Red Ball

The beautiful Shizuko and her husband Toyama Takayoshi have a loving relationship, But Takayoshi is getting older and isn't always able to perform. His primary source of gratification involves observing his wife in sadomasochistic scenarios so he commissions a painter, skilled in the arts of bondage to bring these fantasies to life. Soon, Shiziko becomes a willing and submissive participant in fulfilling the S&M fantasies of not only her husband but a slew of rich lecherous men.

High schooler Haruna befriends loner Yamada, then is drawn into the tangled relationship between him, a model and the girl who loves him unreasonably.

A tragic love story between a prostitute and a young trainee monk.

When it rains it pours. Kenji divorced his wife, lost his job and his old squeeze Naoko is getting married back home in the north of Japan, specifically in Akita. He returns there in order to attend her wedding. Naoko surprises him by proposing that they have sex again. The one night stand is the new beginning.

Kawai Joji, an aspiring screenwriter who has won a screenplay competition but has yet to make his professional debut, meets a beautiful woman, Naomi, in a rundown bar one day. Naomi says she is working at the bar while aiming to become an actress. On another day, Joji is asked by his screenplay instructor if he would like to write a screenplay for a film based on Tanizaki Junichiro's "A Fool's Love" on his behalf. Joji is determined to succeed this time, but struggles to write the script. Meanwhile, Joji meets Naomi again, and the two of them quickly become closer, but...

Two dancers, opposites in all but their art, agree to train together for a competition. At first, they clash, but soon become drawn to each other.

Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.

In a dysfunctional family where the mother is a heroin addict and prostitute, beaten by her son, and the father is an ex-TV reporter, sleeping with his daughter and filming his son being beaten up, ‘Q’, a complete stranger enters the bizarre family, changing their lives for the better, finding a balance in their disturbing natures.

A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.

When Lord Murashige rises up against the tyrannical Oda, he finds himself besieged within the walls of his own castle. Isolated, he is confronted with a series of mysterious crimes that shatter the fragile order of his court, plunging the fortress into fear and suspicion. With Oda's army closing in and a traitor hiding among his ranks, Murashige is forced into an uneasy alliance with Kanbei, a brilliant and dangerous strategist held prisoner in the dungeon, as he must outwit his enemies and uncover the truth before time runs out.

A man forced to bear power and stripped of humanity. A woman skeptical of happiness. Takeshi Hongo, an Augmentation made by SHOCKER, and Ruriko Midorikawa, a rebel of the organization, escape while fighting off assassins. What’s justice? What’s evil? Will this violence end? Despite his power, Hongo tries to remain human. Along with freedom, Ruriko has regained a heart. What paths will they choose?

A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.

The story is about a film director, Kutani, who lives in the dying pink film industry, and an aspiring screenwriter, Iseki, and their loved one, Shoko, whose dream of a film she has clung to begins to crumble, and how their lives intersect.

Hiroto Miyama works with rookie lawyer Honoka Kono on a team specializing in criminal cases for Madarame Law Firm. Atsuhiro Sada has recently become director. One day, the firm receives a request about a case that took place 15 years ago—concerning a poisonous wine incident.

A lonely otaku is fired from his job. He is rescued in a ruined building by a strange girl in a sailor suit. When he wakes up, the girl becomes a figure. The young man and the pretty figure begin to live together.

Based on a polemic novel by Amy Yamada, Bedtime Eyes is about the intense love relationship between a second rate Japanese jazz singer and a black American GI on the margins of the law.

Akira's wife walks out on him, leaving him to confide in his gangster brother-in-law. Using only a cryptic note as a clue the two brothers go on a road trip to find his wife. After a series of violent encounters with strangers, Akira meets a prostitute. The pair start a relationship. After Akira finds his wife, he questions whether he still wants to be with her.

The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.

It is the early 1930s and the command of the Japanese Imperial Navy determines to construct the world's biggest and most formidable battleship, Yamato. One of the admirals, Yamamoto Isoroku, disagrees. He recruits the upstart and mathematics' expert Tadashi Kai who discovers there are discrepancies between the official cost estimates and the actual figures. They soon find out that they have stumbled upon a conspiracy.

The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.

Yashima is a woman who works as a plumber. She is also uncomfortable with her own sexuality. One day she visits a home for a job and meets Kyu. Yashima senses Kyu's eyes watching her. They become intimate, but a dark secret is soon revealed.

Postwar Ueno: lawyer Yone Yamada’s sister is attacked and the truth buried. Fueled by rage, Yone writes “Article 14” on a wall and, after reuniting with Taichi Todoroki, opens a law office to fight for the oppressed.

Mugimaki Satoko, who has developed an illness she will have to live with for the rest of her life, commutes from an apartment complex where the rent is 50,000 yen to her part-time job four days a week. Having given up on moving to the countryside, she has been feeling somewhat depressed. One winter day, Tsukasa, who is staying next door, invites her to go for an early-morning walk, but she turns him down. Satoko, who feels self-conscious because everything requires physical strength, is hesitant and says, "Someone like me..." even as her landlady, Suzu, and neighbor Koma get excited talking about romance. Suzu then invites Satoko to her home. Amid her usual daily life with her coworkers and friends from the apartment complex, surrounded by medicinal cuisine, Satoko gradually finds small moments of happiness. This is a special episode about those ordinary yet quietly wonderful days.

Chiho has prohibited her husband, Takahashi, from smoking while she is trying to become pregnant. Takahashi hasn’t told his wife he was laid off, and has a paid sexual encounter with a high-school student, attracted by the pungent odor of her cigarettes, Peace Regulars.

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.

A film about making films, we follow the exploits of Kiriko, an indie film director who is struggling to make a road movie that ends on a beach. Why do so many independent films have to have a beach scene? That is a question that gets asked along the way but her journey to the location is beset with difficulties, from budget to casting. There is only so much she can do and so she inches forward making compromises and finding ways around problems to realise her dream, all while living in the real world and fulfilling obligations to others as best she can.

A chance meeting between two teens, on the way home from school, changes their lives forever.

Mori, a musician struggling with the distance between himself and his wife Maiko, a photographer, has an unexpected reunion with his former friend Asako. This encounter rekindles a love that had long since passed between them. However, their memories diverge, and recollections colored by expectations and desires emerge blurred, distorted, and conveniently rewritten within each of them. And at the end of a long walk, Mori and Asako come to reexamine their two lives that have already strayed from their paths, and the present moment where each of them now stands.

In Komatsushima, a port town in Tokushima, Shikoku, Haruka Asakura lives with her effeminate father Goro Asakura, her uncle Kentaro Asakura who is in love with a prostitute, and her cousin Manabu Kurokawa who is an aspiring singer-songwriter. Never a dull moment at the dining table, each have their own problems, yet live happy lives. All of a sudden, a tragedy falls upon Haruka, sending the family into turmoil.

Ema suffers from memory loss. One day she gets a drawing of an elephant from Yang , a childhood friend who has gone missing. With the postmark as her only clue, Ema heads on a journey to find Yang with her childhood friend Ban and his girlfriend Yuri .

After some misunderstanding, Sakaguchi is hired to make a tourist guide video on Tobako (a fictitious name for Kawaguchi) in the outskirts of Tokyo. This element in the script sparks off a fanciful wandering strewn with unexpected meetings. First with Kitagawa, thanks to whom Sakaguchi landed the job. Then with a seamstress, and then with Yoshino, with whom a half-hearted romance emerges. Thus the narrative unfolds, in halts and swerves, espousing unexpected meetings, and offering the strolling character an opportunity for displacements from one place to the next. The deserted town has come to a standstill - the shooting took place during the lockdown - and this acts as a metaphor for the idleness of the characters. GARDEN SANDBOX is light and nimble, whereas its main character hasa limp. Her demeanour and her stiff body exude a peculiar quality, somewhat comically at odds with the setting.

TV producer Kei and her recently retired comedian boyfriend Yoshi are working to conceive their first child as they consider marriage approaching mid-thirties—a process complicated by the fact that Kei has continued taking contraceptives. Annoyed by Yoshi relaxing into domestic life and slacking off at his part-time job, Kei has finally worked around her male colleagues’ obstruction to spearhead an innovative web series guest hosted by rotating everyday people. She invites Shiori, a young trans man working for her office’s delivery service and moonlighting as a bartender at an LGBTQ-inclusive space, to kick off the program. However, as Kei pushes forward, she reaches a breaking point.

In 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.

Six high schoolers stuck in a murderous time loop must find the scattered remains of an unknown victim to break the curse and finally see another day.

Tang Ren and Qin Feng travel to Japan to investigate the death of a mafia head. As they suspect foul play, they engage in a battle of wits against foreign detectives.

Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."

1989: 64th and last year of the Showa era. A girl is kidnapped and killed. The unsolved case is called Case 64 ('rokuyon'). 2002: Yoshinobu Mikami, who was the detective in charge of the Case 64, moves as a Public Relations Officer in the Police Affairs Department. His relation with the reporters is conflicted and his own daughter is missing. The statute of limitations for the Case 64 will expire in one year. Then a kidnapping case, similar to the Case 64, takes place. The rift between the criminal investigation department and police administration department deepens. Mikami challenges the case as a public relations secretary.

An aspiring hairdresser becomes the infatuation of a tricophilic man who sells hair extensions to nearby salons. The source is the corpse of a girl whose corpse continues to grow beautiful, voluminous, black hair that comes alive, either driving the extension user insane or killing them.

In this surreal, Lynchian debut feature from Japan, an unsuspecting slacker is sucked into a strange and deadly parallel universe when he starts to play a mysterious videogame that seems to kill those who play it.

Arakawa Ao lives happily on his own and hardly ever leaves Shimokitazawa, where he works at a vintage clothing shop, goes to occasional concerts and hangs out at his favorite bar. Then, he gets an unusual request to appear in an independent film.

One day, Sonoko, a married woman having a husband, meets young, beautiful Mitsuko. Puzzled Sonoko is charmed by the beauty of Mitsuko, and two people fall into relations between women at the start.

Taxi driver Gion Taro falls in love with one of his female passengers. When he learns that she is a famous actress shooting a film in his beloved hometown Kyoto, he doesn't hesitate for a second to apply for the last remaining acting role - as a taxi driver. Based on a radio drama, Gion Taro's odyssey is charmingly animated with paper cutout figures, set against the backdrop of scenic Kyoto.

We see a woman lying down. She awakens from a dream of a festival she visited in her youth to a scene that feels familiar. Reminiscing on her first love, her marriage, giving birth, and meeting the love of her life, she wanders for a while. Was the place she met him again a dream, or was it Heaven? Was the one she met her first love, or the love of her life? This is a story about love, and about one woman.

Screenwriter Goro Kaiba is horrified to learn via Facebook that his wife Ayako is having an affair. Furthermore, her post about the affair has received 108 likes. Absolutely furious, Goro Kaiba contemplates divorcing his wife, but he estimates he will have to pay her half of his assets, about 10,000,000 million yen, in a divorce. To get revenge, Goro Kaiba decides to use that money on a epic one month womanizing streak. His goal is 108, the number of likes his wife received on social media.