Personal Info
Known For
Gender
Birthday
Place of Birth
Akiko Monou
Biography
Known for
Lost in Translation
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
The Ramen Girl
An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
United Red Army
Two of the most radical student groups form the United Red Army (URA) and head into the mountains to conduct a training camp. Ideology devolves into despotism, and the URA's leaders begin to arbitrarily persecute their followers, a harrowing ordeal that culminates in violence and murder.
SHORT FILMS
Omnibus of six short films: Return; Ken-do star; Hana to oji-san; Adagietto Sehr, langsam; Nakayoki koto wa yoki koto ka na; Slow is Beautiful. Third installment of "SF" series produced by Hiroyuki Nakano.
Samurai Fiction
A warrior-in-training and his bumbling friends go in pursuit of a stolen sword.
After School
A middle school teacher, Jinno, is friends with a young couple that is about to have a baby. But on the eve of the birth, the father, Kimura, disappears. Then, a hired private detective appears and ask Jinno's help to find Kimura.
Stereo Future
Keisuke, an aspiring samurai-movie actor lands a major role in a new film, but must contend with a director who has nothing but scorn for him, but who continually fawns over the film’s obnoxious ham of a star.
Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
When the son of an American man and a Japanese woman is killed in a car crash, the man transforms into a rageful metallic being thirsty of blood and vengeance.
No-Pants Girls: Movie Box-ing2
No Pants Girls is a 3 segment film directed by Sono Sion, Shô Tsukikawa and Reiko Saito. They deal with girls discovering sexuality, through their innocent eyes. The actors and actresses are the same in the three films.
Baumkuchen
Four different worlds are connected through the "Baumkuchen Seeds of Happiness." The World of the Kawanobe's - Three brothers, Taro (Mame Yamada), Jiro (Hiroshi Yamamoto), and Hiroto (Shoichi Honda) who is a so-called NEET (short for "Not in Employment, Education, or Training) make up the Kawanobe household. The World of a Bar - Two men (Mame Yamada and Hiroshi Yamamoto) sits in a bar and discusses the Kawanobe brothers' love story. The World of Yumi - Yumi is reading a novel about the characters in the bar. The World of a Novelist - Novelist Masatoshi (Shoichi Honda) is writing a novel about Yumi. In their own worlds, in their own way, each character will find a way to arrive at their happiness.
Woman Transformation
Kamei mixes humour, drama and, in this occasion, bits of horror to visualize the physical transformation in yôkai that the three main actresses undergo. Mihiro Iwasaki (Anri Ban) is a model extremely preoccupied by how others look at and think of her. Then, her nails start growing disproportionately until they become killing weapons. Michiko Yamane (Mariko Miyamitsu) is an unsociable university student and part-time worker in her early twenties only crazy for a hobby. At night she becomes a rokurokubi (female yokai with an extremely long and flexible neck). Finally, Mana Saeki (Haruki Ichikawa) is a last year junior high school student with a very bad character and very distrustful of all her friends, who metamorphoses into a nopperabo (yokai without face).
Dusk Dahlia
The Miracle on a Christmas Night
A foreign student from Taiwan, Mr. Bell, attends language school in Japan and meets Miss Sato there. He falls in love with her, but doesn't dare to open his heart to her. Nevertheless, on Christmas night miracles do happen.
ゼロ年代全景
Kumiko Hoshizaki’s “Akane Sasu Heya” is the story of Maki, a 20-something temp who is sick of her boring job and life in general. The rather bizarre solution she comes up with is to conceive a child behind her boyfriend’s back. Makoto Nagahisa offers the much more impressionistic “Frog.” The story meanders around a bunch of unrelated characters, using experimental techniques like repeated scenes, hallucinatory visuals, blurred shots and disconnected sounds. Lastly, we have “Bouquet Garni,” a much more conventional work from director Junpei Hatano. The plot is centered on a reporter, the relative of a kidnapping victim, and a woman who is obsessed with the case.
