Posted by pageo at ac89e004.ipt.aol.com on May 24, 2002 at 21:55:11:
In Reply to: Phantoms crc. 1998 posted by pageo on May 24, 2002 at 21:41:16:
I'd only recommend it if you're looking for something totally off-beat. It's comepletely diff. from standard fare, for one it's a Japanese film
Here's a synopsis w/out giving too much away,
Put one 8 yr old japanese kid in an aloha shirt, discovering a pic and address for his long lost mom, and deciding to try to somehow go across japan to see her (behind his grandmother's back).
He enlists the help of some old neighbor's, this japanese couple, the wife browbeats her husband into taking him, gives them some yen and...
the twist is that the husband (beat takeshi, writer/director of the film), is a criminal/yakuza/gangster type;
so you got this toughguy type that spends all thier money away and they have to hitchhike thier way across japan... w/ the kid tagging along.
its an fish out of water story.
beat takeshi is known in japan for these high action, crime, yakuza blood gore movies, and he said he wanted to make this movie just to stretch himself and make something totally out of wack diff. from what he's used to.
the music is incredible, its the same japanese composer who did the score for the anime princess mononoke, so if you've seen that before, that kind of score is throughout the movie.
anyway, just something diff. I usually watch this movie whenever I need to clean my head, completely shift gears. it's a light-hearted happy movie w/ these deep dark undertones, and comedy to boot.