Jam Films (2002)

Directors:

Daizaburo Hanada
Jôji Iida

Writers:

Kawato Azusa (story)
Jôji Iida (story) (segment "Cold Sleep")

Release Date:

2002 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

"The Messenger" is a mysterious woman who appears to a mobster hiding underground to tell him about his ultimate fate...

Plot Keywords:

Hot Pants | Anthology

Cast

Natsuko Akiyama	...	(segment "Hijiki")
Reila Aphrodite
Hirofumi Arai	...	(segment "Justice")
Haruka Ayase	...	(segment "Justice")
Ryoko Hirosue	...	(segment "Arita")
Satomi Ishihara
Kazuki Kitamura	...	(segment "The Messenger - Requiem for the Dead")
Hitomi Kurihara	...	(segment "Justice")
Akaji Maro	...	(segment "Pandora - Hong Kong Leg")
Akifumi Miura	...	(segment "Justice")
Takao Ôsawa	...	(segment "Cold Sleep")
Samuel Pop	...	(segment "Cold Sleep")
Tak Sakaguchi	...	(segment "The Messenger - Requiem for the Dead")
Kuranosuke Sasaki	...	(segment "Hijiki")
Ryôko Shinohara	...	(segment "Kendama")
Albert Smith	...	(segment "Cold Sleep")
Christian Storms	...	(segment "Justice")
Megumi Takahashi	...	(segment "Hijiki")
Satoshi Tsumabuki	...	(segment "Justice")
Tomomi Tsunoda	...	(segment "Cold Sleep")
Yasutaka Tsutsui	...	(segment "Cold Sleep")
Kanae Uotani	...	The messenger (segment "The Messenger - Requiem for the Dead")
Megumi Uziie	...	(segment "Hijiki' & 'Kendama")
Masayoshi Yamazaki	...	(segment "Kendama")
Takami Yoshimoto	...	(segment "Pandora - Hong Kong Leg")

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Color:

Color

Movie Connections:

Followed by Jam Films S (2005)

Interesting mix in whats possibly one of the best short film anthologies ever

Seven films by seven film makers with a great animated opening. This is the reason that I love the movies.

Ranging from comedy to romance to scifi to drama to a few things in between, Jam Films is the rare bird of an anthology that doesn't have a really bad film among the group (a near impossibility when you have several directors combining talents). All the films run under 15 minutes and all leave you wanting to see whats coming next. The worst that could be said is that a couple run a minute or two too long, but thats not fatal.

The two stories that come off the least are: Kendama, a tale of a toy and onions, is the weakest over all since it didn't go anywhere (though it was enjoyable not traveling); and Justice, which is a very well made story about a an English class in Japan, who's full "meaning" was lost on these western eyes.

The other five are wonderful. Cold Sleep is a scifi story about a man waking up after 20 years in hibernation; Hijiki is a jet black comedy (The director calls it depressing in an on screen warning) about a hostage taker who finds out that life sucks for everyone; Pandora-The Hong Kong Leg, an erotic tale of a secret and secret medicine; the Messenger which is about a strange woman's message for a gangster; and lastly Arita about this small cartoon figures that show up everywhere in a girls life.

I can't really tell you more about the films since they are so short revealing more would put me in the danger of telling you too much.

I can tell you to see this film since it s great introduction to the work of seven talented directors. I've seen the works of several of them and was always impressed. Thanks to Jam Films I'm going to be searching out the work of the directors I don't know, and I'm going to find Jam Films 2, a sequel anthology.

Wow 9 out of 10. (For a few trivial flaws)