Haruko Mabuchi

Banana, Gloves and Whale Shark

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.

The story opens with Yukiko and her business partner in Moscow searching for Russian items for their store in Tokyo. There they meet a Russian translator, Nicholai, played by Sergei Nakariakov - a trumpeter from Russia. Some months later after they have returned, Nicholai and Yukiko meet again while he is auditioning for the Tokyo orchestra where seeds of romance begin. Yukiko's father, however, is diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. Yukiko returns home to be with him in his final months as he decides not to go through therapy and let the disease run its course. Coming into contact with a childhood friend while at home Yukiko is left to choose between her old friend and Nicholai, all while having to face the emotional struggle of dealing with her father's impending death.

No synopsis available yet.

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.

A difficult request brought to the unlicensed genius surgeon Black Jack. It was supposed to be born as twins, but it was an operation to separate what had been taken into another body. The second in a series depicting the episode of the birth of Pinoko.

Maiko is a recently widowed young woman travelling to Bali to distract herself from the loss of her husband, Esau. At the airport she meets Kioko, who gives her a dagger and a photo of a woman. She tells Maiko she must find the woman, Shireni, in Bali and convince her to return to Japan, or she must use the dagger to kill her. Soon after her arrival in Bali she meets Shireni and is invited to stay with her. Quickly Maiko finds herself trapped on Shirini's island paradise, by her own confusion and her developing love for Shireni. She discovers Shireni to be immortal, a former spirit medium whose only goal is to find pleasure, body and soul.

A young detective is assigned to stake out the apartment of an elderly woman. He sets up his video camera and monitor in an empty room opposite hers-and watches.

Tora-san gets into an argument with his uncle and sets out on the road again. In Kyushu he meets a young woman named Keiko and the shy zoologist Saburō, and attempts to play matchmaker between the two when they all return to Tokyo.

BJ is a relatively unknown blues singer who scraps some bars in Yokohama. He does not earn much with it and to make ends meet he also acts as a private detective.

A hard-working section chief, fast approaching retirement and beset by stress from all directions, joins a jazz band and reignites his youthful passion for the music, giving him a chance to set things right in his life.

Intellectual collegue professor Sasa becomes obsessed with beautiful Sugiko, a virgin. Eventually, luring her to a love hotel.

No synopsis available yet.

On August 9, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This film, based on a story by Mitsukaru Inoue, describes the daily life of people in Nagasaki the day before that fateful event. It presents the human drama of people's lives, and their feelings of joy and sadness. These include a newlywed couple, an expectant mother, and lovers who must say farewell because the boy is called to serve in the army. Each of these people, like others in the city, hoped to live with their dreams for ‘tomorrow’. But tomorrow never comes for them, as their lives are brought to an abrupt and unexpected end. Knowing how the story ends, in this case, doesn't detract from it at all; rather, it enhances the emotional impact, which is further heightened by the poignant musical score from Teizo Matsumura. 'Ashita' is the first film in Kazuo Kuroki's 'War Requiem Trilogy,' which also includes 'Utsukushii Natsu Kirishima' (2002) and 'Chichi to Kuraseba' (2004).

The mysterious behavior and psychology of a woman who gave birth to and abandoned her lover's children twice and went on a honeymoon with another man.

Tateo, young and neurotic, wishes to leave the village his mother has raised him in.

Japanese animation adaptation of a 19th century French novel: A boy is given up by his foster parents to a traveling performer.

A rare film about the Zainichi and the relations between Japan and South Korea. It is the first feature film ever directed by a zainichi director to explore these issues.

Tied to a mountain between her brutalizing spouse and her secret lover, disaster strikes; the authorities accuse her of murder and prompt a confession.

Fukagawa's chef Ushimatsu of the restaurant Kawatake fell in love with a maid named Omame and changed dramatically. He stopped gambling and womanizing much to the surprise of his friends. As their wedding day approached, Minosuke who had long been infatuated with Omame threatened her mother Okuma by using a promissory note for three ryō that he lent to her.

Hisaya Morishige is Kyutaro, a nuclear physicist and his twin brother, Eiji, a con man. Eiji finally hits on his most elaborate scheme yet, to pretend to be a king of a remote, undiscovered island, and becomes a media sensation.

After Shuichiro moved to Tokyo, the Tanno family became completely female, including Mrs. Tanno, Shuichiro's daughter-in-law Manzuko, painter Takashiro Egi, Shizu Kazemaki, Mitsue Nanbu, an intellectual who works in a university laboratory, and an old woman.

At Shizumoto, a geisha shop not far from Ginza, a group of geisha are going about their day, putting up a modest resistance to the tragedies of life. The proprietress, Ikuyo, is a ridiculously good-natured woman who gives money to a poor but brilliant young man, Eisaku Yanoguchi, to attend college on the condition that he will take care of her in the future.