Tokyo Towers: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad

Apr 14, 2007

2h 22m

★ 7.0

Overview

Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.

Genres

Drama

Production Companies

Shochiku

Nippon Television Network Corporation

Little More

Eisei Gekijo

dentsu

Bandai

Yomiuri Shimbun Company

Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation

Gunpowder

Film Makers

Sapporo Television Broadcasting Company

Hiroshima Telecasting

Fukuoka Broadcasting System

Chukyo TV Broadcasting Company

Mitsui & Co.

Tokyo Towers: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad Trailers

Cast

Masaya Nakagawa

Joe Odagiri

Eiko Nakagawa

Kirin Kiki

Eiko (young)

Yayako Uchida

Mizue

Takako Matsu

Oton

Kaoru Kobayashi

Masaya (teen)

Satoshi Tomiura

Shohei Tanaka

Masaya (child)

Kanato Tanihata

Misako Watanabe

Sumie Sasaki

Masaya's grandmother

Chisako Hara

Mieko Yuki

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

5.7

Albino

Jul 23, 2016

Yashima is a woman who works as a plumber. She is also uncomfortable with her own sexuality. One day she visits a home for a job and meets Kyu. Yashima senses Kyu's eyes watching her. They become intimate, but a dark secret is soon revealed.

8.4

Seven Samurai

Apr 26, 1954

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

7.2

Zatoichi

Sep 6, 2003

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

7.7

Street of Shame

Mar 18, 1956

The lives of five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

6.8

Naked Weapon

Nov 15, 2002

A mysterious woman, known as Madame M, kidnaps forty pre-teen girls and transports them to a remote island to train them as the most deadly assassins. CIA operative Jack Chen follows the case for 6 years with no leads, but when a series of assassinations begin to occur, Jack suspects that Madame M is back in business.

5.9

Tokyo Decadence

Jan 6, 1992

A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.

7.0

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store

Sep 23, 2017

In 2012, Atsuya and his 2 childhood friends do something bad and run into an old general store. They decide to stay there until the morning. Late into the night, Atsuya sees a letter in the mailbox. The letter is addressed to the Namiya General Store and the letter was written by someone to consult about worries. Incredibly, the letter was written 32 years ago. The mailbox is somehow connected to the year 1980. Atsuya and his friends decide to write a reply and place their letter in the mailbox.

6.9

New Tale of Zatoichi

Mar 15, 1963

Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.

6.9

Zatoichi the Fugitive

Aug 9, 1963

After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.

8.2

Tokyo Story

Nov 3, 1953

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

6.7

Remembering Every Night

Mar 2, 2024

A visit to the employment office, practicing dance steps, making music with friends: several women’s everyday lives are captured in long shots and with a superb sense of place. A film like a summer's day, bright, friendly, with the occasional chill.

6.8

Just Remembering

Feb 11, 2022

A former couple remembers their most intimate days, only to part once again. A bittersweet love story inspired by a Jim Jarmusch masterpiece, set in times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

7.7

Little Forest: Summer/Autumn

Aug 30, 2014

Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.

9.2

Ring Wandering

Feb 19, 2022

In central Tokyo, a young man, Sosuke, aspires to be a manga artist. His current work is about a battle between a hunter and a Japanese wolf. He can’t draw the extinct wolf well and struggles to develop the story. One winter’s day, Sosuke finds an animal’s skull while digging foundations at a construction site and takes it home. Is it a Japanese wolf’s skull?

7.1

Rhapsody in August

May 25, 1991

An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.

6.5

Sakuran

Dec 7, 2006

Anna Tsuchiya blasts back in time playing an oiran, a top-notched geisha of the Edo period’s Yoshiwara District, navigating brothel politics while trying to cling to the man she loves.

6.6

Hana

Jun 3, 2006

In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.

7.5

Early Spring

Jan 29, 1956

A young Tokyo salary man and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he has an extramarital affair.

6.8

Terror of Mechagodzilla

Mar 15, 1975

A submarine expedition to salvage the remains of Mechagodzilla is thwarted by a massive dinosaur named Titanosaurus. An Interpol investigation leads biologist Ichinose to uncover the work of Dr. Mafune and his mysterious daughter Katsura. Aligned with the Black Hole Aliens, Katsura's life becomes entwined with the resurrected machine.