2nd Japan Horror Film Awards: Winning Work

Keita discovers a missing boy in the woods and soon receives a mysterious videotape from his estranged mother.

Based on the murder of nine street peddlers in the aftermath of the Great Kanto earthquake.

Eiji Akutsu is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago. The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Eiji Akutsu comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Toshiya Sone lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days.

Mari and Humi learn from their mother that their father has dementia on his 70th birthday. They help prepare their mother for his farewell and prepare themselves for the emotions to follow.

Nagoya, 1983: Legendary filmmaker Koji WAKAMATSU decides to open a cinema – not least to show his own films. The Cinema Skhole quickly turns into a hot spot for local cinephiles. Junichi INOUE tells an empathetic and almost true story about motion picture enthusiasts in this loose sequel to Kazuya SHIRAISHI’s DARE TO STOP US.

In April 1941, months before the Pacific War begins, Japan’s brightest young elites, bureaucrats, military officers, and civilians, are secretly assembled at the Total War Research Institute. Tasked with simulating a conflict against the United States, they confront harsh realities through intense analysis.

In 1970s Japan, Satoshi Kirishima was a member of the "Scorpion Cell" of the East Asian Anti-Japan Armed Front, a recently formed left-wing extremist group. Wanted for a series of corporate bombings, he spent half a century evading capture while living under an assumed identity. What did he discover in the depths of his loneliness? What did he spend his life chasing?

Ko, a man in his late 30s, lives in the countryside with his wife and teenage son. Mitsuhiko, who runs a local car dealership, also stayed in his hometown. One day, their mutual friend Eisuke returns from a long military operation and their reunification brings back both pleasant and painful memories.

It is 1965, a time of rapid economic growth for Japan and also a time when the people called Sanka, a nomadic band of outcasts, were fading away. Having arrived at his father’s countryside estate from Tokyo to focus on preparing for his high school entrance exam, a lonely 15-year-old named Norio (Rairu Sugita) encounters three Sanka, first teenage Hana (Naru Komukai), then her father Shozo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) and her grandmother. Taken under their wing and drawn to their simple and rugged lifestyle, Norio begins to spend his summer days fishing in the rivers and catching snakes in the bush for food. He also witnesses how they are discriminated against by people like his authoritarian father who rejects their illogical lifestyle. With bad blood already existing between Norio and his father, and a hopeless desire to become one with the Sanka, Norio is forced to confront the cruel reality of his age.