Discover Movies

Third video album released by Fishmans. Live performance made on March 2, 1996 at Shinjuku Liquid Room.

Literalising the titular term roughly translatable as 'body politic', Kokutai explores the fascist aesthetics of Japan's biannual national high school baseball tournaments.

"In my filmography, An Engineer’s Assistant (1963) is called my “first film.” This PR film on the safety of the Japanese National Railways was designed to be “self-criticism” after the big accident on the Joban line at Mikawashima Station, which had occurred in 1962. Right after the events back then, the responsibility for the accident was considered to be negligence of the engineer and the engineer’s assistant. The topic of this project was the promotion of a new device to avoid accidents. However, I had seen that the true cause of the accident was a congested service schedule, and I consciously placed emphasis on the depiction of the actual work of the engineer and his assistant, and of those who had chosen the route and were responsible for safety on the line on which the accident took place."

Disgusted by the eugenicist and ableist Sagamihara massacre of 2016, emerging documentarian Taku Aoyagi offers a radiant film about Mirai Farm, a social welfare center he frequented as a child in Yamanashi, a city in the shadow of Mount Fuji. Through gestures, Aoyagi introduces us to the different individuals who work at Mirai, as well as their distinct talents and personalities. In the process, he constructs an exemplary documentary about life with a disability, one that does not treat those filmed as “subjects,” but rather as friends with whom to occupy their own space, alongside those who care and encourage us to see the world with kindness.

A very special event that took place immediately following the 2009 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Furuyashiki Village. They held a ‘dojo,’ a school where the veteran independent filmmakers from Japan taught the younger generation of independent filmmakers from China and Japan. They watched films, shot and hand-developed Super-8 films. Participants: Azuma Mieko, Cong Feng, Huang Weikai, Ji Dan, Kawabe Ryota, Mao Chenyu, Sato Leo, and others... The participants formed teams. Each received a camera, several rolls of film, and a CD with (mostly urban) sounds to use as a soundtrack. They were to plan and shoot a short film using in-camera editing. (total 4 short films).

A loose sequel to "Self Reflection", "Inner Reflection" is about art, memories, filmmaking, and the director themselves, told through disconnected visuals and a man suffering from violent delusions.

In this documentary film, a companion to the book, Arai interviews five women from Ofunato, ages 79 to 100, who have survived as many as three tsunami in the past century! They talk about their childhood memories, their fortitude in the face of war and natural disaster, and the extraordinary depth of spoken Kesengo. Director Suzuki Yoi’s rich poetic sensibility offers a vision of humanity in all its complexity, as the film weaves together their Takuboku translations, poetry by the women themselves, and local songs. Their stories and their language will become a part of everyone who listens to their voices

Junichi Yaoi talks about secret theories about Extra terrestrials.

This film documents painter Mizutani Isao’s creative process as he prepares for his solo exhibition “Between Ten Spiritual Worlds:Flies and the Dinner Table.” Mizutani’s method involves painting the surface of his canvases with water-soluble acrylics, then applying India ink and water and freezing them naturally. No sound was recorded for the film, which was projected silent with Mizutani himself narrating over the images.

A renowned old hotel near Nagoya Station has been in the red for four consecutive fiscal terms. When the old management stepped down, Akio Shibata, who has long been in the board of the labor union, is appointed its new general manager. Shibata's method for reviving the hotel consists of neither the laying off of the staff nor the introduction of performance-based system. He wants everyone to take part in the making of new management plans and for all employees to lodge together and engage in heated discussions about their management dreams all night. Yes, his management ideal is to "have the happiest employees in Japan" working in their hotel. He throws birthday parties for employees and has company cafeteria remodeled. All these changes bring about yet another change in the mind of everyone.

Mayor Iwakawa was voted into office in 1991, promising better welfare for senior citizens. As a result of his efforts to create a town with resident participation, while battling against anti-reform forces of the town council, Takanosu-machi becomes the best welfare town in Japan. In the nationwide local elections in 2003, however, Iwakawa, loses by a huge margin against the opposing candidate who promises the consolidation of local municipalities.

She never gave up on her dreams. Ingrid Fuzjko Hemming had many ups and downs and experienced moments no one should endure, but never stopped reaching higher and higher to become the musician she (and her mother) wanted her to become. Traveling the world and having one foot in either of two worlds, Hemming's ultimate agony arrives with the loss of her hearing.

With the passing of Nakazawa Keiji in December 2012, Barefoot Gen’s Hiroshima now stands as the manga artist’s last message of peace to the world. Mr. Nakazawa recounts his life, from the aftermath of the atomic bombing up until the days he created his acclaimed manga series Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen), by exploring sites of painful memories in Hiroshima. Through Mr. Nakazawa’s story, and his original art work, Barefoot Gen’s Hiroshima illuminates the nature of war and nuclear weapons, urging us not to repeat the past.

Documentary about the great Japanese documentary maker Tsuchimoto Noriaki made a couple of years before his death.

Depiction of the harsh life in a rural town in Yamagata.

Documentary following the career of the Japanese band "Bloodthirsty Butchers".

A short documentary on the famous Aokigahara Forest in Japan. The forest is known to be prone to people looking to commit suicide

A comprehensive document of the six-month production of "Casting Blossoms to the Sky," mixing truth and fiction.

An interview with artist Ushio Shinohara.

In 2006, Samson Miyamoto, a toy store owner in Nemuro, Hokkaido, founded "New Nemuro Pro Wrestling" to promote his love of wrestling and revitalize his hometown. His wrestlers were local customers and dairy farmers, many of whom had been bullied or were withdrawn. In 2019, Miyamoto was diagnosed with a serious illness. He promised a comeback for his October retirement match but passed away the following year. Three years later, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the former members reunited in Tokyo’s Shinkiba ring, honoring Samson’s legacy.

Documentary: the Doro-Chiba labor union strikes against the privatisation of Japan National Railways.

The sensation of forward movement is taken for granted. Lateral motion, however, is a more recent phenomenon. Due to the inventions of the mechanical age, our perception of speed has grown faster. Now with visual information taken over by increasingly powerful computers, a strange spectacle arises. (Image Forum)

Shu Hin, a four year old panda, narrates her and her twin brother's story as they move from a Japanese zoo to a panda reserve in China and make new panda friends.

Documentary with tour footage and live performances of all 3 bands from the 1996 Grind Over Europe Tour: Dead Infection (Poland), Haemorrhage (Spain), C.S.S.O. (Japan).

Pelican, a bakery located at Asakusa, Tokyo, becomes crowded every morning. There are only two types of bread sold. It looks ordinary but meet a bakery that has been loved for 74 years with a taste you won't get tired of even if you eat it everyday!

This film focuses on I-OMANTE ritual that is to liberate the souls of the Gods from the furs and meat and send them back to the Land of the Gods. The Ainu believed that bears were Gods. The Gods come to the Land of the Ainu, which means “human beings”, with meat, furs and medicine (the gall bladders of the bears) as their gifts.

Masato Hara made his directorial debut in high school in 1968 and achieved a reputation as a young prodigy. Many years later, he continues to make films and show his old experimental 'live-screening' films, but is saddled with massive debts. This film follows eight years in his life.

In this 1993 video interview, filmed for the Directors Guild of Japan at Tokyo’s Haiyuza Theatre, director Masaki Kobayashi talks to fellow filmmaker and longtime Kobayashi admirer Masahiro Shinoda (DOUBLE SUICIDE) about THE HUMAN CONDITION.

A group of uniformed Japanese schoolchildren make their way to class. But what they will be taught when they get there is a subject increasingly under government scrutiny. EDUCATION AND NATIONALISM traces growing government intervention in Japanese history and social science education over the last decade — a process embraced by the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

An examination of the Constitution of Japan and the possibility of its revision.

Kenji Murakami seeks out legendary wildman director Kenji Onishi and arranges a meeting with director Yoko Oguchi. The meeting turns unexpectedly intense...

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is seen trough the eyes of the charismatic and commited doctor Hida. Essential witness of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, he has been the doctor of irradiated people for more than 60 years. At the age of 96, he keeps fighting for a fairer world, putting trust in the future, using humour and provocation to denounce the official attitude. His association, Hidankyo has been nominaded twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

An examination of a specialist school for twin siblings and the theme of heredity and environment on human development

In the United States, where the prison population exceeds three million, there are more than 100,000 lifers—inmates serving life sentences or indeterminate terms. Having committed serious crimes such as murder and armed robbery, they are often labeled “beyond rehabilitation” and largely forgotten by society. This documentary follows lifers participating in the AMITY rehabilitation program, examining the role they play in helping other inmates reform and rebuild their lives.

Documentary directed by Takashi Shimizu

This is the director's first diary film, drawn in collaboration with a diverse cast and manga artist Yumi Enomoto. It is a serious self-documentary work with a comedic touch.

A feature length documentary covering the musical career of Japanese pop star Mariya Takeuchi.

As they play carefree music, their musicianship is met with surprise, wonder, and sometimes even laughter. Captivating all who watch, Otoasobi Project’s rich variety of expression reshapes the concept of improvised music. Formed in 2005 in Kobe, Japan, Otoasobi Project has some 50 members, including people with intellectual disabilities, musicians, and music therapists, who pursue music and well-being through improvised performances. After many years of numerous workshops, concerts, and other activities, they even held their first tour in the UK in September 2013. The movie “Whereabouts of Sound” depicts the appeal of the improvised music Otoasobi creates, and the beauty of its natural, honest expression.

The Wages of Resistance is a feature-length documentary film that portrays an "extended span of time" of the protests against building Narita International Airport which have continued from the 1960's to today through documenting monologues of those whose lives were twisted by the movement.

Ten years after the introduction of the long-term care insurance system, some people question the uniformity of long-term care services and set up new long-term care facilities on their own. The film covers three welfare facilities and documents the young staff struggling to make ends meet.

A documentary film about the tidal flat ecosystem directed by ornithologist Shimomura Kenji. It is also said to be the original form of Japanese ecological documentary films. We took two years of long-term photography at Gyotoku Coast in Chiba Prefecture and Ariake Bay in Saga Prefecture, and carefully observed the ecology of tidal flat creatures such as crabs and muddy sparrows using telephoto lenses.

A dive, the midday sunlight filtering down through the water. The air in her lungs has to last until she can dislodge the abalone. Dives like these have been carried out in Japan for over 2000 years by the Ama-San.

Documentary about Jean Tinguely and his work.

They may be elderly, but Masayo and Kumezo Mukaido are still working just as hard as when they were young. Their life is hardly made any easier by the snow that covers their mountain village home of Taimagura, in the north of Japan, for much of the year. But the old woman is good-humored and quick to smile, and the weather conditions are no obstacle at all to their carrying on their work. They mash soybeans with their feet to make miso, chop wood and harvest potatoes. The 16mm footage shows them hard at work on the land, intercut with black-and-white shots of their mountain village, and the elderly couple’s ruminations on life. Then the inevitable happens, and Kumezo dies. Now Masayo is all alone. This loving film documents a modest life packed with all the daily duties that come with working the land. It’s an ode to the unforgiving beauty of nature, an unflagging work ethic and ancient tradition.

Naomi Kawase returns to the mountains of her feature film Suzaku and portraits the people that inspired the movie.

A latest documentary by Gen Iwama (“The Past is Always New, and the Futureis Always Nostalgic: Photographer Daido Moriyama"), shot in Gamagori, the town of Cotton. The camera follows the declining 'textile industry' in Japan and people who try to find a way to revive the industry there.

Shot in a retirement home over a period of two years, this film raises the question of "how to take care". The director films with great tenderness, not only the daily life of patients with senile dementia, but also the work of caregivers. Widely broadcast, the film sparked lively debate on the care and support society in Japan.

French Documentary focusing on All Japan Woman's Pro Wrestling. Showing the touring along with interviews with the wrestlers. Mainly focusing on Bull Nakano, Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, and Debbie Malenko

A record of the people and culture of Beijing

A documentary about Morisaki Henrik, AKA Terayama Henrik, who became Terayama Shuji's adopted little brother after his death. Henrik continued Terayama's legacy in his own way after the passing of his collaborator and brother.

Exquisite exploration of landscape and Toru Takemitsu's music for a Japanese moss garden.

Kyogen performer Nomura Mansai's speciality, Sanbaso, is said to be the oldest form of Shinto ritual in Japan's performing arts. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, Mansai took up the challenge of fusing tradition and technology with the help of media artist Daito Manabe and others to see how he could delve deeper into this "Sanbaso" and see if a new form of expression was possible. The programme will take up the challenge of fusing tradition and technology. The programme follows the trajectory of the project and explores the roots of what "Sanbaso" is all about.

The majestic mountain scenery of the town of Ubuyama-mura in southern Japan serves as the setting for this exploration of an inexhaustible cultural legacy. With the arrival of summer, Masae goes house to house collecting traditional songs in a search for poems dating back over one thousand years.

Interesting conceptual film where people of various ages and professions are asked to sit on a chair for 15 minutes with nothing to do. We see how bored and uneasy modern people start to feel when wasting time.