Hard Luck Hero (2003)

Starring:
Junichi Okada - Takashi Asai
Yoshihiko Inohara - Naoto Ishii
Masayuki Sakamoto - Tadashi Ikeyama
Hiroshi Nagano - Kenta Kishimoto
Go Morita - Kenji Fujita
Ken Miyake - Yuji Fujita
Sansei Shiomi - Tetsuo Mishima
Susumu Terajima - Shingo Shibata

Japanese pop superstars V6 make their feature-film debut in Sabu's Hard Luck Hero. The project began as an idea for a music video, but was expanded into a feature. Asai (Junichi Okada) is working in a restaurant when his frantic co-worker Ishii (Yoshihiko Inohara) comes to him to ask a big favor. Ishii is involved in fixing a kickboxing match, but his Thai fighter, who is supposed to lose in the second round, is a no-show. Asai reluctantly agrees to fill in. Meanwhile, two young salarymen, Ikeyama (Masayuki Sakamoto) and Kishimoto (Hiroshi Nagano), looking for a new place to eat lunch, have unfortunately settled on the café where the kickboxing match is to take place, and are joined at their table by a yakuza boss and his henchman. Fujita (Go Morita) and Kudo (Ken Miyake) are two punks who need to pay off a debt, and take up a dare to steal the boss' briefcase. Naturally, the kickboxing match does not go off without a hitch. Bullets fly, and soon all six young men are on the run, with yakuza and the cops chasing after them. Sabu cuts back to the action at the match again and again, showing it from each pair's perspective, until the audience has a clear picture of everything that went wrong. Kudo has a potentially fatal gunshot wound, and Fujita is desperate to save him. On the run, Kishimoto begins to regret his decision to give up auto racing, while Asai and Ishii are simply trying to survive.

This in actuality was an extended music video from what I've read. This mini movie is no more than maybe an hour long...if that. V6 has a knack for comedy. Their timing is always perfect and innocently believable. Maybe that is why they have been together for as long as they have.

With lots of flashbacks to intertwine with each pair of V6 members who were teamed up together, shows how they were all connected in someway.

It's a fun, quick movie to kill the time and make you smile. *smiles*
V6

Holds Up Down (Hôrudo appu daun-2005)

Starring:
Arata Furuta - Maeda
Go Morita - Masaru Hiramatsu
Hiroshi Nagano - Yusuke Hoshino
Junichi Okada - Koichi Sawamura
Masayuki Sakamoto - Masami Kiba
Yoshihiko Inohara - Choji Kimata
Ayumi Ito - Kyoko Miyazaki
Yu Kashii - Rinko Akai
Ken Miyake - Yutaka Sagawa

Dressed head to toe in Santa Claus outfits, this not-so-dynamic duo decide to hide their cash “earnings” in a train station locker, only to discover that neither of them has the correct change to operate the locker itself. Along the way, the two thieves decide to steal from a nearby street musician named Sawamura Koichi, but to their complete surprise, he chases after them. Even worse, Hoshino Yusuke and Kiba Masami, two gung-ho police officers, decide to join in on the chase, along with Hiramatsu Masaru, a concerned citizen who becomes an interested party himself. Considering all this manic excitement, just how will it all end for these two Christmas-themed robbers?

LOL! This movie was a riot! I laughed myself hoarse. Screamed "OMG!" a thousand times. It was so stupid....it was funny. Kind of reminded me of some of the stupid Saturday Night Live skits but in an 1.5 hour time frame.

The action, comedic timing was perfect. LOL! They even had some kung-fu action at the end that was a bit tooooo long but enjoyable all the same. I'll probably watch V6's first movie together sometime soon. I hope it's as funny as this one was. LOL! I'm still laughing.....

Who would have thought!?

Miyake Ken



Inohara Yoshihiko


Sakamoto Masayuki


Morita Go


Nagano Hiroshi


Okada Junichi


V6