Born in 1931, Teishiro Minami launched Japan’s first commercial gay magazine, coordinated a queer helpline and organised the nation’s first Pride parade in 1994. Minami and friends reflect on the complicated relationships and inter-community clashes that paved the way for today’s movement. Comprising a rich trove of archive footage and vibrant animation, Hiroaki Matsuoka’s documentary honours Minami’s legacy.
Teishiro Minami
Born in 1931, Teishiro Minami launched Japan’s first commercial gay magazine, coordinated a queer helpline and organised the nation’s first Pride parade in 1994. Minami and friends reflect on the complicated relationships and inter-community clashes that paved the way for today’s movement. Comprising a rich trove of archive footage and vibrant animation, Hiroaki Matsuoka’s documentary honours Minami’s legacy.
Before he hit it big, Takeshi Kitano got his start apprenticing with comedy legend Fukami of Asakusa. But as his star rises, his mentor's declines.
Nagasaki, 1964: Following the death of his Yakuza father, 15-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wings of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – and one will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of Kabuki.
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
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.
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering around a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
In a Kaiju-filled Japan, Kafka Hibino works in monster disposal. After reuniting with his childhood friend Mina Ashiro, a rising star in the anti-Kaiju Defense Force, he decides to pursue his abandoned dream of joining the Force, when he suddenly transforms into the powerful "Kaiju No. 8." An action-packed recap of the first season of Kaiju No. 8 and a new original episode, Hoshina's Day Off.
On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.
The countdown to destruction has begun! Gintoki and the others set out to fulfill the wishes of their teacher Shoyo and thwart Utsuro's plans. Shinpachi, Kagura, the Shinsengumi, members of the Kabuki District, and even former enemies will join their fight. As Utsuro's power grows, Takasugi fights for his very life. Will Gintoki be able to put an end to all this?!
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.