Comments on: Review: Into the Sun (SPOILER ALERT)

By: ryuganji: film news from japan » Aso Kumiko goes international: first stop, Iran

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:29:40 +0000

[...] Kikuchi Rinko is riding high on the buzz created by her “Babel” role and will be rubbing shoulders with Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz in “The Brothers Bloom”, Kitagawa Keiko similarly jump-started her domestic acting career with a bit part in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, Kimura Yoshino (together with her reported boyfriend Iseya Yusuke) has been tapped for Fernando Meirelles’ big-budget Oscar bait “Blindness”, and Koyuki will be seen in both “Blood: The Last Vampire” and John Woo’s “Red Cliff” in 2008, but none of these actresses enjoy the level of recognition or career stability yet outside of Japan that their male compatriots do. The casting of Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li in “Memoirs of a Geisha” is the most obvious proof of that, and then there’s the sad reality check that Kuriyama Chiaki’s triumphant return to international cinema after her star-making turn in “Kill Bill: Vol. 1″ was a pared-down cameo in Steven Seagal’s “Into the Sun“… [...]

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 09 May 2005 06:36:22 +0000

I second Showdown in Little Tokyo – aside from having Brandon Lee and a fight (among many others) with a mawashi-clad sumo dude in an LA sento, it also had this club scene where Dolph Lundgren speaks the most unintelligible line of faux-Japanese EVER. I watched that scene like 50 times with a bunch of friends and no one could begin to figure out what he was saying.

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 03 May 2005 23:32:56 +0000

HAHA I remember that!! Good stuff.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 03 May 2005 22:38:10 +0000

“I’M GETTING VERY… O-KKO-TTA!”

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 03 May 2005 22:37:38 +0000

Rising Sun is the shit. Sean Connery tries to speak Japanese in it. I mean, how could you possibly do better? (I bet a lot of Russians laughed at Hunt for Red October…)

By: Saru

Saru — Tue, 03 May 2005 19:06:42 +0000

Don’t forget “You Only Live Twice,” which in spite of being a classic Bond film, and one starring Sean Connery at that (strike two for SC on Japan films), it is unassailably クラップ.

(In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the plot summary from IMDB:Agent 007 and the Japanese secret service ninja force must find and stop the true culprit of a series of spacejackings before nuclear war is provoked.)

By: Adamu

Adamu — Tue, 03 May 2005 18:26:03 +0000

Curz: the movie was a crash course in Seagal-ese, let me tell you.

Joe: This would be perfect in a movie marathon of shitty Japan films along with Gung-ho, Bad News Bears Go To Japan, Showdown in Little Tokyo (A CLASSIC), and Rising Sun. Of course, enduring more than one of these movies per year might shorten your lifespan by about a decade or so. They are toxic material!

By: Curzon

Curzon — Tue, 03 May 2005 17:38:41 +0000

HILARIOUS. Thank you.

As for my own personal allegiance to Japan’s bifurcated society, having arrived at the tender age of 17 but in 1998, I find myself trapped between the two worlds. Perhaps I could be one of the peacemakers…

Also, I didn’t know you were also proficient in Steven Seagal-ese. Impressive, I hope you put that on your resume.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 03 May 2005 17:28:41 +0000

Wow. So many questions answered at last.

I think I still have to see this, though. Just because. It might not be Black Rain, but it sounds like it’ll at least be good for jokes.