Free Resources of Rare Movies
Posts tagged Comedy
A Taxing Woman / Marusa no onna (マルサの女) (1987)
Dec 31st
Ryoko Itakura is a government tax agent who has just landed a big promotion. Her first assignment is to catch wheeler-dealer Hideki Gondo. She has a tough job, since in Japan tax evasion is an art and Gondo is, in effect, Rembrandt. Her job is complicated by a growing sympathy for the rogue and by political pressure to lay off.
Purojekuto A-ko (プロジェクトA子3 シンデレララプソディ) (1986)
Dec 31st
Project A-ko is the typical love triangle of three school girls and their confrontations with aliens, giant robots, and women who look like burly men.
Lonely heart / Sabishinbō (さびんしんぼう) (1985)
Dec 30th
Lonely and love-struck, high-school student Hiroki pursues one girl but another one mysteriously appears in his life. Is she a figment of his lonely psyche, or real? An intricate triangle develops, and the viewer can’t quite be sure what is happening until the whole story is neatly resolved at the end.
Tampopo (タンポポ) (1985)
Dec 30th
In this humorous paean to the joys of food, the main story is about trucker Goro who rides into town like a modern Shane to help Tampopo set up the perfect fast-food noodle restaurant. Woven into this main story are a number of smaller stories about the importance of food, ranging from a gangster who mixes hot sex with food to an old lady terrorizing a shopkeeper by compulsive squeezing of his wares.
Urusei Yatsura 2: Byûtifuru dorîmâ (1984)
Dec 30th
Lum is a cheerful alien who now lives with her human fiancée, Ataru and her goods friends on earth. The night before the school festival, the world begins to change, things seem to be repeating themselves. Gradually, all necessary functions come to a stop, people disappearing, streets deserting, buildings decaying except Lum and her friends who live ever happier. When they begin to probe the truth, they find out it’s somebody’s dream that is changing the world…
The Funeral / Ososhiki (お葬式) (1984)
Dec 30th
At the beginning of the film the father-in-law of the protagonist dies unexpectedly of a heart attack. The remainder of the film is episodic, moving from one incident to another over the course of the three-day funeral, which is held (as is customary) in the home. These incidents contrast old ways and new ways, young and old, ritual ceremony and true feelings, often comically, but sometimes with real poignancy.
Macarthur’s Children / Setouchi shonen yakyu dan (瀬戸内少年野球団) (1984)
Dec 30th
In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation’s defeat and the sudden occupation of General MacArthur and his troops.
The Family Game /Kazoku gêmu (家族ゲーム) (1983)
Dec 29th
A sendup of the stereo-typical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad-boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart (Matsuda’s role is modeled on the myth of Susano-o no mikoto, the renegade deity who figures in the Kojiki).
I Are You, You Am Me / Tenkosei (転校生) (1982)
Dec 29th
9th-graders Kazuo (boy) and Kazumi (girl) take a tumble at a temple in a small seacoast town in Japan. Through supernatural intervention, their minds and bodies are switched, and the result is a touching and hilarious coming-of-age comedy as they attempt to survive the pressures of junior high school life.
Woman with Red Hair / Akai kami no onna (赫い髪の女) (1979)
Dec 28th
At his working place, Kozo and his colleague gangrape the boss’ teenage daughter. Then, on the highway, he picks up a red-haired woman walking on the road back to his home. She ends up staying the night. Later, the woman reveals that she has left her husband and son, but refuses to divulge her name. On the other hand, the boss’ daughter informs Kozo’s colleague that she is pregnant. They decide to elope but, before that, he demands Kozo to let him have sex with the red-haired woman…
House (1977)
Dec 27th
Oshare (Gorgeous) is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Oshare decides she will be going to her aunt’s house in the country instead. She brings with her her friends from school – Fanta (who likes to take pictures, and daydreams a lot), KunFuu (who has very good reflexes), Gari/Prof (who is a major nerd), Sweet (who likes to clean), Mac (who eats a lot), and Melody (a musician). However, the girls are unaware that Oshare’s aunt is actually dead and the house is actually haunted. When they arrive at the house, crazy events take place and the girls disappear one by one while slowly discovering the secret behind all the madness.
Kill! / Kiru (キル) (1968)
Dec 17th
Two ronin – an ex-samurai and an ex-farmer – get caught up a local officials complex game of murder and betrayal.
Fighting Elegy / Kenka Erejii (けんかえれじい) (1966)
Dec 17th
In Okayama in the mid-1930s, Kiroku attends high school and boards with a Catholic family whose daughter, Michiko, captures his heart. He must, however, hide his ardor and other aspects of his emerging sexuality, focusing his energy on a gang he joins, breaking school rules, and getting into scuffles (he tells her, “Oh, Michiko, I don’t masturbate, I fight”). He comes under the influence of a young tough nicknamed Terrapin, and together they lead fights against rival gangs. Gradually, Kiroku and Terrapin align themselves with the right-wing Kita Ikki, and Kiroku becomes a stand-in for the attitudes of Japanese youth who embraced the imperialism leading to World War II.
The Hangover 2 (2011)
Dec 17th
Stu is getting married. Along with Doug, Phil, and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Teddy, he regretfully invites Alan to Thailand for the wedding. After a quiet night on the beach with a beer and toasting marshmallows by the camp fire, Stu, Alan and Phil wake up in a seedy apartment in Bangkok. Doug is back at the resort, but Teddy is missing, there’s a monkey with a severed finger, Alan’s head is shaved, Stu has a tattoo on his face, and they can’t remember any of it. The wolf-pack retrace their steps through strip clubs, tattoo parlors and cocaine-dealing monkeys on the streets of Bangkok as they try and find Teddy before the wedding.
