Thirteen years after abandoning his wife and two sons by stepping out for a pack of cigarettes and never returning, deadbeat gambler Masato dies of stomach cancer. At his funeral, a motley crew of fellow mahjong players, pachinko parlor employees and former drinking buddies gather to pay their respects and tell stories, revealing aspects of Masato’s life that complicate his sons’ resentment towards him.
(Ab)normal Desire (2023)
Director Yoshiyuki Kishi and screenwriter Takehito Minato—the team behind acclaimed boxing epic Wilderness—reunite to adapt Ryo Asai's prize-winning novel. A sensitive drama about the aberrant in a society without regard for diversity, the story unites characters trying to hide abnormalities: a prosecutor who is worried that his pubescent son is a shut-in, an introverted saleswoman with a peculiar habit, and a student tortured by feelings she can’t express. In a world fill with abnormalities, what if it’s actually normal to be abnormal?
MacArthur's Children (1984)
In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the sudden occupation of General MacArthur and his troops.
Vengeance Is Mine (1979)
A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)
With a price on his head, Ichi seeks tranquillity in a favorite village. Since his last visit, it has fallen prey to Boss Masagoro, the son of a merchant rumored to have stolen gold from the shogunate. The boss has hired Yojimbo as his hard-drinking enforcer, but Yojimbo is both a spy for the shogunate, trying to find the gold, and in love with the merchant's unwilling mistress, Umeno. Ichi hires on as the merchant's masseur and buys Umeno's freedom with his employer's own money. This embarrasses Yojimbo who withdraws from a pact with Ichi to stir up trouble between father and son and their gangs. As the two sides fight, Ichi finds the gold and sets up a final set of confrontations.
Suspect X (2008)
A male corpse is discovered with a smashed face and burned hands. Strangely, the cause of death is determined to be strangulation. When Detective Kaoru Utsumi attempts to corroborate the victim’s ex-wife’s alibi she discovers the mysterious neighbor and only a few small clues to help her disprove a seemingly "airtight" alibi...
Heaven and Earth (1990)
Warlords Kagetora and Takeda each wish to prevent the other from gaining hegemony in feudal Japan. The two samurai leaders pursue one another across the countryside, engaging in massive battles of cavalry and infantry. Younger and less brutal, Kagetora must find the strength to be as brutal as his opponent, but at what cost?
Ten Years Japan (2018)
Five short stories from five different directors set ten years in Japan's future.
Pandemic (2009)
ER doctor Tsuyoshi Matsuoka receives a patient with a virus unlike anything he's seen before. His symptoms include high fever, convulsions, vomiting of blood and multiple organ failure. Could this be a new form of influenza or is it some other variety of virus? As the situation worsens and more cases begin arriving, a medical officer from the World Health Organization named Eiko Kobayashi is dispatched to the area. At the rate the virus is spreading, the entire city’s transportation system and infrastructure would be brought to a halt within 3 months. Within 6 months it could spread to tens of millions of people--reaching a death toll far worse than any war.
Rikyu (1989)
Late in the 1500s, an aging tea master teaches the way of tea to a headstrong Shogun. Through force of will and courageous fighting, Hideyoshi becomes Japan’s most powerful warlord, unifying the country.
The Insect Woman (1963)
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
Wake Island (1942)
In late 1941, with no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island base.
The Three Sisters of Tenmasou Inn (2022)
Tenmasou is a long-established inn atop a mountain overlooking the sea, in a town called Mitsuse that exists between heaven and earth. The inn is run by Nozomi Tenma, the proprietress. Her younger sister Kanae works as a dolphin trainer. Their mother Keiko is the inn's elder proprietress, who is still resentful of her ex-husband that deserted his wife and family.
Outrage (2010)
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
We Are Little Zombies (2019)
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.
What's Up Connection (1990)
When a Hong Kong teenager from a poor family wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from his secluded fishing village to Tokyo. On the way, he connects with a barely competent tour guide and a gender-fluid pickpocket. Upon returning home with this merry band of schemers, he and his family of counterfeiters discover that a multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village, and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.
Dangerous Drugs of Sex (2020)
An elite salaryman drunkenly tries to die by suicide, but is saved by a mysterious stranger who holds him captive and sexually torments him.
Caterpillar (2010)
The story of a village woman given the grueling task of looking after (and fulfilling the sexual needs of) her quadruple amputee husband, a Japanese soldier in the Second Sino-Japanese War who has been decreed a "War God" by the Emperor.
Sound of the Mountain (1954)
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.