A Business Panic Movie: 
Kinyu FushokurettoJubaku/ 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.