Many films have drawn from classic Japanese theatrical forms, but none with such shocking cinematic effect as director Masahiro Shinoda's Double Suicide. In this striking adaptation of a Bunraku puppet play (featuring the music of famed composer Toru Takemitsu), a paper merchant sacrifices family, fortune, and ultimately life for his erotic obsession with a prostitute.

Takuya Okada is a high school student. He visits his classmate Mamizu Watarase in the hospital. Mamizu Watarase suffers from the mysterious ailment “Luminescence disease.” People who have the disease show a faint sparkle under the moonlight and the sparkle gets brighter as their death gets closer. Mamizu Watarase is not allowed out of the hospital and she will not live long enough to become an adult. Takuya Okada offers to help her carry out her wishes before she passes away. He also tells her how he feels about her, but Mamizu Watarase’s death is approaching.

Gui Soo is a master Go player who loses his teacher Heo Il Do and vows to take revenge on the dark world of Go that took his master from him.

Police inspector Don (Nick Cheung) works with stool pigeons - dangerous informants willing to rat on others for the right price. Don is also wracked with guilt after the near death of his prior stool pigeon Jabber ( Kai Chi Liu), who is now insane and living out of cardboard boxes. Don learns that a jewelry heist gang led by a man known named Barbarian (Yi Lu) is back in Hong Kong and setting up for their next score. Word on the streets is that the gang is in need of a getaway driver. Don then attempts to recruit Ghost Jr. (Nicholas Tse), an ex-con supremely talented at street car racing, as his next stool pigeon. When Ghost Jr. discovers that his sister works as a prostitute to pay off their dead father's debt, Ghost Jr. decides to work for Don ...

Her abusive husband is dead, killed by her lesbian friend who’d do anything for her. Now they’re running for their lives.

Adapted from the manga series "Gunjo" by Ching Nakamura.

~~ Adapted from the manga series "Gunjo" by Ching Nakamura.

Rina Takeda and Haruna [sic] Tobimatsu co-star as sisters Ayaka and Natsuki Kurenai, the youngest descendants of a legendary Okinawan karate master named Shoujirou Kurenai. As children, they live a happy life with their father (Tatsuya Naka) who encourages them both to practice karate. However, one day a mysterious group breaks into their dojo – killing their father, kidnapping Natsuki, and stealing the black belt which has been passed down in their family for over 200 years. Several years later, Ayaka is living the humble life of an ordinary high school student in Yokohama. One day, when Ayaka was working a group of burglars were stealing a woman's purse. Ayaka uses her karate skills to stop them causing her to be a hero to the public. Ayaka's heroics was caught on camera causing the evil organization to notice Ayaka's fighting skills. Natsuki, on the other hand, has been trained as a killing machine by the mysterious group that kidnapped her all those years ago. Soon, Natsuki and the group begin to take aim at Ayaka. Out of love for her sister and with the teachings of her father still in her heart, Ayaka decides to do whatever it takes to get Natsuki and their family’s black belt back from the clutches of the mysterious group.

It's New Year's Eve for the Hotel Avanti, and the whole place is in panic mode. There's an award ceremony and countdown party to prepare for, guests to greet, entertainment to organise, a persistent call girl to deter, an escapee duck to find, and more.

It is near impossible to sum up this film in a few neat concise paragraphs. The level of writing that has gone into this film is fantastic. Throughout, it really feels like a stage play. The viewer feels intimate with the story and characters, and there is a real warmth and closeness there that is rare to find. Perhaps it the writer's experience with the stage that allows that quality to come through, and as such it is a real strength for the film.

This intimacy really helps the viewer to involve themselves in the story, which is incredibly fast-paced and deliciously mischievous in design. The film is really funny, and represents a very full spectrum of humour, from "hmmm" funny to "hah hah", and wry to downright silly, but still manages to be quite understated. This isn't the kind of film that you will make Pepsi come out your nose, but it is really funny all the same, and and there are some hilarious cock-ups that will have you giggling gleefully.

The jokes of course wouldn't work without the film's biggest strength: the characters. They are all so enjoyable to watch, as their adventures and mishaps tangle and spiral together, gathering momentum in one huge snowball effect. Some scenes are the culmination of so many threads that it is wonderfully painful to watch it all come together. It is hard not to talk at the TV. To the writer's credit though, the film is often refreshingly unpredictable, and I was impressed to find that this comedy of errors didn't just rely on the same old gags as similarly styled comedies.

The film also carries a dramatic message, and while all of the characters are caricatures of sorts, they are much deeper than that, and live and breath to the extent that the viewer finds themselves genuinely caring about what happens to them. There are so many great characters and scenes in this film that it would be a very cynical viewer that couldn't take away something memorable from it.

The Uchoten Hotel is a delightful film, expertly written, directed and performed. Even as the film effortlessly straddles zaniness and sophistication, and its many threads entwine together, the viewer can, just as the Hotel Avanti promises, think of the place as their second home.

Anonymous and exploitative, a network of online chat rooms ran rampant with sex crimes. The hunt to take down its operators required guts and tenacity.

(Source: Netflix)

Duration: 1 hr. 44 min.

Content Rating: 18+ Restricted (violence & profanity)