Movies: Japan

Just after midnight on 10 March 1945, the US launched an air-based attack on eastern Tokyo; continuing until morning, the raid left more than 100,000 people dead and a quarter of the city eradicated. Unlike their loved ones, Hiroshi Hoshino, Michiko ...

A story about the special friendship between Phan Boi Chau and Japanese doctor Asaba Sakitaro, which began 100 years ago when Chau went to Japan to seek support for Vietnam’s national independence movement....

Sasaki has had a difficult period, going through a divorce and losing his job. To take a break and start anew, Sasaki decides to visit Iriomote Island. While there, Sasaki's belongings are stolen by four homeless men. Sasaki then lives with three oth...

A documentary that explores the life styles of various otakus in Japan. Various interviews are given to selected otakus who express how interesting it is to be an otaku as oppose to not being one at all. Along with various shots of various Japanese c...

Goro is an archeologist, fascinated with the national treasure Gassho clay figure and remains from the Jomon period. He meets a woman, Momoko who is timid with love. Momoko often has memories from ancient times and landscapes of the heart in her drea...

On April 1, 1945, the United States military launched its invasion of the main island of Okinawa, the start of a battle that was to last 12 weeks and claim the lives of some 240,000 people. This film depicts the Battle through the eyes of Japanese a...

One of Japan's most renowned baseball pros, Takenori Emoto of the Hanshin Tigers, relates humorous anecdotes from his own career and the game in general. Based on his novel of the same name and its sequel....

Ichiro Yoshida, the father of the boy Kiyoshi, who has been repatriated from China, returns home after a ten-year separation. The father, who has been estranged from his son for many years, pays no attention to the boy, often punishes him unfairly, a...

On 11 March 2011, an earthquake caused a tsunami to hit the Tōhoku (Northeast) region of Japan. In this film, survivors of the tsunami rebuild as cherry blossom season begins. The film is a stunning visual haiku about the ephemeral nature of life–and...

Trailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to live unconventional lives in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan....

Marcel Theroux travels across Japan in an attempt to understand Wabi Sabi, a theory of Japanese aesthetics in which imperfection and transience are the touchstone of beauty....

A poignant moral dilemma unfolding against lush mountainous landscapes, The Albino’s Trees follows Yuku (Ryohei Matsuoka), an animal control hunter who takes on a lucrative job to kill a rare white deer considered to be a god of the forest by a nearb...

TOKYO Ainu features the Ainu, an indigenous people of Japan, living in Greater Tokyo (Tokyo and its surrounding areas), who are and actively in promoting their traditional culture in a metropolitan environment away from their traditional homeland, Ho...

The titular "tarantula" is a murderous woman who, along with the brother who is in love with her, kill without warrant because they are wealthy & above the law. Kyoshiro the homeless masterless wandering samurai has nothing to lose, & no scruples any...

In Tokyo, lonely patrons pay to sleep ("soine") with someone. Massage, cuddle, sleep… for comfort and nothing more than the warm embrace of another. Tasuku, a young man fresh out of a relationship, starts a new job as one of the cuddlers. He's nervou...

The protagonists of the film are the Zainichi Korean women living in Kawasaki. They were tossed about by the war, and after many trips to and fro across the sea in search of a place to live, they finally arrived in Kawasaki, where they have lived mod...

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 pickp...

The legendary tale of the forty-seven samurai and their mission to avenge the death of their master....

Two people who love each other are separated due to a certain incident. Two years later, the man has become an assassin. A story about an encounter between a fallen couple, a strip troupe, and a human smuggling ring....

Bugs fights stereotyped Japanese during World War II....