Discover Movies

A making-of documentary that follows veteran writer/director Sadao Nakajima as he returns to the director’s chair to bring the jidaigeki Love’s Twisting Path (2018) to the screen.

A documentary film on traffic accidents and emergency responders in Japan amid increasing motorization.

The programme closely follows the birth of a new 'Macbeth' and his journey around Shakespeare. Kyogen actor Nomura Mansai and Shakespeare, and the similarities between them, are explained in an easy-to-understand way, and we come into contact with the art created by the two talents who have fused together over a long period of time.

The story of a legendary Taiwanese-style home cooking restaurant in Tokyo called Fumin, where patrons not only fall in love with the food, but also the character of Chef Sai Fumi. With her excellent sense of taste and full of love that she got from her parents, she ran her restaurant for 45 years. Now retired at age 70, she welcomes only one group per day at her house to dine, with each dish she prepares having a story behind it. "The experience is a luxury for my guests, and for me, too," said the woman affectionately known as "Mama." "I’ve had a fair share of hardships, but it would be fantastic if I could give back to my guests and make them happy. How long do I plan to continue working? For the rest of my life, of course. This is all I know how to do.” A love letter to the gift of thoughtful cooking, GIFTS FROM THE KITCHEN is a mouth-watering delight.

70 minute documentary on Sion Sono's film "The Land of Hope".

An experimental film edited from footage of the Japanese countryside.

Besides being an excellent showcase of Chiaki Mayumura's talents, this film is a brilliant melding of documentary and fiction.

A quiet sunset gets interrupted by a couple of mosquitoes and a voice recording of a man listing the side effects of an infamous malaria medicine.

Japanese bondage is still commonly associated with the image of a man tying a woman but recently, women are at both ends of the rope. Shibari is not about tying, it's not about technic, ropes are only a tool. A tool that women use to create art, to heal, to communicate. A tool to express themselves.

Documentary filmmaker Makoto Sato offers this reflection on the life and career of Edward Said, the deeply influential literary and cultural critic, Columbia University academic, and outspoken advocate for displaced Palestinians, of whom he was one. Exploring the landscapes of Said's childhood and how they influenced his philosophy, this film features rare footage of Said and interviews with many of his colleagues, including Noam Chomsky.

Produced and directed by Yuzuru Hanyu. The first-ever solo ice show at Tokyo Dome "GIFT,” a story that self-portrays Yuzuru Hanyu's life and future on the ice. Featuring MIKIKO as the director. The show will finally open for one night only on February 26, 2023.

In a country ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party, running on austerity and neoliberal ambitions, for most of its postwar years, gender and economic inequalities have become increasingly acute in Japan. Takashi Nishihara, a filmmaker who has been following the youth protests in Japan notices that there is one party that seems to be raising issues of gender and economic in the political sphere, the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), a party about to enter its hundredth year and consistently burdened by its historical connotations. Though an outsider of the party, Nishihara gained unprecedented access to the JCP and driven by his interest in the younger party members who find hope in the JCP, the resulting documentary goes beyond party politics and observes the current grassroots leftist movements in Japan. It also becomes witness to the larger and deep-seated patriarchal system that continues to quell momentums of hope.

A very niche documentary, or a specific travelogue in Morioka, Iwate prefecture, Japan. With a famous Japanese actress Mikako Ichikawa, they explore traditional crafts in Morioka, focusing on the future of these arts.

Hara's new film 「焼け跡クロニクル」 is a documentary film about Hara's attempt to rebuild his life from scratch after his house burned down in 2018 and he lost all his household goods and film equipment. Co-produced with Maori Hara, his partner in both public and private life, the film combines 8mm film salvaged from the ruins of the fire with digital footage shot on an iPhone to tell the story of his recovery from the fire.

"Hey Rin, let’s send a jam sandwich to space." Rin came to Kyoto from Seoul, and Sola came to Kyoto from Okinawa. They met at university and have since pursued filmmaking together. They like having fun and they like filming funny things and laughing together. They want to fly a jam sandwich. They want to shoplift a film camera. They want to trace Sora's family roots in Okinawa. The two sublimate their desires to filmmaking. For the two, film is like a magic wand. They transform it into all kinds of genres and put themselves in it. The two desire to know each other, but never compromise and, instead, accept their uncertain identities just to have the greatest conversation.

The true horror that will strike you if you survived the great prophecy of Nostradamus! The existence of evil spirits and so factors, characteristics. A doll of a girl whose hair grows. Psychic verification! How to avoid being possessed by evil spirits...?

Through this short film directed by Naomi Kawase you will witness the expressiveness of students and interviews with educators from Waldorf school’s throughout Japan.

with love to the beautiful land of Japan and Mount Fuji for providing a beautiful backdrop to our music. Dedicated to Barbara Hicks, Bahia Dayes, and Paris Manuka x

A video filmed in the Specimen Collection Room at Chulalongkorn University Hospital, showing various specimens with different deformities.

Follows architect Kazuyo Sejima's design and the construction of a new building at Osaka University of the Arts

A documentary about the Juzo Itami memorial museum in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, Japan.

This film documents the lives of two Indian women migrants who moved to Japan more than a decade ago, as a case study of the ‘trailing spouses’ concept in migration. Jyoti, 41 and Mandeep, 39, grew up in the state of Punjab, northern India, in middle-class households. They received a good education and had promising careers in India. Then, in their early 20s, they each agreed to marry men living in Japan by arrangement. The women were excited to move to a foreign country and to be with their husbands but they had no prior knowledge of Japan. Having witnessed at a distance the lives of their relatives settled in the US, UK and Canada, they had similar expectations for their own future lives in Japan. But the reality was to prove different from the expectation.

This film is about a lawsuit seeking state compensation for asbestos-related damage in the Sennan area of Osaka. Filmmaker Hara Kazuo records the eight-year struggle of the plaintiffs and their lawyers. A dogged and dramatic depiction of their intense battle.

The first in a series of independent documentaries that Tsuchimoto made of the mercury poisoning incident in Minamata, Japan.

In 1927, meteorologist Masanao Abe (1891-1966) established the Abe Cloud Air Current Research Observatory on the heights of Gotemba in Shizuoka Prefecture. Until 1942, through his contributions to research magazines and publications, he worked on elucidating the formation process of clouds above Mount Fuji. He left a colossal archive representative of modern meteorology, including pictorial records of every kind-- this one an early success, artistically.

Everything I saw during 2012. This work will show you the dynamic moment of changing from film image to digital image. —Takashi Makino

A modern geisha travels through Japan trying to find a job as entertainer, and ends up by finding love and a job as ama, a pearl diver.

Yoshida grew close to Ozu Yasujiro during his time at Shochiku, where he was able to observe the legendary master at work. Although Yoshida and his generation outspokenly rejected the values of Ozu, Kurosawa and the older humanist filmmakers, over the years Yoshida found himself increasingly drawn back to Ozu’s films, fascinated by their unique rigor, formal language and delicate balance between comedy and tragedy. For Japanese television, Yoshida adapted his own text into a four part documentary, which he also condensed into the one hour version.

In this program based on the book of the same name by Ishimure Michiko, Kitabayashi Tanie plays “Goze,” a blind wandering performer who drifts around the stricken region of Minamata in the wake of methylmercury contamination.

Documentary about the victims and effects in the Hiroshima bombing. Part of the "Ten-Feet Movement"

Follow-up to 'The People of Sunagawa'

Having made her debut with the autobiographical documentary The Duckling, Ono Sayaka directs, shoots, and edits this documentary focusing on Japan's sexual minorities. After a man starts to wear women's clothing simply hoping to be stylish, he finds himself attracted to men. After falling instantly in love with a beautiful girl, she is a "he". As the intimate moments and unpleasant complications of lovers are captured on camera, the truly ambiguous, diverse, and confusing aspects of sexuality are revealed.

In 1964, a chemical factory in Niigata Prefecture dumped mercury into the Agano River, the beginning of a manmade tragedy that would affect locals for years to come. Mercury poisoning led to high occurrences of Minamata disease, a neurological syndrome that causes severe physical and psychological ailments and death. Sato Makoto and his crew of seven spent three years in Niigata documenting the life and thoughts of locals.

Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Sanshiro Sugata" (1943).

A documentary that follows the life of photographer Daido Moriyama in the present, which has never been revealed before. Even though his charismatic presence has reigned over the world of photography since the late 60’s, his true persona had been hidden behind a veil of mystery, since he had refused any major appearances in front of any media in the past. Follow the charismatic photographer Daido Moriyama as he takes his first digital photos and observe his style of quick snapshots without looking in the finder. His stark and contrasting black and white images symbolize his fervent lifestyle.

A documentary film about the Yawata Steel Works.

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 Kiyooka and Minoru Tsukiyama managed to emerge from the bombings. Now in their twilight years, they wish for nothing more than recognition and reparations for those who, like them, had been indelibly harmed by the war – but the Japanese government and even their fellow citizens seem disinclined to acknowledge the past.

A documentary that records the daily life of a mother with a limited life expectancy and a grandmother, directed by the daughter, Haruyo Kato.

Kengo Kuma, one of Japan’s greatest contemporary architects, is globally recognized for his innovative designs that harmonize nature and material. His work is a dance between structure, environment, and people, incorporating the unique properties of a building’s place and purpose into his approach. Director Hiromoto Oka is a former student of Kuma, and particle dance documents Kuma’s projects and processes across 15 years and 17 countries.

In 1948, after the Japan’s defeat, the General Headquarters and Japanese government ordered that the Chosen gakko, schools for Koreans in Japan,ō be shut down. Koreans in Osaka strongly resisted, and 16-year-old Kim Taeil was even shot and killed by the police. This was the Hanshin Education Incident. 70 years have passed, but the Japanese oppression continues. They've removed the Chosen gakkoō from being eligible for free education. Gaining strength from the growing hatred from the conservatives, the Abe administration is misusing the educational issue as a means to cause political strife. In the midst of ongoing conflicts in Japan, nonfiction writer KO Chanyu has directed Korean Schools in Japan, compiling a history of the Koreans' fight for education.

A young travel writer wagers with friends and sets off with only maps—beginning a bus-only journey from Delhi toward London, swept up in Asia’s heat and change.

In 1983, the director’s 24-year-old sister developed symptoms of schizophrenia. Her parents couldn’t accept it—refusing to seek treatment for their sick child, they confined her to their house, to the point of even fixing a padlock on the front door to lock her in. Her younger brother, suspicious of his parents’ actions, began filming the family in an effort to openly question them. A family conflict that lasted over twenty years.

"Buraku" or "Buraku-min" are the terms used for ethnic Japanese people who are believed to descend from the pre-Meiji castes. Today, neither "Buraku" nor "Burakumin" exist anymore in terms of laws and social systems. However, many Japanese people still have a deep-rooted sense of discrimination towards people who descend from those families. Why does something that should not exist continue to exist? How did this discrimination begin in the first place? This film takes a variety of approaches to unravel the history of accumulated discrimination and its intricately intertwined context, from its origins and evolution, vividly depicting the structure of discrimination that often remains hidden from the public eye.

Director Nishimura, residing in Miharashi Hills Town, finds fascination in the shifting shadows cast upon its streets. Entranced by their ever-changing shapes, he observes how they intensify under the summer sun, creating a vivid contrast. Each silhouette holds unique qualities, seemingly containing the town's secrets.

In the summer of 1921 (Taisho 10), a major labour dispute broke out at the Kawasaki-Mitsubishi shipyard in Kobe. The Kawasaki-Mitsubishi dispute is said to be the largest labour dispute in the pre-war period, with an unprecedented scale of 30,000 participants. The dispute, which had been fiercely fought for more than 40 days under the scorching sun, ended with the declaration of defeat by the workers. This live-action film, only nine minutes long and silent, provides a glimpse into the grand demonstration on July 10th, when the dispute was at its peak. Filming was done by the Nikkatsu film crew at the request of the Ohara Institute for Social Research.

A sound only she can hear, a girl only I can see. One night, Maki, a psychology major at university, meets a girl crouched by a guardrail. One night, Maki, a psychology student at university, meets a girl crouched beside a guardrail who tells him she hears the sound of the guardrail. However, when her friend comes to check on her after hearing Maki's story, he does not see the girl. When the girl regains her memory, Maki begins to understand who she really is... By interweaving a sound story and an episode of psychoanalysis, the film succeeds in turning a love story with a ghost into a serious psychic fantasy. The fragility of Kyoko Akiyama as the ghost makes the film even more compelling.

In 1994, adult video director Katsuyuki Hirano gets married, but soon afterward falls in love with actress Mami Shikata. Hirano begins documenting their affair with the intention of turning it into a film, but Shikata grows tired of the relationship and suddenly disappears from his life. Desperate to find her, Hirano pursues various schemes and searches for clues, yet she does not return. Even so, he continues his obsessive quest to follow her traces...

Recording of Tokyo Dome performances held by COMPLEX for the recovery and reconstruction of the Noto Peninsula earthquake in Reiwa 6. Koji Yoshikawa and Torayasu Nubukuro's legendary unit COMPLEX's charity concert was held at Tokyo Dome for two days on May 15 and 16, 2024. A total of 100,000 people attended the two-day event. A complete recording of a live performance held under the banner of "Japan Isshin" for the purpose of supporting the recovery and reconstruction of the "Noto Peninsula Earthquake in Reiwa 6" that occurred on January 1, 2024. In addition, a LIVE CD containing all the songs is also included.

Experimental documentary about Japanese experimental musician Otomo Yoshihide. Includes interviews with multiple musicians, artists, and writers as well as live footage.

The 82-year-old Japanese Seiji Ozawa is one of the last remaining conductor legends of a golden era. Portrait of the ambitious maestro and educator who made the western repertoire really well known in Japan.

Tsuchimoto made this travelogue film in 1967, documenting a five-month journey from the port city of Nakhodka on the coast of the Sea of Japan, to Moscow on the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Beautifully shot in colour, Tsuchimoto moves the camera from celebrations and official parades to the expressions of ordinary daily life, portraying the experiences of young people in Siberia. This commissioned film was televised, but this theatrical version was never released, and it is rarely shown.

A documentary film produced to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Iwanami Shoten's founding. It depicts the history of Iwanami Shoten over a 50-year period from its founding in 1913 to 1963, using films, publications, photographs, etc. from that time.

Using mostly footage from Nippon News newsreels, this film explains the history of Japanese aggression, from the Manchurian Incident to the Pacific War. The governing classes of Japanese capitalism planned and carried out the war project to acquire foreign markets. and while most people were forced into poverty, the capitalists became rich. The special political police detained Communists and those who opposed the war. With the rise of fascism, Japan’s tragedy begins.