In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.
Kon Ichikawa's retelling of the classic true story of Samurai honor. When a young clan lord is forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide), his loyal followers (now Ronin, masterless Samurai) dedicate their lives to avenging his death.
Musical band "Yajima Biyoshitsu" comes to Japan from Nevada, USA to debut their CD.
A sheltered aristocratic woman in feudal Japan, bored and unfamiliar with the world outside her estate, passes the time copying a special Buddhist sutra sent by her father who has been absent on official business for years. While gazing out her window one late afternoon, the setting sun creates a vision of a holy figure in the distant mountains.
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?
The story of a photographer who becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman who lives in the apartment opposite his.
A reclusive illustrator falls in love with a young woman who addictively shops for clothing.
There is a man who divorced his wife. He moved to rural Hokkaido from Tokyo where he lived with his family without running water or electricity. He has his son and daughter in tow and works hard for them. The folk in the area try to help. A couple of years pass and the older son moves back to Tokyo, attends school and works part-time. The daughter commutes to the city to attend school. She wants to become a nurse. To become a registered nurse she needs to study a further three years. This takes money.
Adapted from the successful play, the film takes place in 19th-century Japan, where a war between demons and their slayers is fought. Izumo, a kabuki actor with a demon-slaying past, meets and falls in love with Tsubaki. However, something is not right, as mysterious marks appear on her body as time progresses. At the same time, it is announced that Ashura, the queen of all demons, will be resurrected and bring destruction to the universe.
A community is in turmoil when junior high schoolers barricade themselves in an empty factory to protest the draconian rules of parents and teachers. They're sick of heavy-handed teachers and iron-fisted parents. And now they're going to do something about it.
In 1930s Suzhou, the fifth wife of an opium-addicted aristocrat, her husband's female cousin, and a handsome instructor develop an intense relationship.
From time immemorial to the age of space colonization, there is one legend that has stayed unchanged in every history book—the tale of the immortal bird Phoenix. A being whose blood is said to grant eternal life or wisdom, the radiant figure ensures the continuation of sentient life in the universe as it oversees human civilizations and their development. Yet, mankind remains a slave to its habits; from happiness and sorrow, to wrath and love, a myriad of emotions continue to play an integral part of human life. Simultaneously, time and time again, certain beliefs and agendas persist over the centuries to disturb the fragile equilibrium of the world's preordained nature and principles. It appears that fate and its dynamic variables can manifest itself in many ways—and oftentimes exhibits a bizarre sense of humor…
A comedy about how the world of politics really works! Tsutomu is a secretary for a member of the Japanese Parliament. After the latter suffers a heart attack, his daughter Yumi is chosen to fill his place in the next election because she seems easy to control. However, her unpredictable behavior soon throws the campaign out of control.
Yoko, who gets a job at a nursing home, witnesses the elderly and disabled people there having their human dignity threatened.
A young girl named Kiki must leave her home for a year to begin training in witchcraft. She leaves on her broom, but first says goodbye to her friends and family. Kiki then begins her new life with her trusted cat Jiji.
A one part drama/made for TV movie starring Rie Miyazawa
'The Ninagawa of the world', still ill. The 80-year-old's intense run to stay alive, even after falling ill!
A foreign student from Taiwan, Mr. Bell, attends language school in Japan and meets Miss Sato there. He falls in love with her, but doesn't dare to open his heart to her. Nevertheless, on Christmas night miracles do happen.
The second TV movie Obayashi Nobuhiko directed based on Akagawa Jiro's Mikeneko Holmes series.
Daily, Rika Umezawa battles a nagging sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. She works a tiring job, comes home to an unappreciative husband and has little opportunity to enjoy life. But things change when office gossip about affairs and embezzlement inspire Rika to do the unthinkable. Soon, Rika finds herself filling the void with a university student named Kota and the millions entrusted to her by clients. Is her newfound lifestyle the key to happiness? And if so, how long can it last?
Based on a play by Hisashi Inoue, it focuses on the sufferings of the survivors of Hiroshima. The film takes place during 4 days in the summer of 1948, as the ghost of her father visits Mitsué (Rié Miyama). He had somehow learned that she has fallen in love, and tries to convince her to start her new life. But Mitsué obstinately refuses his warm and humorous encouragements : « People were killed in my place. I do not have the right to find happiness », she says.
After falling in love with a traffic cop, a cab driver commits as many traffic violations as he can in order to see her again.
Recently appointed dean at a film school, Kimuro Hajime develops a special concern for one of his students, Daisuke. The brash, headstrong young man is fixated on with the Second World War. He feels a sense of frustration at the irrational sacrifice of young people's lives during the war six decades earlier. Daisuke finds that he can vent his frustrations to Kimuro, who experienced the war firsthand. Kimuro's wife, Emiko, is also troubled by memories of the war. She lost a loved one in the war and has never gotten over it. And Kimuro himself also has something from the past that he has yet to face. He believes that the burden of his unresolved past will eventually be the death of him. When Daisuke's neurosis causes him to quit school, life changes for all three of them.
Sou Makimoto works in the "send-off" department at the city hall. The department's main responsibility is to hold funerals for people who die alone and bury them at a cemetery. Makimoto doesn't like to socialise with his colleagues or listen to them. By doing his job, he meets various people and slowly begins to change his life.
A low-key private detective agency in Paris is run by Rie and her partner Kishin, two ex-pats who tick along between cases by giving guided tours of the city to busloads of Japanese tourists.
Mr. Takano, a company employee, announces plans to take an early retirement so he can return to his home town and spend his days fishing. Su-san and Hama-chan envy his decision, and Hama-chan conspires to visit Takano, even though he has no vacation time left.
Furuta Oribe is ordered to become tea master under Toyotomi Hideyoshi after his teacher Sen no Rikyū, the former tea master, was ordered to commit suicide. Princess Goh, daughter of the lord but adopted by Hideyoshi, is outraged when Rikyū's severed head is thrown in the Nijo River. She sends Usu, Oribe's servant, to retrieve the head and deliver it to Rikyū's adopted daughter.
A young samurai dares to approach a castle mistress as he searches for an escaped falcon, a crime punishable by death, but escapes with his life. He is forced to return to the castle by the dying light, but the mistress has become fascinated with him...
A mysterious woman approaches a salaried man who leads a peaceful family life and tells him, "Your wife is having an affair with my husband." From this mysterious woman's words, the gears of a man's destiny begin to go mad.
Who Do I Choose? is a Japanese film directed by Shūsuke Kaneko.
Kageyama (Sho Sakurai) works as the butler for rich heiress Reiko Hosho (Keiko Kitagawa). Reiko happens to be a novice detective but lacks certain deductive skills needed by detectives. Because of this Reiko relies on Kageyamaa to help her solve cases. Meanwhile, Kageyama isn't afraid to mince words and often calls out Reiko with his sharp tongue!
Based on the short story from the best-selling collection "Poppoya" by Jiro Asada, "The Invitation from Cinema Orion" tells the story of a couple's undying love for the cinema and each other.
Hiroshi has given up on his dreams of becoming a painter and works part-time cleaning office windows. He learns that he has only 3 months left to live. During his last summer, high school student Mai appears. Hiroshi becomes attracted to her.
A strict, but caring mother has an awakening when she is told she has cancer and it is terminal. She has a few months. She needs to complete her tasks in that short time frame.
After dying in a bus crash and falling to hell, high schooler Daisuke joins a demonic rock band so he can be reincarnated back into the mortal world.
The story of Osamu Dazai, one of Japan's most celebrated novelists, absorbed in alcohol and love; married and in a relationship with two other lovers.
At the end of World War II, a secret human experiment was being conducted in Manchuria, which was in the sphere of influence of the Japanese military. One man's face was to be transformed into that of a completely different person through plastic surgery. Shortly after operation, Japanese military facility where the man was staying was involved in a battle and collapsed, and he disappeared. In 1948, a letter of warning from the Twenty Faces was posted on the wall of the Japanese Museum. The notice read, “All national treasures will be taken away. The police, aware of the warning letter, rush to the Japanese Museum...
In the town of Saima, when summer is about to begin, a group of six high school students intend to live a secret adventure by spending seven carefree days in a ruined mining facility.
Based on "Kaidan Botan Dango" by Sanyutei Encho, a rakugo storyteller who was active from the late Edo period to the Meiji era, Kara Juro was in charge of the script. A feature-length historical drama depicting a fierce and painful love story between ghosts and humans. Impressive artistic and fantastic painting with depth as if you were watching the stage. In all, this work is a beautiful, love horror fantasy.
Sakurako, an aspiring model living in a flat in downtown Rome, is chosen as the new character of the conglomerate.
Behind-the-scenes making-of for "Tony Takitani". The film "Tony Takitani" was shot in a vacant lot in Yokohama for about two weeks. The camera follows the interaction between director Ichikawa and the stars Issey Ogata and Rie Miyazawa, as well as the staff running around the set. It captures the process of the film being completed.
Akira, who runs marriage scams, is chased after by Army Surgeon Hanaoka and his colleagues, who are collecting “things that will disappear in the 20th century” by Imperial edict. When he ran away and came to the Tottori Sand Dunes, he meets deaf, blind and mute Heren Kera (a Japanese Helen Keller), who lives with a tutor, Saribaba. He is soon caught but becomes invisible man in an accident. However, he is visible to one person: Kera. The story of the play Tomei Ningen no Yuge (The Kiss of an Invisible Man) is overflowing with diverse motifs, including “Romeo and Juliet,” “The Miracle Worker,” the mythological world in the age of the gods, the River Styx and Hades. It develops further to cover World War II and the Imperial system, and together with skillful language play, a theatrical world unfolds in all directions.
A group image drama set at the end of the war depicting the unknown struggle of Japanese people who faced the difficult issues.
One day, Shiro's all-time favorite idol Mami Mitsuya suddenly appears right in front of him! Even though this meeting left him excited, his partner Kenji ends up unhappy. Moreover, the appearance of a new partner and Shiro's work situation have led to the relationship between the two changing...
In a coastal town by the Sea of Japan, a tyrannical father has rendered his son mute. Now the boy lives with his mother, but she is barely home working in the nightlife industry. Without a place to belong, the boy decides to go to his birthplace to search for his father. This action changes the course of his life.