RecommendationKY

As the second in the Hoga for beginners series, we are introducing the movies starring Koji Yakusho. As Yakusho has been known to film industry insiders thanks to the "Eel" success in Cannes, many of his past films are released in the U.S. DVD's.

Pymmik from Pymmik's Home Page on Koji Yakusho Movies picked her best movies for Koji Yakusho beginners. In addition to these past movies, he is in "Memoirs of a Geisha" currently, and already finished filming of another U.S. film "Babel", starring Brad Pitt. Yakusho is widely considered the best of the bunch when it comes to his acting ability, and he can play such a variety of roles, from erotic to artistic to comedy, so I hope you enjoy many different sides of this superb actor.

Eel (1997)
Director: Shohei Imamura
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu

Directed by internationally acclaimed director Shohei Imamura, "Eel" won the top award Palm D'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 1997. The story is about a man who killed his wife due to her infidelity, and after doing his jail terms, avoided any contact with human beings and befriended with an eel. Yakusho won the best actor award at Japan Academy with this film and "Lost Paradise" in 1997, two years in a row after "Shall We Dance?"

Shall We Dance? (1996)
Director: Masayuki Suo
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka

This lovely and heart-warming comedy/drama marked the largest US box office gross among Japanese live-action movies so far, and was recently re-made in Hollywood starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. Yakusho plays an ordinary salaryman who finds unexpected joy and friendship in social dance. The film swept Japan Academy Awards in 1996, winning all 13 categories. As a side note, the rookie actress and veteral ballet dancer Tamiyo Kusakari got married to the director Masayuki Suo after this film.

Cure (1997)
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Masato Hagiwara

Yakusho has been working with Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa in his horror movies for 6 times so far, and is currently working on another one with him. "Cure" is the first on in Kurosawa-Yakusho team. It is not so much a horror with blood and scream, but rather a psycho-suspense, and Yakusho plays a detective trying to solve the strange serial murders. Yakusho won the best actor award at Tokyo International Film Festival for this movie in 1997,

Lost Paradise (1997)
Director: Yoshimitsu Morita
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Hitomi Kuroki

As the filmization of Jun-ichi Watanabe's best-seller novel, super-erotic sex scenes were sensational both in the novel and the film. The story depicts the forbidden love between a middle aged married man and a younger woman. Yakusho is scheduled to star in another controversial Jun-ichi Watanabe's new erotic novel "Exile Place for Love" this year. Yakusho won Japan Academy Award with this film as well as "Eel" in 1997.

EUREKA (2000)
Director: Shinji Aoyama
Cast: Koji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki, Masaru Miyazaki

Quiet monochrome film about the story of healing and starting-over. A local bus is hijacked and lots of passengers are killed. After that incident, the surviving bus driver (Yakusho) and young siblings (the Miyazakis) find themselves both in similar situation and start to live together. Relatively low-key among his works and art-oriented, so it may be a bit advanced course, but Pymmik strongly recommends this one. This film made an entry to Cannes Film Festival, and won several international awards.

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