. Will he take out Kazama, or will he zoom?
Shall We Dance?
7.7/10
A bored Japanese accountant sees a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves ballroom dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.
Origin: Spirits of the Past
6.3/10
It is 300 years into the future. Earth's environment had been devastated by mankind's own foolish plans and humankind is beleaguered by the sentient forests which they have awoken. The world balance is tipped when a young boy named Agito stumbles across a machine that glowed in a strange blue hue inside a forbidden sanctuary.
Tales of the Unusual
6.7/10
A four-part anthology in the spirit of The Twilight Zone, this film starts off with a group of commuters stranded at a train station in the rain, listening to stories told by one of the group. These include tales of a group stranded in the mountains and haunted by guilt over a death they inadvertantly caused, an emotionally broken chessmaster pressed into playing a real-life game for an eccentric millionaire, a wandering medieval samurai who finds a modern-day cell phone on the ground and a person on the other end asking questions about the past, and a young couple who agree to try a computer simulation of what their future as husband and wife would be like.
Parasite Eve
5.7/10
Toshiaki Nagashima is a biologist who is doing major research on mitochondria. When his beautiful young wife is tragically involved in a car accident which leaves her brain dead, in desperation he steals her liver from her body in order to recieve the mitochondria from it to resurrect his wife from the dead. The killer mitochondria takes the form of his assistant.
XX: Beautiful Prey
5.8/10
This Japanese thriller finds a beautiful policewoman becoming entangled in Japan's S&M underground while investigating a gruesome murder. Soon, her investigation has led her to a seductive sadist and his equally appealing masochist victim. Falling prey to her suspects' powerful allure, she struggles to extricate herself from an increasingly torrid affair to solve the mystery she set out to investigate.
Tokyo Eyes
6.6/10
The police are tracking a man who shoots at people. But the young sister of a detective finds that he's not the mad vigilante portrayed in newspapers.
Train Man
6.7/10
Densha Otoko (translated as Train Man) is a Japanese movie based on the purportedly true story of a 23-year-old otaku (Japanese geek) who intervened when a drunk man was harassing a woman on a train. The otaku ultimately started dating with her and chronicled his event and his dates with the woman (who became known as "Hermès") on the Japanese mega-BBS 2channel.
Postman Blues
7.4/10
Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off...
Crying 100 Times - Every Raindrop Falls
6/10
Shuichi (Tadayoshi Okura) had a motorcycle accident 4 years ago. Because of the accident, he lost the last year of his memory. One day, at a friend's wedding, Shuichi has a fateful meeting with Yoshimi (Mirei Kiritani). They enjoy happy times together and Shuichi thinks about marrying Yoshimi. Then Yoshimi becomes sick. A sad truth is hidden in the lost memory of Shuichi.
The Lightning Tree
5.7/10
Set during the Edo Period, a young man from a noble family meets a young woman under a special tree called "Raiou" (the tree was struck by lightning at one time with the broken part eventually sprouting out cherry blossoms). The young woman lived freely in the mountains after she was abducted as a young child. The couple soon fall in love under the Raiou tree, but become acutely aware of their different social positions & the ramifications it has on their relationship.
Weather Woman
5.6/10
Keiko, a young, newly hired weather woman, is eager to give her channel's flagging ratings a boost. She decides a panty shot might do the trick, so during her forecast she lifts her skirt, thereby capturing the attention and the hearts of viewers. Keiko's stunt creates such a stir of excitement over the weather report that viewers begin religiously turning in to see what she'll do next. However, this showboating routine earns the ire of Kaori, the beautiful and ambitious daughter of JTV's chairman. Jealous of her success and aching to take over the weather report, Kaori is willing to do just about anything to get what she wants.
Akko's Secret
5.7/10
Young Atsuko Kagami comes into possession of a magical mirror that lets her transform into anything she wishes. Atsuko Kagami then attempts to save a company which is about to be sold by using her transformation abilities. She also falls in love as a 22-year-old college student.
Blindly in Love
6.6/10
Kentaro is an unsocial 35-year-old who lives with his parents and has never dated a woman. When Kentaro’s parents set up an arranged marriage interview with a girl named Nahoko and her parents, he falls in love for the first time in his life. However, the pair soon run into unexpected obstacles. Nahoko is vision impaired and can’t seem to break free of her doting parents. Meanwhile, Kentaro has no idea how to deal with the surge of new emotions he’s feeling.
For Love's Sake
6.2/10
Shiori is a star university student with an incredible palate for wine who dreams of studying winemaking in France. However, to her dismay she is assigned to a rural sake brewery for her internship. To make matters worse, upon arrival she discovers that the brewery owners don’t exactly want her around.
However, as it becomes clear that Shiori will be sticking around, she tries to make the best of things and begins to pitch in at the brewery, perhaps even warming up to the idea of drinking sake. And when the brewery owner falls gravely ill, and his upstart son Kanji is forced to take the lead, Shiori may provide the spark that can save the brewery and change her own life in the process..
The Land of Rain Trees
6.6/10
Nobuyuki Sakisaka (Yuta Tamamori) is a salaryman. When he was in middle school student, he read light novel "Fairy Game”. He still has that light novel, because he was so shocked by the ending. One day, Nobuyuki Sakisaka browses the internet and comes across the blog "Rein Tsuri no Kuni.” He learns that the blog writer, Rika Hitomi (Mariya Nishiuchi), also was shocked by the ending in light novel "Fairy Game." Nobuyuki and Rika soon begin to exchange emails. Nobuyuki wants to meet Rika, but she refuses due to her secret.
Yellow Elephant
6/10
Married couple Aiko Tsumari and Ayumu Muko live a happy and peaceful life. Aiko is bit naive, while Ayumu works as a not so popular novelist. One day, a letter arrives for Ayumu. Because of this letter, the couple become estranged...
Our Season
1983 film. Gay-themed pinku-eiga. In Ryūichi Hiroki's trilogy of gay films for ENK Promotion.
