Asuka is an aspiring model who moves to Tokyo to pursue her career. She moves into a small apartment with a friend of a friend, Kasumi. A bizarre murder occurs in the hotel across the street. The body was mutilated and repositioned into a lurid work of art. After this, a string of murders start happening all around the two girls, as if some crazed serial killer was following them. At the scene of each crime, the perpetrator leaves a black lip print, and is subsequently dubbed "The Black Kiss.
An artist dealing with the grief of his wife leaving him finds solace in painting the squalor of the sewer. He discovers a trapped mermaid, whom he brings home to heal. Her condition worsens, and she asks the artist to paint her before she dies.
A fictional account of the life of Japanese author Yukio Mishima, combining dramatizations of three of his novels and a depiction of the events of November 25th, 1970.
When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.
A young man awakens in the hospital after an accident wipes his memory. Fascinated by a textbook full of drawings of dissections, Hiroshi is drawn to medical school. There he catches the eye of a fellow student, but it's another who becomes his obsession: the dead woman on the cadaver table.
In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose.
When a new employee from a well-off family begins working for the first she had understood that she is walking into a fabulous working environment. This is what they call a 'white company.' Instead, she is in for a rude shock when the employer turns out to be a 'black company,' which is one with a negative environment, a rude boss, problematic co-workers, abuse and low pay. The employee's father runs a company that happens to go broke. She herself is not a model employee exactly however.
War photojournalist Yasuyuki Tsukahara married popular manga artist Yuki Sonoda and had children. Because of Yasayuki's drinking problems the couple divorced. Yasuyuki is now coughing up blood, hospitalized, and violent. Even with all of these problems Yasuyuki can't give up drinking alcohol. His family gets tired. Yasuyuki is then hospitalized in an alcoholic ward. There he finds comfort living with other patients and having conversations with doctors. With the help of his family, Yasuyuki recovers mentally and physically, but his body has already paid a heavy toll.
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.
Kitaro is a half human, half creature who keeps an eye on the human society to save them from the evil attacks from another world. He finds that a magical ball that controls all powers had been brought into the human world, and stops it from falling into the wrong hands.
A young man gets thrown into detention after an episode of sexual assault; he soon meets several impostors in the same situation.
One morning, Haruki comes to school wearing goggles. His classmates make fun of him as usual, but the goggles are meant to hide the bruises from the abuse he received from his father.
A salaryman debates selling his grandfather's land to pay off his father's debt.
Shipwrecked African-American slaves arrive in the midst of Bakumatsu-era Japan; they soon carve out a niche in the market with their musical talents.
The eldest daughter, Masami, who ran away from home three years ago and hadn't heard from her father and sister who run the ramen shop "Kogawa Shokudo" in Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture, suddenly returns.
In the black market, a war orphan is confronted with the struggles of people living in the immediate aftermath of WWII.
The story of Henri Mitowa, a 93-year old Japanese monk, who wants to make a movie based on his own life.
In a remote area of Hokkaido, two lonely high school students meet and connect through a shared love of music.
"Tales of the Bizarre: 2023 Fall Special" (世にも奇妙な物語 '23秋の特別編) is a Japanese anthology drama that aired on Fuji TV on November 11, 2023. This special presents four unique, mysterious tales. Episode summaries: 1. "The Eternal Two" An assistant accused of murder alters reality with a mysterious button. 2. "False Accusation in Hell" A lawyer defends a deceased man in Hell, uncovering shocking truths. 3. "Transistor Compression Contest" A fierce competition to compress a magazine leads to unexpected rivalries. 4. "Set Your Life's Playlist in Advance" A life-caster builds an AI idol, unveiling secrets from her past.
Two swim-team members, a hairless boy and a hirsute girl, discover the pangs and tangles of first love.
This is a biographical film about the late Yoko Araki, who was the wife of Japan's leading photographer, Nobuyoshi Araki.
A struggling model and a troubled divorcee face loneliness and desperation in Tokyo.
During Muraishi's time in prison for fraud, he recalls his past and learns a power to penetrate and cure others. Upon release, he goes to Hakodate, where he can find his ex-wife, Kiriko. Though he cures a lot of people on the way and believes that he is the only one to make Kiriko happy, he is being depressed by discovering a guy together with her.
Teenager Kazuki Miyaichi has always felt unloved by her mother due the circumstances surrounding her birth. Because she harbors anxiety and perceives herself as being worthless to others, she engages in acts of juvenile delinquency. One day, a transfer student from Yokohama named Eri introduces her to Hiroshi Haruyama, a reckless youth who’s a member of the “Nights” motorcycle gang. Kazuki finds herself increasingly drawn to Hiroshi over time, but he soon becomes leader of the Nights and gets caught up in a conflict with a rival gang.
Physician Kohei Taguchi and Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare investigator Shiratori soon become involved in major reforms to the death investigation system of the country and localities when a letter arrives threatening the destruction of Tojo University Hospital and Kerberos Tower in 3 months. Before the pair are able to uncover the truth, an unprecedented rash of suspicious deaths occur which can’t be explained through autopsy. On the day of the AI (Autopsy Imaging) Center’s opening and introduction of a revolutionary new MRI machine called “Leviathan”, further incidents rock the medical community.
On board at the boat Kanikosen, where fish and crabs preserves, forced workers to work under miserable conditions, with minimum wages. Some can not cope with conditions and even death from malnutrition, and is also the supervisor of the more vicious variety. Shinjo, one of the employees, trying to convince the others that they will get good luck and fortune in his next life, and persuades them because they commit suicide to get there faster. It ends, however, in a single major failure. Rather than flee Shinjo being picked up by a Russian ship. Once there, he is overwhelmed by the social conditions that are completely different from those he has just left and decided therefore to return to Kanikosen to save their employees.
"Atlanta Boogie" centers around a mock track meet between the "normal" and "good" citizens of Yokohama and those they want to expel from the neighborhood: the illegal foreign workers, the deadbeats, the juvenile delinquents, and elderly.
Three tales that center around sex and citizens of Tokyo: A repressed woman embraces her sexuality, ("Birthday"), an unexpected reunion disrupts a sex worker's routine ("Night Lovers"), and a sex blogger discovers connection in the depths of loneliness ("Girl's Life").
Yokubo from director Tetsuo Shinohara is based off of the award-winning love story by Mariko Koike. A young man searching for physical comfort and dumb lust, and the world-weary woman drowning in a sea of men that works with him. This is a fantastic new film from a remarkably skilled cast about "the beauty of sensualism."
Shiori's blog attracts the attention of Ayumi, a timid 13-year-old girl. Ayumi's growing infatuation takes an unforeseen turn when she runs away from home and infiltrates Shiori's life.
In suburban Tokyo in 1945, years of war and concentrated air raids by US forces have left the city in tatters and the population poor, tired, and hungry. The 19-year-old Satoko and her mother bide their time working nominal jobs and trying to stave off hunger. A displaced aunt turns up looking for shelter, but she is just another hungry mouth to feed. Satoko is becoming a woman and is drawn to the only eligible man in the neighborhood. This is a decidedly quiet film that focuses on a single character and her survival in dire circumstances in the spring of her life.
A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo.
Saya Toma is a female detective with an IQ of 201. Takeru Sebumi is a career detective with a distinguished background. They work on cases by postulating the "SPEC" of the unknown criminals and then deduce the criminal's unknown "SPEC" to make arrests. A mystery occurs when bodies are found on a cruiser in the ocean. Saya Toma and Ryo Kase of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department are brought in to solve the case.
Ataru, who suffers from “savant syndrome,” has the power to discover, observe, see through, and deduct microscopic evidence of unsolved cases. Why does he always go to the criminal sites? What explains his strange behavior? Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds with Ataru and a woman named Madoka, who is a killer. The woman possesses the same extraordinary memory and deductive reasoning abilities as Ataru. Who is she?
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.
Ando can't accept this his daughter Kana committed suicide. Kana fell from the ledge of a school building and died. Ando attempts to find out the truth behind his daughter's death. He becomes suspicious of his daughter's former classmate, Saki. Saki isn't a typical high school student and she aspires to work in show business. She dominates her high school with her charisma.
In March, 2017, at a small town, six boys and girls are selected through auditions. They work hard to prepare for a play, but the play is suddenly cancelled. These young people are disappointed at the news. One girl says "let's practice." The six boys and girls want to stand on stage no matter what.
Based on the book of the same name by Rieko Matsuura, the film depicts an ultimate love between two women.
A housewife was killed by a falling fire extinguisher, which a boy of seven years dropped from the top floor of an apartment. The offender, however, was not accused because he was too young. Ten years later, a series of murders occur, which target young girls only. It is the boy accused of killing the housewife who comes up in the couse of investigation, while the son of the murdered mother is the witness of a new murder. When the two families of the offender and of the victim meet again, two opposite morals conflict with each other – one is to crack down on the sin beyond the law and another is to disapprove the retaliation.
Matsunaga Yasuzaemon was a man called “Electricity Monster”. The post-war recovery and high economic growth serve as the basis for him to achieve the breakup and privatisation of the electricity business. As a follower of Fukuzawa Yukichi, he inherited the spirit of independence, self-respect and the people. He rose up alone from the ruins of the war. It was the fight of an unconventional, stubborn old man over 70 with an indomitable will. Minister of Trade and Industry Ikeda Hayato admired Matsunaga like a father while Prime Ministers Yoshida Shigeru and Konoe Fumimaro, Shirasu Jiro (Takagawa Yuya) and others were in awe of his unfathomable passion.
When a new, smart and sweet Tokyo girl, Rumiko, starts at a rural elementary school, Akira finds himself smitten, like every other male pupil. Newcomer's popularity is contrasted with the less-tolerant treatment of scruffy Hideko, who, thanks to the arrival of a carnival freak-show in town, is nicknamed the Wolf Girl. Teachers and parents snootily consider the carny off-limits, but Akira is determined to find out whether Hideko really is a wolf girl.
A group of four friends and lovers in their forties recall their past intimacies while trying to build new ones.
Onodera Yuriko sets off for Sweden where her husband, Major General Onodera Makoto, is stationed as a military attache in Stockholm during World War II. Called the "god of intelligence", Makoto is an intelligence officer of the Russian service of the Japanese Army General Staff. Fluent in Russian and German and trusted by the spies of many countries because of his integrity, his office would eventually become the most important Japanese intelligence post in Europe. From the day of her arrival in Stockholm, Yuriko helps her husband's intelligence activities. She encrypts the highly classified information obtained by Makoto and sends it in coded telegrams to the General Staff Headquarters in Japan every day. Husband and wife have jointly undertaken this intelligence work for confidentiality.
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.
An anthology film consisting of three linked stories by different directors, all set on an Okinawan island. The first story, 'Aunt Reiko' concerns an opera singer who travels back to her home island to consult a spiritualist about the loss of her voice. The second story, 'Haruko & Hideyoshi' concerns an outsider to the island who is tricked into marrying an island girl after visiting the island god of fertility with her. The final story, 'Bomb Kids' concerns two kids in a punk band who set out to win (or steal) a large amount of money. Linking these stories is the ongoing search for an unexploded WWII bomb, a large model pineapple, and the possibility of a hotel development coming to the island...
After suffering through a long and unsuccessful series of fertility treatments, Satoko and her husband Kiyokazu make the decision to adopt a child. Six years after adopting a boy they named Asato, Satoko has quit her job to concentrate fully on her husband and son. The family lives a peaceful existence until the arrival of a stranger.
Deceptively real, and even described by Tony Rayns as a 'ciné-vérité essay'. Entirely in the tradition of the better mockumentary, the news crew making the film plays a decisive role. Before the grand hype of commercial reality television, Riju Go made it clear what the consequences are of penetrating too deeply into the private world of the person followed. A beautiful portrait of an absolute loner.
Kumi lives a hippie-like life in Tokyo's outskirts. One night while drunk she stumbles into an abandoned industrial site, except in addition to deserted factories, it is full of forests and greenery. She decides to move there, even further away from the civilization she had already left.
A unique black comedy set in Ginza Cinepathos, a long-established movie theater that closes at the end of March 2013 while being familiar to movie fans with its retro appearance and unique lineup. Unique guests visiting the theater draw a human pattern during breaks.
Tsutsui, an office worker, marries Hitomi, who has a son from a previous marriage. However, one day, he realizes that something is missing in the life he chose.
Nao, who disagrees with her boyfriend often and tends to skip class, gets offered by her father, Hirokazu, to join Aya, who is about to be his third wife, on a trip to Taiwan for a week. In contrast to Nao who is reluctant, Aya wants to get to know her future step daughter better. Eating, walking, meetng people. Will this experience change Nao?
In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actors who get involved in misadventures while on set.
Two holes appear suddenly on the walls of a cheap apartment where a piddling fiction writer, Makiguri, lives. What he wrote fiercely after that was his own death.
Kazuo Kudo returns to his hometown of Hakodate with his wife because of his autonomic ataxia. Kazuo, who is not able to work and has to attend the psychiatry regularly, continues to run in the city of Hakodate for mental treatment on sunny days and rainy days. When Kazuo comes to communicate with the young people he meets on the street, something begins to change...
When a hooded stranger appears in private eye 'Mike' Hama's office with the cryptic challenge "I want you to look for me," Hama is drawn into a string of bizarre serial murders that have Yokohama's police baffled and the city terrified.
Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. Through a series of double-crosses Hama gets embroiled in a gang war and a revenge plot between the two brothers
Corry, a French coordinator of pediatric heart transplants is sent to Japan where organ donation remains taboo. As she fights to save a young boy, her partner Jin, a photographer from Yakushima, suddenly vanishes.