CLEARNESS

A taxi driver becomes involved in the world of the mafia & their wars.

A look at the lives of two prostitutes in Tokyo: Rei, who works as an S&M dominatrix, and Ayumi, in the more straightforward profession of call girl. In addition to their working life, the film also looks at their private lives. Rei is acting in an amateur theatre company along with the receptionist from Ayumi's escort service, while Ayumi is living with her student-boyfriend as he struggles to finally get accepted to college.

Takuma knows that his life is shorter than the others and he feels that his demise is getting near. He chose to stay away from the girl that he loves so that she can easily move on. What he didn't know is that he is under-estimating her.

Consumed by jealousy, a woman takes an extreme step and undergoes surgery for a new face. Although her lover of 2 years misses her, he falls in love with the new face, not knowing it's the same woman.

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

Mikuri and Hiramasa both work and share housework duties. They have peaceful days together. One day, Mikuri learns that she is pregnant. They decide to marry, but they soon face problems. Mikuri suffers from pregnancy sickness and Hiramasa decides to take a paternity leave before an important project is finished. The couple experience unfamiliar situations involving childbirth and rearing. They go through difficult times.

In middle school, Futaba Yoshioka was madly in love with Tanaka Kou but he moves away with his mother. She is reunited with him later in life but he is not the same person anymore.

"Hankyu Densha" follows the lives of various people who commute on Hankyu Railway's Imazu Line - connecting the cities of Nishinomiya and Takarazuka in Hyogo prefecture. One of the commuters is Shoko (Miki Nakatani), an office worker in her 30s who lost her boyfriend to a younger colleague. There's also a college student (Erika Toda) who is so easily persuaded by her no good boyfriend. Other commuters include a grandmother & granddaughter, a house wife, a female high school student, and a female otaku college student. Although the train ride takes only 15 minutes between two stations, the lives of these commuters are changed as they interact with each other...

Ryo Morinaka is a university student and works part-time at a bar. He is bored with his daily life and exists in a state of torpor. One day, his friend Shinya Tajima brings the owner of a host bar over to the place where Ryo Morinaka works. Shizuka Mido is the owner of the host bar. Soon, Ryo Morinaka begins to work for Shizuka Mido at the members only host bar. He feels embarrassment initially, but he fulfills the desires of women and develops a sense of purpose.

In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.

Genji and his victorious G.P.S. alliance find themselves facing down a new challenge by the students of Hosen Academy, feared by everyone as 'The Army of Killers.' The two schools, in fact, have a history of bad blood between them. And the simmering embers of hatred are about to flare up again, burning away any last remnants of the truce they had so rigorously observed until now.

Top model Lilico, having recently undergone multiple cosmetic surgeries, begins to experience troubling side effects. As she desperately tries to retain her perfect image, Lilico descends into a world of nightmares and makes those around her miserable.

The winds of change blow as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it's simply the beginning of a series of shattering incidents, leading to the implosion of the family unit.

High school student Ichigo Kurosaki lives an ordinary life, besides being able to see ghosts and the blurry memories of his mother's death under strange circumstances when he was a kid. His peaceful world suddenly breaks as he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a God of Death.

A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.

Takashi Miike directs a stage version of Zatoichi, the tale of the blind swordsman.

When realty TV host Carlos Kurozaki breaks into a mysterious underground pyramid for a television event, he removes a special gem. . . and unwittingly releases a diabolical monster called Zaigorg! The evil creature wants Kurozaki's gem, so it spawns an army of giant kaijus to get it! It's up to the famous superheroes Ultraman X, Ultraman Tiga, and the one and only original Ultraman to stop the worldwide monster war!

After killing the man he believes murdered his daughter, a white-collar worker returns to his mundane life, until he's approached by a man offering a mysterious job opportunity.

Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.

Junko pretends to be a yakuza and gets more than he bargained for when he is tasked with avenging the murder of a fellow gang member. If he turns the task down, he will face the consequences for betrayal.

Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.

Ultraman Zero, the rookie Ultraman from Tsuburaya Productions’ 2009 theatrical movie returns, and getting full-fledged. However, he is confronted with the empowered Kaiser Belial, back from the evil Ultraman Belial whom he and other Ultraman warriors battled so hard on the m-78 Planet. Can Ultraman Zero live to the expectations of his legendary father Ultra Seven? Check it out in the latest Tsuburaya Productions’ action packed movie.

When lightning strikes a theater about to close its doors, three moviegoers are thrust back in time to the world inside the screen.

The cyber crime investigation division at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department finds a video on website "YOURTUBE." In the video, a man covered by a newspaper, warns that a fire will be set at a food processing company. More crime notices are soon found involving violent crimes. Geitsu is the main guy behind the group "Shinbunshi," which has posted the videos. He used to work as a temporary employee at an IT company, but was unfairly dismissed. He then begins doing manual labor work and meets the other members of "Shinbushi."

Soichi Negishi moved to Tokyo to chase his dream of becoming a musician playing stylish, Swedish-style pop. Instead, he finds himself leading the death metal band Detroit Metal City, or DMC, as the costumed and grotesquely made-up "demon emperor" Johannes Krauser II. Although he hates the role and the things he has to do as a member of the band, he has a definite talent for it.

A variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers.

Steel-worker Saito Tetsuo, driven by an unexplained anxiety, steals bike after bike to move away from his hometown to Tokyo. Through snow-storms and empty landscapes, the breathtaking photography allows us to look deep into the mindscape of a man searching for an answer - although the question itself is never quite articulated.

A teacher is sexually involved with an underage student. She visits her father's home and discovers a boy who's been kept as a sex slave. The teacher continues harboring the boy out of fear and begins to feel sexually attracted to him.

On May 2, 1998, Hide, a leading Japanese rock musician who had been active as a guitarist for X JAPAN and as a solo artist (hide with Spread Beaver/zilch), suddenly passed away. His funeral was attended by about 50,000 people and became a social phenomenon as all of Japan wept at his untimely farewell. His younger brother, Hiroshi Matsumoto, who was Hide's manager, started to work with Hide's co-producer I.N.A., who had been working on a song with Hide, and his friends to make his brother's will come true. Yuji and I.N.A. struggle under the unusual circumstance that Hide himself is not present, but they are confronted with various difficulties.

Chihiro is depressed and obsessed with his own mortality. Him and his wife, Yuri (Yoko Mitsuya), decide to take a trip to Bali, Indonesia to see his pregnant sister, Kumi (Kiki Sugino). They hope the trip can bring about change.

Four siblings are shocked to learn their adopted brother is actually a visiting alien and his time on earth is soon coming to an end. Will they be able to cope with his departure and also save the family yakiniku restaurant?

Whimsical film in which students and teachers come together during a weekend for a wedding. The film flutters back and forth between the various characters and their feelings until the wedding starts. Shot in the old beach hotel where the great Ozu wrote his screenplays. © iffr.com

Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds.

One snowy night, in a mountain hut, Minokichi, a hunter, sees a snow woman killing his mentor Mosaku. “Should you tell anyone, I will take your life” she says, then drifts off. A year later, Minokichi meets and marries a beauty named Yuki. She bears him a daughter, Ume. 14 years pass and Ume blossoms into a radiant lady who befriends the sickly Mikio, the village leader’s son and Mosaku’s distant relative. Mikio soon dies in the same hut as Mosaku, with his body showing the same frostbite scars. Minokichi is reminded of that horrid night, and wonders what it was that he saw, and who Yuki really is.

Adapted from the manga "Ichikei no Karasu” (イチケイのカラス) by Asami Rito (浅見理都). This special is a sequel to the movie of the same name.

Shinji (Shinichi Tsutsumi) steps out of a train station to find himself transported back to 1964.

Constantly on the run from a vicious loan shark, two small-time con artists, Take and Tetsu, plan their biggest and most complex con yet in order to get revenge and retire from a life of crime. However, things get complicated when they cross paths with Mahiro, a young woman that Take inadvertently orphaned during a job gone awry years ago. Seeing Mahiro down on her luck, Take tries to relieve his guilt by taking her on as a partner, while hiding his true identity. But as his plan unfolds, Take discovers that he isn't the only one with a secret.

It is a youth film about the boys in their late teens spend before they become adults. Sho and Tiaga, who grew up in the same neighborhood since they were little, are in their last year of high school. They are also the duo who beat the drums at town festivals. However, Taiga announces that he will not play drums this year to prepare to go to college. Sho, who has no plan of his future, cannot think straight. Like The Blue Bird by Maurice MAETERLINCK, the film tells the story of the youth realizing that happiness is not far away.

Takahiko Tokito is a doctor at a big medical corporation. He has decided to run away with his lover, the wife of the president of his company. But before he is able to leave, he has to kill her husband and make it look like suicide.

A singular deadpan comedy, The Passion tells a story of a young woman raised in a convent named Frances-ko (Mayuko Iwasa), after Saint Francesco. Distressed by not knowing about love and sex, she calls out for a sign from above, but instead hears a voice from below. A human-faced growth speaks to her from between her legs, constantly berating her, calling out "Woman, you are worthless!" Mr. Koga, as she names it, continues the verbal abuse, yet Frances-ko somehow adapts, forming an adversarial yet symbiotic relationship. This bizarre film, based on Kaoruko Himeno's acclaimed 1997 novel of the same name, is skillfully directed by Ryoko Yoshida, lensed by veteran cinematographer Akiko Ashizawa, grounded by Iwasa's show-stopping performance and enlivened by the hilarious Kanji Furutachi, who lends his voice to the chauvinistic Koga. The soundtrack boasts an unmissable eclectic score by legendary experimental musician and composer Otomo Yoshihide.