Fusako Urabe

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

An unapologetic former sex worker starts working at a bento stand in a small seaside town, bringing comfort to the lonely souls who come her way.

A family moves into a house, but discover that it is haunted by a murdered girl.

Diagnosed with dementia, Yuriko's mind quickly begins to fade. Yet, for her son Izumi, memories of the mother feel as vivid as when he lived them. One in particular, when he believed she had disappeared, haunts him terribly.

Eight years after the devastating tsunami, the wounds it left in Japan have still not healed. In her touching search for answers, Haru sets out on a long, eventful journey to her home town, where she lost her family in the flood.

Yukiko, a 29-year-old elementary school teacher in Tokyo, struggles with student communication and personal insecurities. Overlooked in the “Favorite Teacher Ranking” and uneasy about her boyfriend’s marriage hints, she finds solace in hip-hop. Yet, in her first rap battle, she is completely overwhelmed by her opponent. This story follows Yukiko’s journey to discover the meaning of living authentically.

Following her parents' sudden death, publishing company employee Naomi Kobayakawa moves into a high-rise occupied by those close to her. However, she is still lonely, but one day, she meets popular actor Morinori Tokito, with whom she develops a romance.

Yuji Takanashi is a university philosophy professor who can't swim. Making awkward justifications to himself about the relationship between water and people, still he decides on the spur of the moment to enroll in a swimming class. There he encounters the teacher Shizuka Usuhara, who ignores his last-minute hesitation and enrolls him.

Nishi, a former delinquent and an ex-convict, runs a countryside rehabilitation facility for juvenile delinquents where they grow vegetables and do community work. Kaito, a junior high school delinquent who hangs out with criminals, is sent to Nishi's facility after vandalizing his school. Nishi tries his best to straighten out Kaito, but his old-fashioned and violent methods eventually cause his troubled past to get media attention.

Matagi is a group of hunters who lives in the mountains and targets wild animals including bears, but now more and more bear hunting is forbidden by the government. This is a story of two young matagi who struggle in their dying culture.

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Deep in the forest, as Sora is pressured to finish a high-paying kidnapping gig, a monstrous bear suddenly appears. A chaos-driven fight for survival erupts.

On a normal day, a stranger breaks into Sumire's apartment and assaults her. Sumire reacts incredibly calmly to the incident, but she still feels the dangers and uncertainties creeping upon her. All that seem to be peaceful and ordinary start to collapse. As everything slips toward the unexpected, Sumire starts writing again, and reinvestigating the relationships around her.

A socially-distanced college reunion, an unusual rapport struck between a food delivery man and a patron, a bus-stop encounter, and a blind woman scammed into thinking her brother is sick constitute the stories of Mayu Nakamura’s COVID-era quadriptych—a work that encapsulates the newfound anxieties of loneliness, insecurity and the struggle for connection within the depths of the pandemic lockdown. Tied together by the remarkable performances of actress Nahana, who embodies the various female characters across the film’s differing narratives, Nakamura’s episodic feature delves into the lives of women in COVID-era Japan, finding profundity and human connection amid the unlikely encounters of strangers.

After his father-in-law Makoto fractures his leg, young professional Yuta travels from his home in Tokyo to a rural town in Kyushu to take care of the older man and help out in his old-fashioned photo studio.

Three people from a former theater club get back in touch for the first time in 20 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of them have led completely different lives, but an absent woman continues to cast a shadow over them. This story takes place over one night, and explores the themes of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and connections between people.

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

An old couple, their only son, the son's wife, a young man and his lover live peacefully in a village. Then, a terrifying earthquake strikes that causes a nearby nuclear station to explode. The residents must evacuate, but the family lives on a farm, with only half of the area designated as an evacuation area.

Yuki is a 2nd year high school student. She volunteers at a paediatrics ward for her summer vacation, because she wants to witness the moment a person dies. She got that thought after feeling envious of a transfer student's story of seeing a friend's dead body. Yuki has friend named Atsuko. She was bullied in the past and has anxiety issues. She volunteers at a nursing home for her summer vacation, hoping that she will gain courage if she sees the moment a person dies.

A nostalgic human drama based on Dazai Osamu Prize winner Tsujiuchi Tomoki's novella. Set in a declining coal-mining town in 1950s Fukuoka, the story depicts a rambunctious but pure-hearted young boy in love with an older woman. Director Hirayama Hideyuki and writer Chong Wishing, both from Begging for Love (Ai o kou hito), join hands again to make this film. Michiyo (Koyuki) has left Tokyo for Fukuoka with her son Mamoru (Ikematsu Sosuke) after divorcing her husband. The story follows Mamoru's memories of his time spent with the notorious rebel Shinichi (Ishida Takuya), who stood up for him against bullies.

A young man moves from the countryside to Tokyo, while experiencing hardships and happiness, in his pursuit to become a comics artist.

Suffering from heartbreak and asthma, 23-year-old Toshiyuki pushes the limits of his body to chase the ghost of his recently deceased boyfriend against the black-blue backdrop of Tokyo’s cityscape. -JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film

The semi-autobiographical story of a underground comedian in Tokyo, with a cast that features acts performing in the underground circuit today.

A small yet moving dance film that follows Machi—who cannot speak nor hear—her best friend, and a wanted man with whom Machi falls in love with.

Kazuo Murata is a detective who has lost his wife and eventually the meaning of his existence.

In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.

A young couple's announcement of their engagement to their friends is followed by a series of interactions and conflicts that forces everyone to reflect on their lives.

The movie revolves around Mitsuba, who studies traditional art of rakugo. Rakugo is a form of comical story telling, sometimes referred to as sit-down comedy. Even though Mitsuba is mediocre at best, he ends up teaching three students.

Yuichiro is a college student whose sister went missing 15 years ago. That traumatic event hangs over him like a pall as he wanders Japan's S&M clubs. But his younger brother claims to be able to sense their sister with his "antenna".

Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.

A young-at-heart widower leads an independent life in a quiet fishing town in northern Japan. He eases his loneliness by walking in the snow and studying the growth of fish at a breeding center.

Lee Jin Il is dropped from South Korea's curling team. Kimura Izumi is an unsuccessful actress. These two meet through a series of events, and with the help of their friends, form a curling team and aim for the Olympics.

Meet NIPPORI Ayumu, an 80 year-old man, who, due to a serious heart condition, has spent sixty years of his life confined to his house. One morning, he wakes up believing himself to be twenty again. In his mind, he has become the youthful young man that he once was. However, reality fails to keep up with his illusion, and everything around him seems to be quite different from what he is used to. So, he decides that he is simply dreaming. As his reality becomes his dream, his unhappy world turns into a life enriched with happiness and expectations for the future. Ayumu is now enjoying his life to the full again.