"The Wolverine" may look like just another in a long line of superhero movies to hit the screen this year — it's the latest installment in Marvel's "X-Men" franchise — but it's certainly the first one directed by a guy who cites director Yasujiro Ozu of "Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story)" fame as an influence.
Director James Mangold, best known for his Oscar-winning movies "Walk the Line" and "Girl, Interrupted," has often said he was heavily influenced by the Japanese maestro on his breakthrough 1995 debut "Heavy," which featured great performances by Liv Tyler and Pruitt Taylor Vince and an Ozu-esque understated subtlety.
Subtlety isn't to be expected in a superhero movie, but Mangold focuses on character, and the demons driving Logan — the indestructible, metal-clawed Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman — as he comes to Japan to visit an old friend who's on his deathbed, only to be swept up in a whirlwind of corporate and yakuza intrigue.