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Japanese Devils

A documentary recording the testimony of fourteen former Japanese soldiers as they recount atrocities and war crimes committed during the Second World War, including the the infamous Unit 731 medical experimentation group. Having been trained by their country to be nothing but killers, the soldiers claim to have become morally numb and unable to see non-Japanese as even human. Perhaps feeling some remorse for what they have done, they now choose to tell their stories for the world to hear.

Japanese Devils

5.0 2001
Far-Away Home: Lushun and Dalian

Haneda Sumiko, documentary filmmaker who was born in Dalian, Manchuria in 1926 and was there to experience the conclusion of the Pacific War. Following her previous work , she revisits Dalian and Lushun, places where she spent her formative years. Lushun has served as an important naval port in modern times, and in 2009 was finally fully opened to foreigners. Haneda joined a tour organized as part of that opening, and delves into memoires as she visits the house where she grew up and the school she attended.

Far-Away Home: Lushun and Dalian

NR 2011
Yanomani

Deep within the Amazon lives a people who have preserved their own culture and customs for more than 10,000 years. Known in the West as the Yanomami, sometimes called the “last Stone Age people,” they number about 20,000 today. Living in groups of 40 to 200, they are scattered throughout the vast jungle spanning Brazil and Venezuela. After nearly ten years of negotiations with the Brazilian government and seven tribal elders, the filmmakers became the first television crew ever granted permission for an extended stay within a Yanomami community.

Yanomani

NR 2009
Though I'm His Daughter

Shot over six years, this is a personal story of a woman whose father executed for the world famous heinous crimes. Matsumoto Rika’s father was the guru of Aum Shinrikyo, the religious cult responsible for the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 – mass murder that shocked Japan to the core. Rika was brought up with the cult. She has been exposed to discrimination and exclusion from society. Even though her trauma has driven her to the brink of suicide at times, she struggles to carve out her own life and identity. She eventually takes on a new challenge to become recognized not as "his daughter" but as "Matsumoto Rika" herself.

Though I'm His Daughter

NR 2025
Flowerbird Butoh: A Way of Life

Comprising historic archive footage and texts this DVD box enlightens us greatly about Yoshito Ohno's here and now. Butoh has a distinct starting point, namely, in 1959, with Kinjiki , a duet featuring Tatsumi Hijikata and Yoshito Ohno. His father, the legendary Kazuo Ohno created another epoch-making opus in 1977 Admiring La Argentina, with Yoshito Ohno as production manager. These links are no mere coincidence. To date, we've tended to overlook Yoshito Ohno, barely granting him the recognition he merits. Just as dance requires a lengthy gestation period in which to evolve, his dance has finally come into our field of vision, in all its freshness and stark-nakedness, linking Butoh's origins to its zenith, to a point where he now stands at a crossroads.

Flowerbird Butoh: A Way of Life

NR 2015
The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed

At the age of 17, Sōta Masuda won the Rock Newcomer Award, and his future looked bright. As his high school friend, the director began filming a documentary about him. However, Sōta, who was obsessed with pursuing his rock 'n' roll dream, seemed cursed with unfulfilled aspirations. He lived off his parents for nearly a decade before ultimately taking his own life. The few words left in his suicide note were a plea to the director to complete the documentary.

The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed

NR 2013
Tarch Trip

A film like an Impressionist painting; the kind of paintings to have titles like 'urban view from the artist's studio'. The film is largely set in the film-maker's home and the street in the provincial town of Aichi where he lives. Minor everyday incidents are observed poetically; the melancholy mood of the images is boosted by serene electronic music. There is no dialogue; the sound track only comprises streets sounds as well as the music. Loose, almost nonchalant impressions of the street or of cloudy skies are juxtaposed with posed, almost photographic mildly homo-erotic portraits of friends of the film-maker. Tarch Trip is made up of fragments of a cinematographic diary, which are however not edited chronologically. Two periods alternate. One is characterized rain and dark cloudy skies. The other is sunny and repeatedly accompanied by three friends

Tarch Trip

4.2 1994
Retrodreaming

RETRODREAMING examines the common phenomenon of ghostly, abandoned schools due to demographic change in the countryside of Japan. Empty schools in deserted villages tell their own story: May it be during the pandemic, after a nuclear catastrophe, or just due to depopulation. The film references the Japanese tradition of telling "Kaidan "(ghost stories/scary stories) and the multiple school-themed "Kaidan "(Gakkō no Kaidan, Japanese for "Scary School Story") in Japanese mainstream culture, which encompass the idea of entities and memories remaining in these architectures. The film focuses on the visual quality of the Showa-era architecture of the abandoned Sawada School in Nakanojo. A voice from a tape recorder recalls the reality of a secret experiment during a pandemic that resulted in further mysterious events. The audiovisual experience draws the viewer into a strange, suspenseful atmosphere somewhere between an unlived retro-future, a sci-fi dream, and an unfinished mystery tale.

Retrodreaming

NR 2022
Living the Silent Spring

Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring warned of the danger of widespread use of pesticides, helping to launch the environmental movement in the US. Around the same time, the US military began to spray defoliants in Vietnam to deny cover to guerrilla forces. The defoliants, including Agent Orange, were contaminated with the deadly toxin, dioxin. Agent Orange continues to affect the children and grandchildren of those exposed in Vietnam and America to this day.

Living the Silent Spring

NR 2011
Prison Circle

It took Kaori Sakagami six years to receive permission for shooting her documentary in a Japanese prison. In a unique project, a limited number of inmates can participate in a therapeutic circle in order to understand the mental and social conditions of their behavior. Even after being released from prison, former inmates are supported by psychologists and social workers. What is remarkable in the process: the inmates learn to support each other and to open up toward the experiences of others.

Prison Circle

1.0 2020
Making of Biohazard 2 TV-CM

From the legendary director who redefined the zombies in film industry (George A. Romero), comes a bold new vision that blurs the line between game and horror cinema. Follow the camera behind the scenes of one of the most talked-about TV commercials ever made, created in collaboration with Brad Renfro and some of Hollywood’s top talent. Based on the world of Resident Evil, the hit survival horror game that had already terrified millions since its debut in 1996, this commercial heralds the arrival of its highly anticipated sequel. Breaking a two-year silence, director Romero returns with a haunting production of cinematic ambition. With a staggering budget of over 150 million yen (more than one million USD), the shoot took place on a chilling replica of a Los Angeles police station, transformed into the shadowy world of Raccoon City.

Making of Biohazard 2 TV-CM

NR 1997
World Uprising: Earth Sound Transmission Ritual

Camera person unknown, 1971, B&W, silent, 18 min. Courtesy of Kumiko Matsuzawa. This film documents actions performed for World Uprising by Taii Ashizawa and Taku Furusawa, who worked together as Satsuma Workshop. According to the art magazine Bijutsu Techō, Ashizawa acting on behalf of the Interstellar Vibration Association and conducted an Earth Sound Transmission Ritual consisting of three parts. In Ritual One, four people respond to the four fundamental elements (fire, water, earth, air) and emanate earth sounds through psychokinesis. In Ritual Two, the sound of the earth is transmitted via radio waves. Ritual Three shows the sound of the earth extinguished in a fire on an altar, and reproduced and transmitted into outer space through the wisdom of a fire deity. The film documents Ritual One, as well as Taku Furusawa is performing Ritual One / EVENT at the same site and going into convulsions.

World Uprising: Earth Sound Transmission Ritual

NR 1971
Sky, Wind, Stars and the Island

Documentary filmmaker Kim Myung-yoon, a former member of the Dokdo Police Security Detachment, relocates with his wife and son, Noah, to Kumi, a remote village in Japan’s Oki Islands. A UNESCO Global Geopark, the Oki Islands boast majestic natural beauty, but also serve as a politically charged symbol, with Japan asserting territorial claims over Dokdo, calling it, “Takeshima.” As Kim builds relationships with local residents and engages with their perspectives, he explores the histories, ecologies, and memories surrounding Dokdo and the Oki Islands.

Sky, Wind, Stars and the Island

NR 2025