In 2004, Kazuyuki Izutsu made "Pacchigi! (Pacchigi! We Shall Overcome Someday)," a serio-comic Romeo and Juliet romance set in 1960s Kyoto. Starring Shun Shioya as a naive high school boy and Erika Sawajiri as the cute-but-tough zainichi (ethnic Korean living in Japan) girl whom he falls for, the film won many honors and awards, including the Best One prize of Kinema Junpo magazine's critics poll.

I put the film on my own list of best movie's of the year but was a bit surprised that it became a critics' favorite, since it is anything but arty. Born in Nara, trained in the pink ("adult") film business and now well-known as a sharp-tongued television commentator, Izutsu makes films, including "Pacchigi!," "Nodo Jiman" (1999) and "Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai" (1996), that examine working-class life with rough humor, unabashed melodrama and from-the-gut sympathy.

Also, more than active Japanese director, Izutsu knows how to stage a good brawl, with the sort of bruisingly realistic choreography that demonstrates the director's street cred and the cast's dedication to getting it right — even if they end up black and blue. It's hard to think of a modern Hollywood equivalent, though several Korean directors match Izutsu in the filming of mano-a-mano mayhem.