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Although the second season does not have the element of surprise, as first seasons usually do, it is easy to say that the creators of “Tokyo Vice Season 2” did an excellent job this time also, by focusing even more to the series' best aspect, its characters.

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Jake's miraculous rise in the echelons of Meicho newspaper continues, with his relationship with both his superior, Maruyama, and his colleagues, Tin Tin and Trendy, being on its highest level. Maruyama listens to him and trusts him, as do the other two actually, frequently following his advice even. Even Baku, his racist, nationalistic boss seems to have warmed up to him, at least professionally, occasionally approving even his most daring suggestions. At the same time, the reappearance of Tozawa throws a shadow over everyone, including Jake, who has started a relationship with his former mistress,...

There’s only one New Year’s resolution which makes sense in 2022: have as good a year as Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2021. The Japanesewriter-director won near-unanimous acclaim at Cannes for Drive My Car – though admittedly not quite mine – just a couple of months after Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy won prizes at Berlin. If Hamaguchi’s more awarded second film is a dense telling of a Haruki Murakami short story, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a little easier on the mind. An hour shorter and split into three self-contained stories, it’s a more accessible introduction to Hamaguchi’s undoubtedly unique and provocative style. And for cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike, Hamaguchi’s way of making films is not one to miss.

The first part, titled “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)”, is about a model whose best friend falls for her ex. Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) keeps a cool head...

IFC presents Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes entry Bergman Island, Film Movement brings Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy to the arthouse this weekend, as A24’s surprise hit Lamb and Greenwich Entertainment’s The Rescue go wider week two after a strong open. It’s early days but a nascent specialty revival may be in the works ahead of a stream of potential hits from The French Dispatch to Spencer to Belfast.

Icelandic horror folktale Lamb moves from 500 to over 800 screens after viewers – can we say flocked? – to the Ari Aster-ish genre pic (Hereditary in 2018 was also from A24). Adventure documentary The Rescue, by the directors of Free Solo, where intrepid divers save a Thai boys soccer club trapped in a remote flooded cave, expands from five screens to 552.

“Is there hope? Yes” said Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, which is opening Hard Luck Love Song. “There have to...

Was Ryûsuke Hamaguchi referencing the tarot when he wrote his Berlinale Silver Berlin Bear winning, and 2021 New York Film Festival selection, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy?

According to Tarot.com the wheel of fortune card in the upright position signifies change. The wheel turns in one continuous motion, churning events in a ceaseless progression of ups and downs, thus freeing us from the past. No one can escape its cyclical action. Hamaguchi weaves the same concept of the movement of time into this film which contains three short stories that follow the lives of women who are navigating love, loss, reconnection, and letting go.

Magic (Or something Less Assuming) is the first entry, and it follows Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) as she taunts and gaslights her ex-boyfriend Kazuaki (Ayumu Nakajima), who now has feelings for her best friend Tsugumi...

When Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi made his return to fiction after time away in the realm of documentary, he dispensed with the idea that stories must conform to feature length. “Happy Hour,” the sprawling ensemble drama that sparked interest in him among cinephiles, ran more than five hours, and while his latest, “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” boasts a conventional enough running time of 121 minutes, the film is actually composed of three short stories, stitched together and somewhat arbitrarily presented as a single package.

The vignettes are, by the director’s own description, explorations of “coincidence and imagination” — the first three of what he conceived as seven stories, pointing toward what might have been another epic-length project. Audiences tend not to take well to coincidence in drama, which can feel unrealistic when handled clumsily. In Hamaguchi’s hands, however, lucky (or unlucky) twists don’t feel so much like manipulation...

Short stories don’t often get the respect they deserve, and short films — which the film industry has deemed worthless rather than figure out how to monetize — don’t often get any respect at all. Unless, that is, several of them are packaged to resemble a feature, like three kids stacked on top of each other inside a trenchcoat and trying to pass for a single adult.

A playful triptych of self-contained vignettes (complete with their own credit blocks) that are bound together by a shared fascination with memory, coincidence, and the deep truths that shallow lies tend to uncover, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke’s wonderfully beguiling “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is neither fish nor fowl. It feels more like a single film than it does a trio of smaller ones that have been stitched together into a makeshift anthology, but the finished product is only greater than the sum of...

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is cinema portmanteau: three short stories focused on three different characters, each a little lovesick and just a little lost. The director is Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, an emerging filmmaker from Japan who seems to have already mastered his craft, and whose work is perfectly at home to such dilemmas. His 2015 film Happy Hour, a five-hour saga, followed the lives of four women in Kobe, one of whom had filed for divorce. Next came Asako I & II in 2018, an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasaki’s novel about a woman who starts seeing a man who looks exactly like the boy she loved when she was younger––a story of doppelgängers, it also showcased his touch for surrealist flourishes.

While fast closing in on auteur status, Hamaguchi’s films continue to hold a kind of literary spirit: Happy Hour the epic; Asako the novella; and now Wheel of Fortune,...

One of the few things that may be keeping Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2015 film Happy Hour from being recognized as one of the great films of the 2010s is its length: At over five hours, its drama of mid-30s women wrestling with their place in life is undoubtedly imposing, regardless of the fact that Hamaguchi’s style is clean and crisp, underscored by shadows of mystery, with none of the arduous challenge usually presented by lengthy art films. Possibly if it had been presented in the format of a multi-episode series, its audience would have easily found it. Hamaguchi’s follow-up, Asako I & II, broke things up cleverly by segmenting its Vertigo-esque story of lovers lost and found into two parts. Now, the Japanese director’s latest, the sly and intriguing portmanteau Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which is premiering in Berlin's main competition, helps the audience by being...

Courtesy of Collider, we have new, previously unreleased stills from Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist, which stars Joey Ansah, Christian Howard, Mike Moh, Togo Igawa, Akira Koieyama, Gaku Space, Shogen Hyunri, Hal Yamanouchi and Mark Killeen. Related Content: Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist Machinima Press Release Ryu Takes Center Stage In Latest Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist Still Ken Featured In New Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist Image...

Related Content: Ken And Ryu Teased From Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist Production 'Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist' Reveals First Look At Goutetsu And Senzo Live-Action Street Fighter Crowd Funded Campaign Announced And here's the official Press Release, announcing the series' release via Machinima: MacHinima And Capcom Announce All Episodes Of Street Fighter: Assassin’S Fist Will Debut On The MacHinima Main Channel Created By and Starring Joey Ansah and Christian Howard, Series Also Stars Togo Igawa, Akira Koieyama, Mike Moh, Gaku Space, Shogen, Hyunri, and features Hal Yamanouchi and Mark Killeen Los Angeles, CA, March 14, 2014 – Machinima, Assassin’s Fist Limited, and Capcom U.S.A., Inc. announce today, in partnership with Producer Jacqueline Quella, and Director Joey Ansah, that Street Fighter: Assassin’S Fist will debut in its entirety on Machinima, the number-one global video entertainment network for young males. The exact air date will be announced soon.

Based on Capcom's worldwide blockbuster video game franchise, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is the hotly anticipated feature length follow up series to the hugely successful YouTube sensation Street Fighter Legacy. The faithful Japanese and English script, co-written by Ansah and Howard, follows the formative years of iconic characters Ryu and Ken, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as ‘Ansatsuken’ (Assassin’s Fist), living a traditional warrior's life in secluded Japan. Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist marks the feature film directorial debut for fight choreographer Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum, Snow White and the Huntsman) who also stars in the project alongside Togo Igawa, Mike Moh, Christian Howard, Akira Koieyama, Gaku Space, Shogen, Hyunri, Hal...

Based on Capcom's worldwide blockbuster video game franchise, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is the hotly anticipated feature length follow up series to the hugely successful YouTube sensation Street Fighter Legacy. Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist marks the feature film directorial debut for fight choreographer Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum, Snow White and the Huntsman) who also stars in the project alongside Togo Igawa, Mike Moh, Christian Howard, Akira Koieyama, Gaku Space, Shogen, Hyunri, Hal Yamanouchi, and Mark Killeen. The faithful Japanese and English script, co-written by Ansah and Howard, follows the formative years of iconic characters Ryu and Ken, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as ‘Ansatsuken’ (Assassin’s Fist), living a traditional warrior's...

Based on Capcom's worldwide blockbuster video game franchise, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is the hotly anticipated feature length follow up series to the hugely successful YouTube sensation Street Fighter Legacy. Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist marks the feature film directorial debut for fight choreographer Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum, Snow White and the Huntsman) who also stars in the project alongside Togo Igawa, Mike Moh, Christian Howard, Akira Koieyama, Gaku Space, Shogen, Hyunri, Hal Yamanouchi, and Mark Killeen. The faithful Japanese and English script, co-written by Ansah and Howard, follows the formative years of iconic characters Ryu and Ken, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as ‘Ansatsuken’ (Assassin’s Fist), living a traditional warrior's...

A flashback to a young Gouki (Gaku Space) and Gouken (Shogen) sparring under the watchful eye of their Asatsuken master Goutetsu (Togo Igawa) and the beautiful Sayaka (Hyunri). The story in Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist centers on the master of Ken and Ryu, Gouken, who himself trained under ‘Asatsuken (Assassin's Fist)' grandmaster Goutetsu. Also training under Goutetsu was the legendary Street Fighter villain, Akuma, who is Gouken's brother. In the web series Gouken reflects on how the Asatsuken sent he and his brother down conflicting paths of 'Light' and 'Dark' and whether he should pass along all of its secrets to Ken and Ryu. Will the same split that befell Gouken and Akuma occur with Ken and Ryu? In addition to portraying Gōki/Akuma, Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum) served as director and co-wrote the script with Ken actor Christian Howard. Togo Igawa (Memoirs of a Geisha, The Last Samurai...

Based on Capcom's worldwide blockbuster video game franchise, Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist is the hotly anticipated feature length follow up series to the hugely successful YouTube sensation Street Fighter Legacy. Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist marks the feature film directorial debut for fight choreographer Joey Ansah (The Bourne Ultimatum, Snow White and the Huntsman) who also stars in the project alongside Togo Igawa, Mike Moh, Christian Howard, Akira Koieyama, Gaku Space, Shogen, Hyunri, Hal Yamanouchi, and Mark Killeen. The faithful Japanese and English script, co-written by Ansah and Howard, follows the formative years of iconic characters Ryu and Ken, the last practitioners of the ancient fighting style known as ‘Ansatsuken’ (Assassin’s Fist), living a traditional warrior's...