Yoriko Doguchi

Why did she die? The Supreme Court first sentenced her to death, but then commuted her sentence to life imprisonment and sent her to Tochigi Women's Prison. What happened before she took her own life there? Based on her tanka poems, which convey her raw voice, the film explores her lone fight during the 121 days between her death sentence and suicide, a period that has remained obscure to date.

In an audacious reworking of the biopic, this ensemble drama sees jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi’s memoir cleverly reinterpreted into a surreal and playful story about chasing dreams, disillusionment and the inner lives of professional artists. Closer to playing two sides of the same coin than tackling a dual role, Ikematsu Sosuke embodies two versions of Minami – the naïve upstart and the jaded pro – who magically cross paths as they become entangled with a cast of colourful characters in the seedy alleyways and jazz clubs of Ginza over a single night.

Maki Yoshioka is a novelist and mother. She has been experiencing writer's block. One day, she gets into a disagreement with her neighbor Miwako Wakata over a futon. Maki gets harassed by Miawako increasingly more as the days pass. She decides to write about Miwako Wakata in a novel, but this has unexpected consequences. The small quarell becomes a media sensation.

In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.

Although her mother died when she was ten, Noriko still receives yearly birthday cards from her. Her life gets complicated as she grows older but she still finds comfort in her mother's messages.

Shu Kubota is killed by someone with a baseball bat. A metal bat and an old toy are found at the crime scene. Detective Yoshito (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) with the special investigation unit goes to the crime scene to investigate. There, Detective Yoshito realizes that he made the old toy about 10 years ago when he worked at the public relations divsion of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Department. Detective Yoshito decides to solve the case by himself and without the help of his partner Detective Chinami (Kaho Minami). --asianwiki

The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.

In January 1946 a British military transport plane departs from Shanghai on its to Tokyo, Japan. During the flight the airplane makes an emergency landing on Sado Island. The residents on the island have heard stereotypes of the British soldiers and have mixed feelings about the their new "guest." Nevertheless, for the next 40 days the islanders take care of the crew members until the plane can take off once again. This includes Chiyoko Morimoto who is the daughter of the inn owner where some of the British crew members stay.

High school student Tomoyuki (Hoshi Ishida), his father (Kazuhiro Sano), and Yuki (Miwako Wagatsuma), a girl that Tomyuki likes, gather together as a family and performs road shows out of their truck. A sense of loss, farewells, and relations are all brought out.

Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes ...

Based on a true story, Yoshiko and Yuriko relates the journey and great love affair of Yoshiko, who was a renowned translator of Russian literature and drama, and Yuriko, who was a feminist novelist and great activist of the post-war democratic literature movement. Both have left huge marks on Japanese literary history. The two women shared a strong attraction to each other from their first meeting and enjoyed a powerful love affair. Yoshiko reveals that she's an out lesbian, whilst Yuriko is married (not altogether happily) to a well-known scholar - a situation she can't walk away from with ease.

Ken, a newspaper carrier attends college without registering. Haru was watching Ken steal a piece of bone from an archeology laboratory, "Never gotten someone so closely". They hold earch other on the street in the mid-night. Just as they begin to live together, Ken gets caught on stealing again. An associate professor, Shikishima entices Ken into his research instead of rebuking. One night, Shikishima comes to Haru to confess that she resembles his dead girlfriend. The lonely journey of lovers accelerates on.

A Crowd of Three tells the story of two men, Kenta & Jun, who grew up as almost brothers at a children's facility. Kenta & Jun now works as part of a demolition crew but become fed up with their jobs. The friends then decide to take a road trip up north to visit Kenta's brother at the Abashiri prison.

After Japan's defeat in WWII, "Pandora no hako" follows a young man named Risuke (Shota Sometani) who has contracted tuberculosis. He travels to the countryside to a unique nursing facility to receive treatment for his disease. At the sanatorium all the patients and nurses go by nicknames and Risuke decides to reinvent himself as Hibari. During his stay, Hibari develops realationships with other patients and nurses. After Hibari's friend Tsuikushi (Yosuke Kubozuka) gets discharged from the nursing facility, Hibari writes to him about his relationships with Dakesang (Mieko Kawakami) the chief nurse and Mabo (Riisa Naka) another nurse that is bright and seems to like him.

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while working as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing – which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian – dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with Catholic guilt.

Yuka, a troubled young woman who suddenly begins working part-time as a high-class call girl, finds unexpected romance while on the job.

In the mountain hot springs of Izu, Japan, a love triangle is waiting to happen. It is the late 1930s when the paths of a stunning woman fleeing Tokyo, a handsome bachelor and a blind masseur cross.

For no apparent reason, four strangers find themselves with a rope around their necks, balancing on an unstable chair. They will quickly realize that each of them has the code to remove the padlock blocking the rope of their left neighbour. But just when they were about to exchange the codes, one of the four people will make a revelation with serious consequences...

The story centers around the communication between a man who abruptly appears in a world 10,000 years in the future and a boy who lives in that world.

Sakai's Happiness is a humorous and bittersweet portrayal of an ordinary family dealing with the challenges of everyday life.

Shinku is a compelling drama that focuses on the strange relationship that develops between two people who find their lives irrevocably changed as a result of a horrible multiple homicide. The first person traumatized is the lone survivor of the terrible family bloodbath, a girl who grows up to be a pretty college student. The second person affected by this heinous crime is the daughter of the murderer, a young girl who ends up becoming a tattooed bartender. A full decade after the crime, the killer is finally going to be executed, and the surviving member of the massacre decides to reach out and befriend the murderer's daughter. A tentative, odd sort of friendship blossoms between these two people, both of whom seem to have little in common personally, and every reason in the world for not wanting to meet. Yet they do, but not without reservations. And really, is this friendship quite what it seems? Or is it all part of some twisted plan for vengeance?

A scientific exploration in search of a new energy source unleashes a group of powerful demons who begin possessing human bodies and destroying civilization. Close friends Akira and Ryo wind up on different sides of this epic struggle. Akira’s inner strength allows him to maintain his identity and fight for good, but the weaker Ryo is completely overtaken by Satan himself.

2004 film

Dumped by a bored pet owner, a mixed-breed mutt ends up with three time loser Yasuyuki, who's loveless, homeless and jobless. Yasuyuki finds solace in the dog, whom he calls Tamura, and uses it to mend fences with his ex, who's distracted by her mother's debilitating illness. A trip to a hospital reveals Tamura's ability to comfort dying patients, leading to dog and master attending the real-life Japanese Therapy Dogs training school.

Film director Mario Baba meets a mysterious gentleman, and realizes he is a important man from his boyhood. The two chase each other around, causing a lot of commotion.

When elementary school teacher Kobayashi investigates the absence of one of his young pupils from the classroom, he finds himself at the doorstep of an anonymous suburban house that harbours a horrible secret, and into which all who enter are doomed.

A seasoned detective is called in to rescue a politician held hostage by a lunatic. In a brief moment of uncertainty, he misses the chance for action. Leaving his job and family without explanation, he makes his way to a mountain forest, encountering a peculiar tree called Charisma.

The former legendary assassin, now living as a bartender after washing his hands of a violent past, unleashes the hidden violence within. Known as the "Fox with Gentle Shoulders" based on his name, Kijou worked as a bartender at a bar run by his childhood friend Reiko. One day, his former comrade Tokumitsu appears, asking him to hold onto something, but Kijou refuses. Tokumitsu has escaped with two hundred million yen from the organization.

Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the pony farm that his family once ran.

Following some trauma in her past that has since been repressed, a young woman is trying to recover her memories with the help of a psychiatrist. During her hypnosis sessions, she repeats the name "Tomie" but is unable to recall where she knows it from. Meanwhile, a police detective is investigating a string of brutal murders, where he also runs across the name "Tomie." How are the two connected?

A romantic film about the spiritual exchange between a gangster and a Chinese woman who got married to him under false pretenses.

A detective starts spiraling out of control when a wave of gruesome murders with seemingly similar bizarre circumstances is sweeping Tokyo.

Yuji and Kosaku become involved with a brother and sister who want to drive a local yakuza gang member out of their neighborhood.

The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.

A duo get mixed up with a girl who finds a trunk load full of heroin.

Having lost everything to horse racing, Yûji accidentally gets 10 million yen. But this sum belongs to a Yakuza.

Yûji and Kosaku are hired to track down an old man. But when he suddenly dies, his granddaughter surfaces with a map to his buried fortune, which the yakuza and a dirty cop are determined to find.

People from all walks of life all receive mysterious messages from loved ones who were killed 3 months earlier in a shipwreck. They are instructed to go to a small island in the Inland Sea that evening.

Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.

Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.

Japanese film directed by Masahiro Honda.

The TV movie is about a third-rate female lawyer who is an alcoholic, has a history of divorce, and only handles divorce settlements. She spends her days in a state of despondency, but when her estranged husband and daughter disappear, she embarks on a search, partly out of ambition.

A former sumo wrestler, now working as a security guard, goes on a murderous rampage.

A haunted melody, a used record one must possess. At any cost. Adapted from Junji Ito's short story Used Record.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

During World War II, the Japanese military established a secret underground laboratory in Tokyo. Three Olympic-level athletes were selected to undergo a process that would turn them into Jinra-go, superhuman armored soldiers. By March 1945, one of the soldiers had been completely transformed into the half man/half machine ultimate soldier called Mikadroid. But American B-29s firebomb the city and, while the two super soldiers manage to escape, Mikadroid and the lab are apparently destroyed. 45 years pass, Tokyo is rebuilt, and old secrets are forgotten. The site is now home to a complex that includes the Discoclub Layla. The disco’s patrons dance late into the night, unaware that a faulty basement generator has reactivated Mikadroid and the cyborg now prowls the basement levels, killing anyone in its path...

Nayoko, a good-hearted geisha, brings luck to the men she sleeps with, even though most are scoundrels who don’t deserve it.

An old man falls into a coma and dreams about his childhood during WWII.

An original, ethereal poem created from Junichiro Tanizaki's famous original work.

Ryōko Itakura returns as the tough-as-nails government taxing agent. This time she must figure out a way to expose a fanatical religious cult lead by a corrupt sociopath.

2 almost inseparable friends. The talented painter recognized by all decided to leave the town where they live and become an artist and the shy poet who only sees his future in his mother's business.

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

A country girl visits Tokyo in search of her college heartthrob. Here she meets horny students, a psychology professor in search of the theory of shame, and Yoshioka who has become a campus nobody.