^^Ha...I've seen just about every Kitano film except for that one....him being a swordsman just kinda threw me off guard, and turned me off a little
Here's another one I've seen recently:
明日の私の作り方 How to Become Myself of Tomorrow
Director: Jun Ichikawa
Well, I'm not gonna lie, this is probably the best teen movie I've seen. I mean, off the top of my head I really can't think of one that's better. It's really subtle, has a great story, doesn't have any romantic sappy BS, and most importantly, pretty realistic. It's the story about 2 girls. One who was kind of popular in school, and another who was bullied. So along the way, they find out about each other and start sending text messages through distant communication. I like how they never meet in the entire movie except for 1 scene kinda early on, which works much better. It adds to the realism where the more popular student, obviously won't sacrifice herself to be seen with a student of lower status. So later, after they graduate from high school, they go to different colleges, and they still communicate through text. They give advice to each other on their separate careers and things such as that, and more importantly, the roles they play in life. Juri, the main character, is a multi-layered person with many sides that she has to conform to in the society of Japan, you see it mostly through her school and her home. I find that she's much better of an actor than Erika Suwajiri (they both appeared in that popular TV series), but in this role you can see how talented she really is. So overall it's well-directed, has a welcoming pace, very comfortable style, a movie that anyone can watch and will appreciate. It's a great film.