Smile
Heartwarming human drama about a former tap dancer who trades in his tap shoes to woo a figure skating instructor. But by a twist of fate, he finds himself coaching a local ice hockey team of hapless youths and leading them to a championship
Takanori Jinnai
Casts & Crew
Rosa Katô
Morooka Moro
Yoshiko Tanaka
Kei Tani
Kenji Sakaguchi
Anri Okamoto
Rikiya
Jiro Sato
Hiroshi Tamaki
Takashi Tsukamoto
Yutaka Matsushige
Naoko Iijima
Susumu Terajima
Koichi Sato
Sachie Hara
Mirai Moriyama
Also Directed by Takanori Jinnai
Stories depicting ordinary people revolving around ceremonial occasions. Without knowing that the funeral is for a yakuza member, an undertaker holds the funeral service. Relatives bicker over the deceased's last will. A son insists on wearing a long jacket normally worn by bousouzoku biker gang to a coming of age ceremony. His parents try to stop him. A husband heads over to his pregnant wife. She got pregnant before they got married and his father-in-law is angry at him. A freeter man challenges a professional baseball player over a woman.
Guitarist Ko-chanis a mess of sexual repression after a childhood at the mercy of two elder sisters eager to use him as a guinea pig for their make-up skills. Bassist Gaku-chan keeps a bucket in the wings for whenever his nerves get the better of him, and drummer Momo-chan is doomed to forever carrying the botched childhood attempts at self-tattooing. It's not until this foursome is forced to look for an additional guitar player after Jin's dad burns his Stratocaster, that attitude and musical ability enter into the equation. Leather-clad, shade-wearing Tani (Tamaki), inseparable from his black Les Paul, is introduced as the king of R'n'R cool and Jinnai keeps him firmly seated on his throne throughout the film, retroactively proclaiming the guitarist, rather than himself, as the band's true hero.
Six well-known Japanese directors from various genres and one of the hottest actresses from Hong Kong, Kelly Chen, contributed to this omnibus film with their impressions of life in Tokyo. Kazuna Iida, Takanori Jinnai, Kelly Chen, Naoko Nozawa, Katsuhiko Hibino, Takashi Matsuo and Shin Yamagishi are amongst Japan's most active and talented filmmakers.