An independent group of researchers called the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) actively track Godzilla as he makes landfall in Nemuro. Matters are further complicated when a giant meteor is discovered in the Ibaragi Prefecture. The mysterious rock begins to levitate as it's true intentions for the world and Godzilla are revealed.
The vocalist of a broken up band tries to get the group back together.
Having failed to get into graduate school, with no girlfriend, no money, and no prospects of success with his band, Tsurugi's life has reached rock bottom. One day, after watching the video of Aya Matsuura's song “Momoiro Kataomoi”, he becomes obsessed with the idol singers of “Hello! Project”, and plunges into the idol geek lifestyle. However, as time passes, he and his buddies all find other things just as important as the idols and begin to move on.
The purportedly true story of a 23-year-old otaku (Japanese geek) who intervened when a drunk man was harassing a woman on a train. The otaku ultimately started dating with her and chronicled his event and his dates with the woman (who became known as "Hermès") on the Japanese mega-BBS 2channel.
A writer moves to a remote island with his daughter and young son. After settling into their new home, a neighbor arrives to welcome them and give them a breakdown of the local rules; most important: do not go outside when the island's siren starts wailing.
A simple funeral turns a man's world Topsy turvy. He wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before.
Fourth installment in Deka Matsuri omnibus series. 8 films.
A released inmate is hired to solve a murder case.
The Katakuri family has just opened their guest house in the mountains. Unfortunately their first guest commits suicide and in order to avoid trouble they decide to bury him in the backyard. Things get way more complicated when their second guest, a famous sumo wrestler, dies while having sex with his underage girlfriend and the grave behind the house starts to fill up more and more.
A small, lone Kappa miraculously survives over 200 years into modern day Japan, when he is found by young Koichi. Coo, who is secretly adopted by Koichi's family, searches with his new human friend for unpopulated places in hopes of finding any remaining of his kind.
A successful Japanese make-up artist collides with a tough-talking Shanghai taxi driver in this romantic dramedy that twists traditional roles by making the beauty expert a male and the cab driver a feisty female. Although he works in a glamorous industry, Naoki Mizushima can't help but notice that his life is anything but beautiful. Can the uncouth Lin Xi help him make over his life for the better?
One day, an angel materializes before Kato's eyes. While the angel seems like an average girl with a passion for gin and lime, she sports a pair of big white wings. Only lonely-hearted people can see her. She may seem ordinary, but this angel touches hearts and transforms lives.
For about as long as he can remember, Joe has always had to roll with the punches-living each day in the slums as if it may be his last. But when a wild brawl sends the kid to the slammer, the appearance of a fierce rival sparks a new passion for boxing within him. Spurred on by an unlikely mentor who believes he could go the distance, Joe leaps into the ring. But as he rises through the ranks, Joe realizes that he's no longer fighting for himself-he's fighting for tomorrow.
Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, director Masahiro Takada's coming of age drama follows five Hama Art College students as they prepare to venture out into the real world on a great voyage of self-discovery.
A Japanese remake of the South Korean film of the same name.
Miyata lost his wife early on and single-handedly raised their two children. One day he notices a change in his physical condition, and decides that it must be stomach cancer.
Ishino Teiichiro (Tanihara Shosuke) married his wife Sachiko (Nishida Naomi) and took over her family’s clinic in Kanazawa. Although he is a respected doctor and seems to have a happy family life with Sachiko and their two children
Sakiko, a young bank teller, has an unhealthy obsession with money. Thieves hold up the bank, kidnapping Sakiko in the process, but eventually crash their car, resulting in a suitcase stuffed with cash falling into a nearby river. For the remainder of the film, Sakiko begins a desperate quest to retrieve the money.
Nursing student Asuka has just moved into an apartment complex with her parents and younger brother. On the first night in her new room, she is awoken by a strange scratching sound coming from the apartment of her neighbor, a reclusive old man who has refused all attempts at communication. Concerned over his well being, Asuka enters his home only to find him dead from malnutrition. Worse, it looks as if he had been trying to claw his way into her room. Asuka learns that there have been a number of strange deaths in the complex over the years from Shinobu, the handyman cleaning up the old man’s apartment. Even the girls at school whisper rumors of it being haunted.
Mikuri and Hiramasa both work and share housework duties. They have peaceful days together. One day, Mikuri learns that she is pregnant. They decide to marry, but they soon face problems. Mikuri suffers from pregnancy sickness and Hiramasa decides to take a paternity leave before an important project is finished. The couple experience unfamiliar situations involving childbirth and rearing. They go through difficult times.
Baffling serial killings unfold in which the victims are tied up and left to starve. Tone was just released from prison after finishing his sentence for another crime, and he surfaces as a suspect but detective Tomashiro can't nail down conclusive proof.
Sayaka Miyamoto (Nao Matsushita) and Keita Fukushima (Terunosuke Takezai) attend the same university and believe their love for each other will never end. However, as time goes by and they graduate, their future starts to part as they both begin moving forward to capture their own dreams. Now in the beautiful city of Barcelona, Spain, the former lovers cross paths once again.
Taro is a 12-year-old into baseball and radio, especially "Music Express," a song-request show. Sound quaint? But it is 1977 and a small town in Hokkaido, a more innocent, pure-hearted time and place, we are told. Taro, however, has a blood disease that lands him in the hospital where his aunt is a nurse. Rounds of tests, transfusions and injections sap his spirit, despite the kindness and dedication of his young doctor and the Doctor's hospital-director father. The latter, a music buff who broadcasts classics over the hospital's PA system, asks Taro to relieve him as DJ — and soon the boy is ensconced in the hospital director's well-stocked library-cum-studio, spinning popular J-Pop tunes. He also becomes acquainted with Tamaki, a girl he first calls "the mummy" because of her bandages and full body cast — she was injured in a traffic accident. He later changes his tune when she is revealed as a cute 13-year-old — for him, an older woman...
Ayaka Ichijo is a graduate student with an IQ of 200 who tries to investigate the strange deaths happening nationwide after people supposedly watched a cursed video and her younger sister also did the same out of curiosity.
A new salesman named Kosuke Okuda happens to meet Mao Watarai, a friend from his middle school days. Back then, Mao was called stupid and bullied, but now she is an attractive woman. Kosuke and Mao fall in love and decide to marry, but Mao has a secret.
Nanako returns to her hometown on the tiny island of Aguni to meet her grandmother Nabbie. However, when Nanako's ferry arrives, it is also carrying Nabbie's former lover, who has returned to Aguni after a long absence.
Elderly ladies rise to the challenge of staging a play and struggle to launch a theater company. Based on the actual amateur theater company "Theatrical Company Hono" in Fujieda City, Shizuoka Prefecture, where the presiding officers and performers are composed of elderly women. They have been performing stage plays about issues related to the elderly for a long time.
After failing his university entrance exam, Yuki Hirano sets his eyes on the role of a forestry trainee. Setting off for training he doubts his decision many times, but eventually after passing the training course, he is sent to Kamusari Village for a year of work experience - where he becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people of the village.
Minato studies piano at a music academy. One day, he falls head over heels in love with fellow student Yukino, who harbors a tragic secret that will put their romance to the test.
Chigusa and Yuuto always spent time together as children. They enter high school at the same time and happen to be put into the same class. Yuuto's mother ran off and his father is an alcoholic, so it seems as though the only time he can feel any relief from the pain of his life is when he spends time with Chii-chan and can be reminded of the happy little moments from his past.
The story of three pairs of characters involved one way or the other with the yakuza and a rigged boxing match and fleeing the thugs one way or the other. Filmed as a showcase of the Japanese boy band V6, Hard Luck Hero has food, drink, cars, kickboxing, debt, shooting, theft, blackmail and music.
During a quest to find a Taiwanese father's grave, disturbing memories of child abuse are aroused.
Six high schoolers stuck in a murderous time loop must find the scattered remains of an unknown victim to break the curse and finally see another day.
Existential study on a misplaced workers and ex-prisoner who moves through the city and his influence on other characters' lives.
When eight men are assigned to live 14,000 kilometers from home in inhumanly cold conditions, food becomes their new existence.
Hotel Hibiscus is the story of one very young energetic girl named Mieko and her internatioanl family who live in Okinawa. They live in a run down old hotel called Hotel Hibiscus with only one room for rent.
Miyuki is a single mother with a 10-year old boy Keiji. She is eager to make him a child model. Eventually, Keiji begins to get jobs rather constantly. But Keiji himself doesn't like the job much. He only does it because it pleases his mother, who hates empty pages in the schedule book. One day they attend a big audition. While Keiji wins first stages of the audition, he begins to feel distance from the mother. It makes things worse for him when she has a new boyfriend..
Tsutomu lives alone in the mountains, writing essays, cooking Zen food with the vegetables he grows and the mushrooms he picks in the hills. His routine is happily disturbed when Machiko, his editor and love interest, occasionally visits. Tsutomu seems content with his daily life. On the other hand, he still hasn't let go of his wife's ashes, although she died 13 years ago.
In a once-scenic village now dominated by a vast trash disposal site, a young man yearns to break free from a cruel fate tying him to the very grounds.
Masaharu Fukuyama reprises his role from 2008's "Suspect X," playing the physicist-cum-detective Manabu Yukawa. The scientist-sleuth arrives in an oceanside town to speak on a panel. But when a man turns up dead outside the inn where he's staying, Yukawa begins to unravel the connections that tie the victim to the activist daughter of the innkeepers, and a precocious boy who first appears on a train—and keeps popping up. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery with an environmental twist, and one that should please fans of a classic whodunnit.
When pregnant lunchbox factory worker Yayoi has finally taken all the abuse she can handle, she strangles her brutish husband and disposes of the body parts, piece by piece. She's soon joined by three down on their luck housewives who murder their own husbands and find various ways to hide the evidence.
A film about love and winter sports.
High schooler Haruna befriends loner Yamada, then is drawn into the tangled relationship between him, a model and the girl who loves him unreasonably.
Set 18 months after movie "Library Wars." After the government's enactment of the Media Betterment Act, battles wage between the Betterment Squads and the Library Defense. The Library Defense resists censorship and advocates freedom of expression. The biggest battle awaits for the Library Defense.
Set in the year 2019 in Japan. In order to crack down on free expression, a new law is passed, which allows for the government to create an armed force to find and destroy objectionable printed material. Meanwhile, to oppose this oppressive crackdown, the Library Force is created. The Library force, including instructor Atsushi Dojo and Iku Kasahara, work to protect the libraries. A fierce battle then ensues between these two groups.
Third installment of the "Gakko No Kaidan" series follows the trek of several elementary school students as they wander into an alternate world that exists on the opposite side of a school mirror. Nishida Naomi (the hapless teacher in "Gakko No Kaidan 2") returns as the teacher who accompanies the children on their journey into the surreal universe.
Azusa and Kanami have been best friends since high school. After Kanami dies in an unexpected accident, Azusa despairs yet finds comfort in sending text messages to Kanami’s cellphone. Kanami’s parents wonder about Azusa’s identity, and upon visiting the orphanage that their dead daughter cared about, are moved by her good deeds.
Tama is a graduate student. She lives with her boyfriend Takuya. She becomes influenced by lectures about French writer Sophie Calle and begins to follow her neighbor Ishizaka. Tama soon discovers that her neighbor Ishizaka is having an affair. She becomes excited about discovering his secret. Her relationship with her boyfriend Takuya and her professor Shinohara changes.
Iku (Nana Eikura) joined the Library Defense Force after a member from that team retrieved an important book that was targeted for censorship. She is assigned to work under Atsushi’s (Junichi Okada) team. She endures Atsushi's harsh treatment and looks for the member who retrieved her book. She also finds herself becoming attracted to Atsushi. Iku meets female high school student Marie (Tao Tsuchiya) at the library. Maries has a hearing disability. She is also a childhood friend of Mikihisa (Kei Tanaka). Iku senses Marie’s strong feelings for Mikihisa. Asako (Chiaki Kuriyama) works as a clerk for the Library Task Force. She has frequent meetings with curator Shuji (Aoi Nakamura). This creates complicated feelings for Hikaru (Sota Fukushi). One day, Mikihisa is arrested because of a book he recommended to Marie. Official reason given is because the book is unsuitable for disabled people. The members of the Library Task Force are angered by Mikihisa's arrest.
A mysterious world of images of an old, almost forgotten barbershop in the middle of the city, with its owner who is just “waiting” for something, and the people who visit him. A barbershop is a place where people want change. A place to find a new self. The barber finds a different self on the other side of the mirror, and between drowsiness and thoughts, he is lost between dreams and reality, pondering in a different space. The barber travels with various customers to a mysterious space. Invisible images are projected into each mind along with the recitation of poems.
The mayor of Oita wants to improve the image of his city, so he instructs Chiaki - a young woman working for the city's PR department - to form a female tug of war team. Nobuo MIZUTA mixes comedy, drama and a pinch of social criticism to tell a tale of eight women, their everyday struggles and their support for each other.
A detective in Toyama is forced to confront his painful past when he takes on a murder case involving his two estranged childhood friends.
Sequel to the 1995 film Haunted School aka Gakkou no Kaidan. Similar to the first, in that it's about a group of youngsters that get stuck in a haunted school and have to deal with an assortment of ghosts.
Fifteen-year-old country girl Suzume Yosano has to move to Tokyo to live with her uncle due to her father's transfer. She bumps into a mysterious man who ends up taking her to her uncle's place after she gets lost. Turns out, Suzume will be seeing him a lot more often once she starts school because... he's her homeroom teacher?!
A man’s body is found in the suburbs of Tokyo. The dead man was hit by a car and his head beaten by the reckless driver after the accident. The dead man had a wife named Noriko. She likes fancy things and she has a lover named Tsukada. It's also learned that the dead man was insured for 300 million yen. The media and the public look at Noriko and her boyfriend Tsukada with suspicion, but they have perfect alibis. Then, Detective Hibiki, who is in charge of the case, and Private Detective Kono become involved in a series of mysterious murder cases.
One day, five kindergarten children suddenly disappear from a kindergarten in Tokyo, sending their teachers and parents into a panic. The five of them are connecting on trains and headed to an unfamiliar place for some purpose. Before their journey, they had made a promise to each other “not to cry no matter what happens”
A man and a woman committed double suicide in Kanazawa City. Immediately after the incident, Yoshiko Shiota, a woman living in Tokyo, contacts the local newspaper of Kanazawa, saying she wants to read the novel serialized in it by Ryuji Sugimoto. How did this woman know the novel is serialized in the newspaper? And why does she want to start reading it in the middle of the story? Which article was she actually interested in? Sugimoto cannot help making his own investigations about Yoshiko, but the more he searches, the more astonishing facts come to light...
Three friends who will soon graduate from high school decide to take one last trip together.
For Yasuko every day is a challenge. Due to her mental illness and hypersomnia, simple things like household chores and holding a job seem impossible. Added to the mix is an indifferent, almost distant boyfriend and an ex-girlfriend with plans to win him back.
In Kamakura, 12th grade Rikako falls in love with Tomoaki Fujii, rumoured to be the school Don Juan and having impregnated a girl. This doesn't bother Rikako one bit, as she too sleeps around.
Masaru and Yukiko have been married 44 years. They have three children who live independently from them. Masaru and Yukiko enjoy their peaceful days, but, one day, Yukiko tells her daughter Naoko that she wants to divorce Masaru.
Mirai Takatsuki is a seemingly normal teenager, but when he was a child his life was saved from a terrible illness thanks to magnanimous donations from the local community that paid for his medical bills. Ongoing media attention and the pressure to excel have prompted Mirai to have suicidal tendencies.
After a man gets fired from his work at a printing plant, he moves with his couple to her hometown in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. There, the woman opens up a beauty salon. They enjoy peaceful days, but small problems occur which leads to an irrevocable situation.
A tale of delinquent and lazy school girls. In their efforts to cut remedial summer math class, they end up poisoning and replacing the school's brass band.
Three engineers cannot make a robot work in time for a science show, and hire a man to inhabit the robot's shell to save their jobs. The robot's performance at the show attracts media attention and scrutiny from a science student.
It is the job of the press to cover corporate crime, government plots and society. It is in this context that young female reporter on the beat Erika rolls up her sleeves and goes to work regarding what seems to be a government cover up. She is dealing with a government bureaucrat called Sugihara. It seems as if a clash is inevitable.
In this contemporary documentary, the cast and the crew share their experiences of making the film.
Masuda, an aspiring journalist, plans to write an article in order to expose his co-worker Suzuki, who is a psychopathic murderer according to Masuda.
A suburban town is faced with a series of bizarre incidents in which children disappear and three days later an adult in their life dies. A mysterious "child whisperer" phantom appears before journalist Shunya, who is investigating the incidents, and his girlfriend Naomi.
Their parents are dead. They should be sad, but they can't cry. So they form a kick-ass band. This is the story of four 13-year-olds in search of their emotions.
Taishi lives with his father Kazushi. His mother left home when Taishi was very young and he barely has any memories of her. He believes that his mother left home to study in Paris. His favorite moments come once a week when he receives a letter from his mother. But one day, during Taishi's summer vacation, he learns that his mother isn't in Paris but in Shodoshima, Japan. Taishi then decides to take his pet dog with him and bicycle from his hometown of Yokohama all the way to Shodoshima. On his 500 kilometers trip to Shodoshima, Taishi meets various peoples and touches their hearts, while leaving behind small miracles. What Taishi doesn't know about his mother is that she suffers from memory loss and that's why she lives apart from her family. Taishi's father Kazushi soon learns that his son has left for Shodoshima and he sets out to find his son.
Shuta, Saku and Michiru have been best friends since they were kids. Tragedy strikes the friends when during the winter of 2010, Saku dies from a heart attack. After Saku's death, Shuta and Michiru become more distant.
It's the year 2023. The development of artificial intelligence has come a long way in recent years. When a policeman gets seriously injured and won't be able to recover his consciousness, a scientist decides to implant an artificial intelligence called "Mario" inside his brain. The final command for this newborn man: Be free. When he sets out on his little journey to understand the concept of being free, being human, he meets the 16 year-old son of the scientist who is about to take his own life... The two of them form a precious bond.
A closed-room mystery where five women gathered in memory of a mysteriously dead female writer to unravel the mystery behind her death. Based on the novel of the same name by Riku Onda, directed by Tetsuo Shinohara. Four years ago, an actress/novelist died of overdose. Since then, five women who were her friends gather around once every year to recollect her memories. However this year, they receive flowers with a strange message which insinuates that her death could have been a murder.
Haruko is a single mother. She has an unusual living arrangement. She lives with her son Riku, her friend Aiko and Aiko's boyfriend Sorao. One day, Yuko stays at Haruko's house to attend an art institute for the summer. Yuko is the daughter of Haruko's old friend Tomoyo. They haven't spoken for many years prior to Tomoyo reaching out to Haruko to ask if her daughter could stay with her for the summer. Haruko and Tomoyo have an uncomfortable past.
On August 12, 1985, a jumbo jet crashes, causing 520 fatalities, making the accident the biggest single-plane accident in the world. The local press reporters are tossed about by the waves of facts and rumors. While overwhelmed by the magnitude of the accident, Yuuki, in charge of this crash report at a local newspaper, faces a string of decision-making moments. What are news and a reporter? How should a man do his work and survive in a corporate hierarchy? What do family and friends mean to him? An intriguing story, which keeps the audience on the edge of tension and reality.
One of the true classic's of anime's much-loved robot genre.
A 7 years girl is found dead in the local park’s toilet. Kaga Kyouichiro, who was asked to find the girl, and his cousin Matsumiya Shuhei who’s assigned to investigate the murder case, have to work together to crack the case. Their evidence lead them to Maehara’s, a family with parents, a son and a senile grandmother.
High school student, Yo, lived with her father, Nao, after her mother, Sachiyo, left the family when she was very young. However, their life together came to an end and they started a new life as a family of four with her father's second marriage partner, Miko, and her stepdaughter, four-year-old Hinata. She confides in Riku, who belongs to the same art club as Yo, about her confusion about this new life. Yo, who has been developing curiosity for her biological mother, Sachiyo, promises to go with Riku to Sachiyo's art exhibition.
Made under the restrictions of "no zoom, pan, editing or post-sound", directors Shinobu Yaguchi and Takuji Suzuki skewer Japanese social conventions in 14 short episodes. In one segment a woman misreads an advertisement and arrives at a job interview dressed in a bunny suit. Another concerns a woman who hides to surprise her friends only to overhear their unkind appraisal of her hygiene. And another entitled "Grandpa from Hell" is a surreal yarn about a cult leader. Ranging from the humorous to the deeply bizarre, the film's static, minimalistic style makes such "Dogme 95" films as The Celebration (1998) look extravagant.
The story centers on Kakeru Nishizawa and Mami Sakaniwa, two people who find each other through a dating app, and decide soon after to get engaged. After their engagement, Mami suddenly disappears. In trying to find her, Kakeru must confront a side of Mami's past that he might not have wanted to know.
A short film about a dysfunctional band and a strange fluffy creature they run over.
Kaburagi was arrested as a suspect in a brutal murder case, but he escapes. He continues to hide and move all around Japan. During this time, he meets Sayaka, Kazuya and Mai. Detective Matanuki is on the trail to capture Kaburagi. He interrogates the people who met Kaburagi, but they all describe Kaburagi differently from each other. Kaburagi has been missing for 488 days. Who really is Kaburagi? What is his plan?
When the brutal Boshin War breaks out in Japan, a group of inmates on death row unite to defend a fortress against the Imperial army.
Three young women live together in an old house in a corner of Tokyo. They are not related by blood, but they have been bound together by a strong bond for 12 years. They care about each other and spend their own ordinary days together. The matter of unrequited love arises for them that they can't tell anyone.
After losing their child, a mother finds solace in a life-sized ancient doll she finds on the market. When a new daughter enters the family's life, strange things begin to happen and no matter how hard the family tries to get rid of it, the doll always finds its way back.
Beethoven was a musician who overcame an incurable deafness disease and left behind many masterpieces. However, in reality, he was a vulgar and dirty old man. This film depicts the story of Schindler, the secretary who "fabricated" the sublime image of Beethoven that is conveyed to the public. Driven by a sense of mission to absolutely protect Beethoven, who saved him from rock bottom, Schindler changes Beethoven's image after his death from a "vulgar and dirty old man" to a "sacred and genius musician."
Film directed by Toshiki Satô.