Smokyo

Here is a report from the Japan Times on the best Japanese
movies of 2009...

What did you think of them?

 1. "Fish
Story":

Can a punk-rock song, recorded in 1975, save the world from
a comet on course to destroy the planet in 2012? In his 10th film, Yoshihiro
Nakamura answers this question with four radically different stories in four
different periods — and ties them up in a glorious final five-minute sequence
that is pure cinematic satori.

2. "Dear Doctor":

The most promising director of her thirtysomething
generation, Miwa Nishikawa hits a new peak with this finely layered character
study of a phony doctor in a rural village. Tsurube Shofukutei deserves every
acting award out there for his shape-shifting performance as the
kindly-seeming, but deeply devious doc.

3. "Summer Wars":

Mamoru Hosoda assumes the title of Japan's premier animator with this human-scaled
but stunningly imaginative film about an online "war" between a rogue
AI program and a boy math prodigy, aided by a large, rambunctious family in
rural Nagano.

4. "Villon no Tsuma":

Based on a story by Osamu Dazai, Kichitaro Negishi's
unsparing, finally cathartic portrait of a troubled marriage features
career-peak performances by Takako Matsu as the plucky, self-realizing wife and
Tadanobu Asano as the alcoholic, unfaithful, but somehow sympathetic, writer
husband.

5. "Zero no Shoten":

Isshin Inudo's mystery about a woman's search for her
missing newlywed husband in Kanazawa
in the dead of winter channels the stylistics of Alfred Hitchcock, while
echoing the social-mask-vs.-true-face themes of Douglas Sirk. 6.
"Nankyokyu Ryorinin":

Shuichi Okita's dramady, centering on the gung-ho cook
(Makoto Sakai) for a Japanese research team in Antarctica,
offers up big helpings of wry humor, likable characters and absolutely
scrumptious-looking chow.

7. "Live Tape":

Tetsuaki Matsue's docudrama of singer-songwriter Kenta Maeno's
New Year's Day stroll through Kichijoji unfolds in one 74-minute take that
amuses, surprises, entertains — and finally moves, as the too-cool Maeno
reveals his own insecurities and regrets, summed up in a stirring final number
dedicated to his dead father.

8. "Instant Numa":

Satoshi Miki's comedy about an endearingly flaky woman's
search for her eccentric antique (i.e., junk) dealer dad is packed with small
comic gems, delivered in Miki's trademark dry style of spot-on timing and
blithe disregard for logic.

9. "Symbol":

Hitoshi Matsumoto's man-in-a-room comedy takes inspiration
from the final sequence of "2001: A Space Odyssey," but the silly,
inspired slapstick gags are pure Matsumoto.

10. "Ultra Miracle Love Story (Bare Essence of
Life)":

Satoko Yokoyama's drama about a mentally challenged man's
crush on a new kindergarten teacher in his rural Aomori town is a bold, original blend of the
real and fantastic, comic and dramatic.

Monday (2000).

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Directed by: SABU Starring: Shinichi Tsutsumi (main dancer), Yasuko Matsuyuki (yakuza girl),
Akira Yamamoto (yakuza boss), Susumu Terajima (yakuza thug)







but i remember in some year 2000 in UK on channel4 of smth i saw some

other briliant dark love story film, with i would like to know the name of...

but i dont know...