When Koichi Hamanaka returns after his mysterious disappearance years earlier, journalist Asakura who befriended Hamanaka's wife during his absence, tries to piece together the reasons for his departure.
In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: a human saved from a terrible crash, then cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals.
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Marie-Lou Fontaine, director of a nursing home in the Paris suburbs, defies convention by adopting the 'Humanitude' method despite her team’s resistance. Her encounter with Mari Morisaki, a terminally ill Japanese playwright, transforms her life. Together, they turn the facility into a symbol of resistance and humanity against the system’s limits.
Akira Kurosawa's lauded feudal epic presents the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. When Shingen dies, his generals reluctantly agree to have the impostor take over as the powerful ruler. He soon begins to appreciate life as Shingen, but his commitment to the role is tested when he must lead his troops into battle against the forces of a rival warlord.
Korean-Japanese director Gu Su Yeon makes his directorial debut with the mouthwateringly delicious The Yakiniku Movie: Bulgogi. As the title clearly states, pride of place goes to juicy, bite-sized meat, and viewers will get a delightful eyeful of food, food, and more food in this fabulously fulfilling gourmet comedy. Reveling in Japan's love for food-themed shows, the film revolves around a culinary battle of David and Goliath proportions, cheekily parodying Japanese cooking shows with Iron Chef-like editing, excited running commentary, and comedic how-to segments. The Yakiniku Movie also shines a light on the food culture of Japan's resident Korean population, proving that tasty food transcends all boundaries.
Eight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on childhood, art, mortality, and humanity’s uneasy bond with nature.
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 struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu is on the run from the police.
As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.
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.
A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers.
Eleven directors from eleven countries each contribute an eleven-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001: A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened; city kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden; a deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who left that morning for work at the World Trade Center; a Chilean remembers Allende; events recall other deaths; a mother endures more than her son's death. Tones vary, as do the locales. Most concern coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.
Romance story about the first female manager of the Nihon University Phoenix
Tells of the childhood of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.
Izo is an assassin in the service of a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine.
When a broadcasting company takes away its financial support from a symphony orchestra, some of the members refuse to admit defeat. The first violinist returns to his home and manages to get the orchestra back together for a grandiose performance, saved at the last minute by their original conductor -- and boding well for the future of the die-hard musicians.
Following a near-death experience France's leading chef throws himself into a quest seeking the flavor that has confounded his life since he was defeated by a Japanese chef's bowl of noodles as a young man.
14 year old Nakamura is sexually abused by her stepfather. She invents a friend who is coming to her rescue when she really needs it.
A year has passed in postwar Tokyo, and struggling writer Chagawa enters the Akutagawa Prize competition in hopes of securing a better future for the boy in his care, while the Suzuki family unexpectedly take in a new relative who looks down on their humble way of life.
Kumokiri Nizaemon, a former samurai warrior, has abandoned his class to become the leader of a gang of thieves. He leads his outlaws in an attempt to rob the castle of his former clan.
1944, in the depths of World War II. Toyomatsu Shimizu is a completely typical barber from a remote sea-side town who lives frugally but happily with his wife Fusae and their five-year-old son. Eventually, though, the army beckons and he is drafted. One day an officer on the battle-field orders him to kill a captive U.S. soldier. Although Toyomatsu lacks the spirit to kill the man, and only wounds him in the arm, the victorious U.S. soldiers will not accept this, and Toyomatsu is arrested and tried as a war-criminal. And he receives the cruelest sentence possible...
Tatsuru Sawada works as an assistant cameramen. He spends his days just wasting away. To change himself, he joins the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. At the training camp. he causes trouble. He opposes Kazunari Hamura and frequently breaks the rule at the camp. Tatsuru and Kazunari are then sent to the Philippines with Shiho Nomura . Even in the Philippines, Tatsuru and Kazunari do not get along as well. One day, Tatsuru goes to Baguio to take a picture. There, he meets a boy named Noel and his older sister Angela. He worries about the situation in the Philippines. He feels helpless and goes back to Japan. 8 years later, Tatsuru and Kazunari meet again in the Tōhoku region where the great earthquake and tsunami occurred.
Middle-aged Riichi Takamiya drives the midnight bus between Tokyo and snow-swept Niigata, where he lives. Just as the relationship with his younger girlfriend is about to bloom, his emotionally desperate ex-wife suddenly reappears.
A journalist reporting on the 1997 Kobe earthquake recalls a boat trip he took as a boy after WWII to bury his brother's ashes, during which his family grapples with life in occupied Japan.
Director Jun Ichikawa spins this affectionate portrait of the people who populate Shimokitazawa, a bohemian corner of Tokyo filled with small theater companies and smoky coffeehouses.
The story, set in the heady post-war 50s into the early 60s , revolves around a love triangle between Tomoko, long playing the mistress to married older writer Shitto and the new stud who comes into her life, Ryota Kinoshita. Tomoko is sick and tired of her relationship with writer Shingo, who is married and has children. Shingo is a talented writer, but has yet to be recognized by the public. Tomoko then enters into a sexual relationship with younger man Ryota Kinoshita, but Tomoko is not satisfied.
Haruna is a lively tomboy in the 5th year at elementary school. One day, while playing with Hiroyuki, a boy whom she has known for a long time, they play a game of putting their private parts together. A sex education lesson given by a new teacher, Yagi, makes Haruna suspect that she might be pregnant.
A film based on two short stories by Shiina Makoto. Tadon is the story of a cab-driver who spends his days listening to his passengers' conversations. Chikuwa is about a writer who faces a creativity bottleneck.
14-year-old Takuya lives in a rural town near mountains and rivers. His 29-year-old uncle Koji works as a graphic designer in urban Tokyo. Koji's father dies and Takuya is arrested for attempted robbery-the two young men must now face a crucial crossing in their lives. The concluding chapter to director Higashi Yoichi's "boy and river" trilogy, the film highlights contemporary themes like family, adolescence, and the healing properties of nature. The wild but beautiful Kuma River stars as a threatening symbol for the boy's rite of passage. Supernatural beings reign in the mountains above the village.
Director Jun Ichikawa spins this affectionate portrait of the people who populate Shimokitazawa, a bohemian corner of Tokyo filled with small theater companies and smoky coffeehouses.
Shares a lead actor · Same director
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
Viewers also picked
A reclusive illustrator falls in love with a young woman who addictively shops for clothing.
Same director
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Viewers also picked
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Viewers also picked
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
Shares a lead actor
A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.
Viewers also picked
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Viewers also picked
Eleven directors from eleven countries each contribute an eleven-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001: A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened; city kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden; a deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who left that morning for work at the World Trade Center; a Chilean remembers Allende; events recall other deaths; a mother endures more than her son's death. Tones vary, as do the locales. Most concern coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.
Shares a lead actor
A film based on two short stories by Shiina Makoto. Tadon is the story of a cab-driver who spends his days listening to his passengers' conversations. Chikuwa is about a writer who faces a creativity bottleneck.
Shares 2 cast members · Same director
The Batman family has returned to the present to discover that Japan has disappeared, and a giant island - Hinomoto - is now in the sky over Gotham City. At the top sit the Yakuza, a group of superpowered individuals who reign without honor or humanity and look suspiciously like the Justice League. Now, it’s up to Batman and his allies to save Gotham!
As crops dwindle and dragons reappear, mankind stands on the verge of total chaos. Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a powerful wizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, search for the force behind this mysterious imbalance that threatens to destroy the land of Earthsea.
After his capture for attempted assassination of the Raikage, leader of Kumogakure, as well as killing Jōnin from Kirigakure and Iwagakure, Naruto is imprisoned in Hōzukijou: A criminal containment facility known as the Blood Prison. Mui, the castle master, uses the ultimate imprisonment technique to steal power from the prisoners, which is when Naruto notices his life has been targeted. Thus begins the battle to uncover the truth behind the mysterious murders and prove Naruto's innocence.
Seven years have passed after the battle of Teppelin... Humans have since reclaimed the surface of the earth and enjoy an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. However, humanity's increasing population growth triggers the sudden emergence of an unknown, powerful enemy. The fearsome, manipulative power of the mysterious Anti-Spiral proves too overwhelming for humans to even fight back. When everyone becomes desperate and loses hope, Team Dai-Gurren members reunite to stand up once again!
A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.
With the Gyaos re-emerging, Gamera's ties to humanity have been severed with his bond to Asagi broken. Nagamine and Asagi investigate while an orphaned girl named Ayana discovers a new creature she names Iris. Nagamine and Asagi must reach Ayana before she takes her revenge on Gamera, who she blames for the death of her family.
The 2026 summer special of Fuji TV’s long-running anthology series presents four new strange tales. A veteran detective investigates a crime scene where evidence and bodies seem to vanish. A woman clearing her late mother’s apartment finds the past refusing to be thrown away. A young girl uses a mysterious costume to become an adult man. And a 26-year-old man discovers that his mother has been listed for auction online. Each story leads ordinary people into a surreal, unsettling world.
Kaibutsukun is the young prince of Kaibutsu land who decides to go to Earth to prove to his people that he is worthy of becoming king. Kaibutsukun is accompanied by his friends Dracula, Wolfman, and Franken. The Prince decides to go to Japan to visit his friends Utako and Hiroshi. The Prince, Dracula, Wolfman and Franken are in for a surprise.
Overnight, Paris is invaded - although peacefully - but the Chinese Army, and millions of Chinese people... It's the Nazi occupation all over again, with modern - funny - twists.
A journalist becomes possessed by a gakidama, a spirit of the dead. Unknown to the man, a demon is now incubating in his stomach, and a mysterious stranger seem to know what afflicts him.
The story of a ménage à trois between the editor of a magazine, his girlfriend, and his young sister.
A 1998 performance of Oriza Hirata's play set in a Tokyo museum sheltering paintings evacuated from a European war, where family and friends trade quiet conversations that reveal loneliness, love, and social unease, amid growing tensions.
Made in Japan, Last Room is both fiction and documentary. The occupants of the love-hotels and capsule-hotels tell their own intimate, dreamlike stories, interspersed with journeys through the archipelago's landscapes. Soon, these personal stories resonate with a collective history: that of Gunkanjima, the abandoned ghost island of Nagasaki, and then that of Japan as a whole.
