Yoriko Doguchi

In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a single night.

The 1923 Kanto earthquake sparks fears of a Korean uprising in Japan. Many anti-colonial and leftist activists are arrested, including Fumiko and her partner Yeol. Accused of a plot to assassinate the Crown Prince, they are sentenced to death, later reduced to life in prison.

Maki Yoshioka is a novelist and mother. She has been experiencing writer's block. One day, she gets into a disagreement with her neighbor Miwako Wakata over a futon. Maki gets harassed by Miawako increasingly more as the days pass. She decides to write about Miwako Wakata in a novel, but this has unexpected consequences. The small quarell becomes a media sensation.

A haunted melody, a used record one must possess. At any cost. Adapted from Junji Ito's short story Used Record.

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

In January 1946 a British military transport plane departs from Shanghai on its to Tokyo, Japan. During the flight the airplane makes an emergency landing on Sado Island. The residents on the island have heard stereotypes of the British soldiers and have mixed feelings about the their new "guest." Nevertheless, for the next 40 days the islanders take care of the crew members until the plane can take off once again. This includes Chiyoko Morimoto who is the daughter of the inn owner where some of the British crew members stay.

Although her mother died when she was ten, Noriko still receives yearly birthday cards from her. Her life gets complicated as she grows older but she still finds comfort in her mother's messages.

The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.

Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes ...

A Crowd of Three tells the story of two men, Kenta & Jun, who grew up as almost brothers at a children's facility. Kenta & Jun now works as part of a demolition crew but become fed up with their jobs. The friends then decide to take a road trip up north to visit Kenta's brother at the Abashiri prison.

Shu Kubota is killed by someone with a baseball bat. A metal bat and an old toy are found at the crime scene. Detective Yoshito (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) with the special investigation unit goes to the crime scene to investigate. There, Detective Yoshito realizes that he made the old toy about 10 years ago when he worked at the public relations divsion of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Department. Detective Yoshito decides to solve the case by himself and without the help of his partner Detective Chinami (Kaho Minami). --asianwiki

Based on a true story, Yoshiko and Yuriko relates the journey and great love affair of Yoshiko, who was a renowned translator of Russian literature and drama, and Yuriko, who was a feminist novelist and great activist of the post-war democratic literature movement. Both have left huge marks on Japanese literary history. The two women shared a strong attraction to each other from their first meeting and enjoyed a powerful love affair. Yoshiko reveals that she's an out lesbian, whilst Yuriko is married (not altogether happily) to a well-known scholar - a situation she can't walk away from with ease.

High school student Tomoyuki (Hoshi Ishida), his father (Kazuhiro Sano), and Yuki (Miwako Wagatsuma), a girl that Tomyuki likes, gather together as a family and performs road shows out of their truck. A sense of loss, farewells, and relations are all brought out.

No synopsis available yet.

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

When elementary school teacher Kobayashi investigates the absence of one of his young pupils from the classroom, he finds himself at the doorstep of an anonymous suburban house that harbours a horrible secret, and into which all who enter are doomed.

A scientific exploration in search of a new energy source unleashes a group of powerful demons who begin possessing human bodies and destroying civilization. Close friends Akira and Ryo wind up on different sides of this epic struggle. Akira’s inner strength allows him to maintain his identity and fight for good, but the weaker Ryo is completely overtaken by Satan himself.

Film director Mario Baba meets a mysterious gentleman, and realizes he is a important man from his boyhood. The two chase each other around, causing a lot of commotion.

In the mountain hot springs of Izu, Japan, a love triangle is waiting to happen. It is the late 1930s when the paths of a stunning woman fleeing Tokyo, a handsome bachelor and a blind masseur cross.

Shinku is a compelling drama that focuses on the strange relationship that develops between two people who find their lives irrevocably changed as a result of a horrible multiple homicide. The first person traumatized is the lone survivor of the terrible family bloodbath, a girl who grows up to be a pretty college student. The second person affected by this heinous crime is the daughter of the murderer, a young girl who ends up becoming a tattooed bartender. A full decade after the crime, the killer is finally going to be executed, and the surviving member of the massacre decides to reach out and befriend the murderer's daughter. A tentative, odd sort of friendship blossoms between these two people, both of whom seem to have little in common personally, and every reason in the world for not wanting to meet. Yet they do, but not without reservations. And really, is this friendship quite what it seems? Or is it all part of some twisted plan for vengeance?

2004 film

Yuka, a troubled young woman who suddenly begins working part-time as a high-class call girl, finds unexpected romance while on the job.

Sakai's Happiness is a humorous and bittersweet portrayal of an ordinary family dealing with the challenges of everyday life.

After Japan's defeat in WWII, "Pandora no hako" follows a young man named Risuke who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. At the sanatorium all the patients and nurses go by nicknames and Risuke decides to reinvent himself as Hibari. During his stay, Hibari develops realationships with other patients and nurses. After Hibari's friend Tsuikushi gets discharged from the nursing facility, Hibari writes to him about his relationships with Dakesang the chief nurse and Mabo another nurse that is bright and seems to like him.

Dumped by a bored pet owner, a mixed-breed mutt ends up with three time loser Yasuyuki, who's loveless, homeless and jobless. Yasuyuki finds solace in the dog, whom he calls Tamura, and uses it to mend fences with his ex, who's distracted by her mother's debilitating illness. A trip to a hospital reveals Tamura's ability to comfort dying patients, leading to dog and master attending the real-life Japanese Therapy Dogs training school.

For no apparent reason, four strangers find themselves with a rope around their necks, balancing on an unstable chair. They will quickly realize that each of them has the code to remove the padlock blocking the rope of their left neighbour. But just when they were about to exchange the codes, one of the four people will make a revelation with serious consequences...

The story centers around the communication between a man who abruptly appears in a world 10,000 years in the future and a boy who lives in that world.

A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.

A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.

Following some trauma in her past that has since been repressed, a young woman is trying to recover her memories with the help of a psychiatrist. During her hypnosis sessions, she repeats the name "Tomie" but is unable to recall where she knows it from. Meanwhile, a police detective is investigating a string of brutal murders, where he also runs across the name "Tomie." How are the two connected?

An ex sumo wrestler turned corporate security guard goes on a murderous rampage at his place of employment.

During World War II, the Japanese military established a secret underground laboratory in Tokyo. Three Olympic-level athletes were selected to undergo a process that would turn them into Jinra-go, superhuman armored soldiers. By March 1945, one of the soldiers had been completely transformed into the half man/half machine ultimate soldier called Mikadroid. But American B-29s firebomb the city and, while the two super soldiers manage to escape, Mikadroid and the lab are apparently destroyed. 45 years pass, Tokyo is rebuilt, and old secrets are forgotten. The site is now home to a complex that includes the Discoclub Layla. The disco’s patrons dance late into the night, unaware that a faulty basement generator has reactivated Mikadroid and the cyborg now prowls the basement levels, killing anyone in its path...

People from all walks of life all receive mysterious messages from loved ones who were killed 3 months earlier in a shipwreck. They are instructed to go to a small island in the Inland Sea that evening.

Having fallen into a coma following a car accident at 14, Yutaka wakes ten years later and realizes that his family is no longer intact: father, mother and sister live at different places, so he decides to reopen the farm that his family once ran.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha, brings luck to the men she sleeps with, even though most are scoundrels who don’t deserve it.

Goro, a small-time thug who manages an adult video store, is approached with a proposal for a sham marriage. Seeing no option to refuse, he agrees to lend his family registry in exchange for money and the promise that he’d be “helping someone out.” His partner in the marriage is a Chinese woman named Bai Lan, who plans to use the money she earns after obtaining Japanese citizenship to support her family back home. Goro and Bai Lan meet only once, during her immigration screening, after which they each go their separate ways. A while later, Goro receives some unexpected news.

A romantic drama based on Eri Hiramatsu's hit song.

Japanese film directed by Masahiro Honda.

Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.

An old man falls into a coma and dreams about his childhood during WWII.

Having lost everything to horse racing, Yûji accidentally gets 10 million yen. But this sum belongs to a Yakuza.

Yuji and Kosaku become involved with a brother and sister who want to drive a local yakuza gang member out of their neighborhood.

Yûji and Kosaku are hired to track down an old man. But when he suddenly dies, his granddaughter surfaces with a map to his buried fortune, which the yakuza and a dirty cop are determined to find.

The TV movie is about a third-rate female lawyer who is an alcoholic, has a history of divorce, and only handles divorce settlements. She spends her days in a state of despondency, but when her estranged husband and daughter disappear, she embarks on a search, partly out of ambition.

A duo get mixed up with a girl who finds a trunk load full of heroin.

Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.

Documentary showing the production of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 1999 film Charisma

No synopsis available yet.

The former legendary assassin, now living as a bartender after washing his hands of a violent past, unleashes the hidden violence within. Known as the "Fox with Gentle Shoulders" based on his name, Kijou worked as a bartender at a bar run by his childhood friend Reiko. One day, his former comrade Tokumitsu appears, asking him to hold onto something, but Kijou refuses. Tokumitsu has escaped with two hundred million yen from the organization.

No synopsis available yet.

An original, ethereal poem created from Junichiro Tanizaki's famous original work.

No synopsis available yet.

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.

Country girl Akiko visits a Tokyo college in search of her hometown sweetheart. In the course of finding him, she runs into various odd inhabitants of the college campus–blasé intellectuals, horny co-eds, a psych professor in search of the theory of shame, and of course her beloved Yoshioka, who has become an elusive campus nobody.

2 almost inseparable friends. The talented painter recognized by all decided to leave the town where they live and become an artist and the shy poet who only sees his future in his mother's business.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.