Hiroko Matsuda

After failing her university entrance exam, Sakuko is invited by her aunt Mikie to spend summer vacation in a beautiful seaside town. Sakuko gets to know the people of the town, including Takashi, a shy relative of her childhood friend.

When Koichi Hamanaka returns after his mysterious disappearance years earlier, journalist Asakura who befriended Hamanaka's wife during his absence, tries to piece together the reasons for his departure.

Theatre 1 (Observational Film Series #3) is a feature length documentary, which closely depicts the world of Oriza Hirata, Japan's leading playwright and director, and his theatrical company, Seinendan. By depicting them, the film leads the audience to revisit fundamental but timely questions: What is theatre? Why do human beings act?

Just before the end of World War II, the Yalta Conference was held by the “Big Three” Allied leaders: Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States, Winston Churchill of Britain, and Joseph Stalin of the USSR. Japanese theater company Seinendan reimagines their conversations about postwar rule and power as a darkly humorous satire.

Former punk rocker Jonen, now a Buddhist priest, seems to have lost the meaning of his life. His manic depression handicaps him further. Music seems to be the only solution for him to exorcise his demons, against all obstacles and sound volume controllers.

Haruhiko Nakayama is vice principal at a Japanese school, where he takes care of everything and dreams of finally becoming principal. But after a teacher no longer turns up for lessons, Nakayama has to teach a primary school class again after more than 20 years. He encounters such great challenges that he soon begins to doubt his profession.

After losing their restaurant in a fire, a husband and wife come up with a strange plan to rebuild their shattered finances: marrying the husband off to a series of lonely women and defrauding them.

In a near future where allergies have become an epidemic, music producer Haru half-heartedly dates post office clerk and mail thief Michi. He searches for violent ways to reactivate his life, she dreams of escaping abroad; both volunteer to test a new drug which may provide a cure.

Jun is a university student. She meets high school student Haru. Haru is looking for Sachiko, the ex-girlfriend of her now deceased father. Jun and Haru meet Tokio. Tokio is the grandson of Sachiko and they learn that Sachiko is now deceased. They find an open-reel tape from Sachiko's articles.

Shibuya Haruko is a high school student living in Tokyo. One night, she is instantly smitten by Kanagawa Kenichi, who is lying prone on a bridge. But Kenichi becomes far more interested in a girl he impulsively hits on, Mayumi, over the high-spirited Haruko.

Saeki works with death-row convicts as a prison chaplain. He tries to instill the prisoners with a sense of morality and help them become a better person. He is a good communicator with the death-row convicts assigned to solitary cells. Saeki agonizes over whether his words really touches the prisoners and whether he is doing the right thing. Saeki also faces his past which he wants to forget. --asianwiki

Toshihide works as a doctor at a clinic located by the sea. One day, he meets Ako. She looks exactly like the woman he admires. Due to her, his heart flutters. Soon, Toshihide realizes that Ako is not his ideal woman. A case leads to Ako to begin living with Toshihide and his family. Living with the warm-hearted family, Ako slowly regains herself and becomes a person with a truthful and honest mind.

Two children, each abandoned by their families, come together in the wake of the Sarin gas attack in Tokyo. Based on the true events of the deadly gas attacks perpetrated by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult on the Tokyo subway system.

In the near future of a Japan, the ancient 'Act of Vengeance' is revived and professional executioners are permitted to kill criminals by the requests from their victims. People who are to be executed are notified of the execution time and date in advance and they are allowed to have their own guard.

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.

Follows the life of an Office Lady who gets through her tedious work days by dreaming of a legendary soup and soup chef she's heard of. She decides to go in search of it.

This is the story of a man living quietly under an assumed identity, when a mysterious woman suddenly appears in his life. It is the directorial debut of soundtrack composer Yoshihiro Hanno.

Each year, at the start of the fall school year in September, Japan suffers from typhoons. That same month, in a small elementary school in a mountainous region, Saburô, a new red-haired pupil has just arrived with the wind. The children of the village thought they recognized in this strange boy who came from the city the spirit that they called “Matasaburô, the wind”. During two weeks of autumn, Matasaburô and the other children will do various experiments in nature.