| A Business Panic Movie: Kinyu Fushokuretto Jubaku/ Spellbound (1999) |
| Directed by Masato Harada Running time: 114 min. Release date: September 18, 1999 Scenario: Ryo Takasugi Masato Harada |
| Koji Yakusho: Hiroshi Kitano Kippei Shiina: Akio Katayama Jun Fubuki: Kyoko Kitano Mayumi Wakamura: Miho Wada Kenichi Yajima: Takuya Ishii Ikuji Nakamura: Hideki Matsubara Tatsuya Nakadai: Hideaki Sasaki |
| Yakusho's role in this movie is that of Kitano, deputy chief of the planning department of a big nation-wide city bank. We understand that this is the first time that he plays the role of a bank employee. Two pieces of news about the movie have especially pleased us: one is that the director is Masato Harada, who directed two previous Yakusho movies, Kamikaze Taxi and Bounce koGals (Leaving). The other piece of news is that Yakusho's former acting teacher, Tatsuya Nakadai, co- stars with him in JUBAKU. Nakadai's role is as Yakusho's father-in- law, who is also a member of the bank for which Yakusho works. The emphasis of this movie seems to lie in the struggle between Nakadai for the management side and Yakusho, leader of a group intending to improve the old establishment. JUBAKU means "binding somebody with a curse", that is, if you lay somebody under a curse, it is believed that the person involved might become unable to move. Asked the comment about working with Nakadai, Yakusho said that he had long wanted his former teacher's instructions about acting because long time had passed since he worked with him on a stage play many years back. JUBAKU is based on a novel by Ryo Takasugi. |
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| Pym's Photo Gallery: Hibiya Park (Some scenes of this film were shot at Hibiya Park, Tokyo) |