Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2005


Break Through!

Buy Break Through! now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




is a 2005 Japanese film directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu.

Plot



Romeo, A.K.A. Kosuke Matsuyama (Shun Shioya), is a second-year high school student. A nice, normal, nonviolent type, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a rampaging crowd of Korean boys, outraged by insults perpetrated by several of his idiotic classmates on two Korean girls. He makes a narrow escape, but soon after, he and his best bud Yoshio (Keisuke Koide) are sent by their home-room teacher to invite the Korean students to a friendly soccer game as a way of restoring the peace.

Trembling like black-uniformed leaves, they enter enemy territory, where Kosuke encounters a doll-faced, but serious-looking girl, Lee Kyung-ja (Erika Sawajiri) playing a Korean folk song, "Rimjin River," on a flute. He and Yoshio are also nearly lynched by her older brother Lee An-sung (Sosuke Takaoka) and his gang, but he is already smittenand eager to learn that haunting tune.

The story concentrates on Kosuke's struggle to not only master a song but win the love of a girl who seems to live in an alien, hostile world. Meanwhile, Ang Son and his crew are street-fighting with Japanese toughs as if playing a contact sport, with one side scoring hits, then the other. He is macho to a fault, but when he learns that his sweetheart (Kyoko Yanagihara) is pregnant and determined to keep the baby, he faces a choice that makes him quail: grow up or cop-out.

Cast



* Shun Shioya as Kosuke Matsuyama (), the main protagonist and a second-year student who falls in love with a girl of Korean origin, Lee Kyung-ja.

* Keisuke Koide as Norio Yoshida (), Kosuke Matsuyama's best friend.

* Sousuke Takaoka as Lee An-sung (/), a Zainichi Korean troublemaker who is the hot headed older brother of Lee Kyung-ja.

* Erika Sawajiri as Lee Kyung-ja (/), a Zainichi Korean student who studies in a North korean school in Kyoto and Lee An-sung's shy younger sister who dreams of becoming a movie star. She's also the love interest of Kosuke Matsuyama.

* Kazuki Namioka as Motoki Bang-ho ( /), Lee An-sung's best friend.

* Hiroyuki Onoue as Park Jae-dok (/), Lee An-sung's younger brother.

* Kyoko Yanagihara as Momoko (), Lee An-sung's girlfriend who gets pregnant by him, making him make a decision about his life.

* Yoko Maki as Chun Gang-ja (/), the best martial artist in the North korean school and the friend of Lee An-sung, Motoki and Jae-dok.

* Noriko Eguchi as Hyeyoung (/), Chun Gang-ja's best friend

Awards



'48th Blue Ribbon Awards'

* 'Won': Best Film

'27th Yokohama Film Festival'

* 'Won': Best Film

* 'Won': Best Director - Kazuyuki Izutsu

* 'Won': Best Cinematography - Hideo Yamamoto

* 'Won': Best Newcomer - Erika Sawajiri and Shun Shioya

References



Category:2005 films

Category:Films directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu

Category:Japanese films

Category:2000s Japanese-language films

Category:Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners

Category:Zainichi Korean culture

Category:2000s Japanese films


Buy Break Through! now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 2005



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1110554895.