This non-narrative film depicts the routines of a girls' basketball team in a junior high school near Tokyo. Shot with a stationary camera, it consists of six ten-minute segments, some of which show the girls' routine exercises, others of which are choreographed.
2,724 Matches Found
Catch an intimate glimpse into the live sessions of Hikaru Utada’s brand-new album “Bad Mode,” recorded at the legendary Air Studios in London.
Hikaru Utada Live Sessions from Air Studios
A documentary made to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Satsuo Yamamoto's death.
Film Director Satsuo Yamamoto
A documentary exposing the sexual violence euphemistically termed "entertainment" inflicted on women of the Kurokawa settler group during Japan’s imperialist expansion in Manchuria. Under state-led colonization in the 1930s–40s, Japanese settlers occupied Chinese lands. In August 1945, facing the Soviet invasion, the group offered 15 women to enemy troops in a desperate act of survival. Decades later, the survivors confront the silenced legacy of imperial violence, discrimination, and trauma. Directed by Fumie Matsubara, with narration by Shinobu Otake.
In Their Own Words: The Women of Kurokawa
Relax and let your brain melt in a ADHD riddled mess that only an overdose of LSD could produce, slip into a unstable mental state where seizure induced visual effects take over your mind.
Degenerate
Brand new MMA documentary following the careers of several top Japanese fighters. Watch these men prepare for big fights and put their lives in the ring for spirituality and glory.
Hybrid
In response to the Fukushima disaster, Yama-san is running an election campaign with an anti-nuclear message. But unlike last time, he has no money, no machine, no nothing. Does he even stand a chance? On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced one of the most calamitous nuclear disasters in history. But in two national elections following the accident, the pro-nuclear Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) achieved landslide victories, gaining control of the two parliaments. Why? 'Campaign 2' by Kazuhiro Soda observes a small local election right after the disaster and gives insight into this difficult question, presenting a microcosm of Japan's political-psychological landscape.
Campaign 2
Chris Marker’s Bullfight in Okinawa is a bizarre, 4 min documentary that introduces viewers to Japan’s subterranean past time of bullfighting. Part of Markers five-film “Bestiary” series, Bullfight employs observational documentary techniques and, in particular, Marker’s camerawork is impressive — tight framed shots, free-hand pans, and quick zooms all contribute to the film’s urgent sense of tension — and, if it weren’t for the suspense inducing music, this short-gem would be damn close to pure objective documentary cinema.
Bullfight in Okinawa
Since their debut in 1987, BUCK-TICK has been at the forefront of the rock scene with their unchanging lineup. With their unique presence and continuing to produce outstanding works, they have been a "dream" for not only rock fans but also musicians. However, their journey has not always been smooth sailing. This work is a documentary film directed by Yuichiro Iwaki that follows the band for two full years, from their Nippon Budokan performance on December 29, 2021 to December 29, 2023, centered on their 35th anniversary since their debut. From recording scenes that you can't usually see, to backstage at concerts, to interviews by the director, you can see the members' serious and peaceful expressions as they face music.
Buck-Tick Phenomenon - New World I
A plan of a house that is reminiscent of a miniature garden used as a psychological treatment to assist in self-confirmation at a middle-class housewive’s tea party.
Housewives and a Day
Initially, Ambivalent Future was intended as a film about the production of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Bright Future". But director Fujii has taken the "behind the scenes"-concept to unprecedented heights with this unique documentary offering a close look into the world of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the auteur. Scenes from the surprisingly low key and relaxed production of "Bright Future" are of course sprinkled liberally throughout the documentary, but between these we are treated to interesting and revealing interviews with actors, producers and Kurosawa's many other collaborators. And perhaps the most surprising thing of all is how much of Kurosawa there is, talking candidly about his working methods and the philosophy behind it all.
Ambivalent Future: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The acting family, the Emotos, are the subject of this documentary following Emoto Akira and his sons.
Godot of the Emotos
A road-movie structure divided into five chapters – covering sake’s fundamentals, its history, its relationship with Japanese culture, the pressures the industry now faces, and its potential futures. Through encounters with brewers, historians, artists, distributors, and cultural experts across Japan, the documentary builds its inquiry around a single question: what does it mean for a great sake to taste like water?
The Taste of Water
In the suburbs of Kyoto, Japan, the director Yuki Kawamura's grandmother gets placed into a retirement home. For various reasons, none of her children can or want to welcome her into their own house, but some of them come to visit her at the nursing home. Little by little we get to discover the complexity of this family through interviews and family reunions. And as life goes on, with its share of weddings and births, the grandmother faces the end of her life, giving us the opportunity to reflect upon death and the relationship between a mother and her children.
Mirror of the Bride
Nagaremono zukan is a documentary video, release from V&R Planning (AV). "Flower Picture Book" is the second work in the bicycle trilogy after Yumika. A very private sexual movie with Tomoko Matsunashi, right after Hirano broke up with Yumika. The violence of the camera is clearly increasing. If Yumika was the light, Nagaremono zukan is the shadow. There are two version of Nagaremono zukan, the censored one and the original hardcore one, with additional scenes, better quality and longer runtime.
Encyclopedia of a Drifter
Details from a portrait of Kinbakushi Akira Naka, through the otherness of image and speech; broken up memory, fragmented time, reminiscences of places, moments, faces and bodies, during a back-and-forth between the recollections of a child and the aspirations of a man in his fifties...
The Peony's whisper
A dazzling and unconventional documentary where a filmmaker explores their first experience of great loss after her best friends Chun and Yueh go missing. Trapped in a cave in Nepal for 47 days, Yueh survives. Chun does not. Yi-Shan offers an intimate window into the complex relationship of survivors as she traverses the intricate terrain of grief and gender with Yueh. Their conversations are steeped in themes of guilt, perseverance, and identity as they navigate Chun’s legacy with ease, even as elders around them fail to acknowledge their friend’s queerness/transness posthumously.
After the Snowmelt
Animation using photos and copies. The double image on the left and right makes the woman's face change rapidly.
Model
An interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa discussing his work in the horror genre from his V-cinema days to his 2001 released film Pulse
Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Broken Circuits
The Weavers of Nishijin captures the process of traditional textile manufacture in Nishijin.
The Weavers of Nishijin
Film director Shunichi Nagasaki reflects on a near-fatal motorcycle accident that occurred while shooting his commercial feature debut The Lonely Hearts Club Band in September.
After That
Behind-the-scenes footage of Houka Kinoshita's film 17才 (Age 17).
Making-of17才
The Great Chuetsu Earthquake which struck Niigata Prefecture on October 23, 2004 is permanently engraved in the memories of most Japanese people today. Hardest hit was the small mountain village of Yamakoshi, located right above the quake’s epicentre. What has become of the villagers who suffered through this disaster seven years ago? This film enters the hearts and minds of the people of Yamakoshi as they pull together over four hard years to rebuild their village, their community, and their lives.
Yamakoshi: The Recovery of a Tiny Japanese Village
A documentary film concerning the dog and cat meat eating practice in the East Asia (China, South Korea, Japan …) what is gaining global attention in late years. The number of dog and cats killed for food is supposed more than 30 million of them a year throughout the world. In late years, by the development of Internet and SNS, the actual situation is finally coming to light.
Asian Dog Meat Report
Features LiSA's performances at the concert "LiVE is Smile Always ~ASiA Tour 2018~" and a documentary on the tour.
LiVE is Smile Always ~ASiA TOUR 2018~
Keyakizaka46's first documentary film.
Our Lies and Truths: Documentary of Keyakizaka46
While extracting and polishing their blocks of stone, stonecutters used to say “the stone is coming to life". This paradox provided Matsumoto with the best metaphor for what making a film is all about. In his opinion, filmmakers work images in the same way that stonecutters work stones.
The Song of Stone
An Okinawan photographer, Mao Ishikawa spent her early 20s working as a barmaid in establishments catered specifically to African American GIs stationed in Okinawa. “There was love,” as the tagline reads, her photography book, 『Red Flower – The Women of Okinawa』 captured the diaristic intimacy of friendships, love affairs, and wild nights shared amongst her social circle of that time.
From Okinawa with Love
“In Search of Unreturned Soldiers was about former soldiers of the Japanese army who chose not to return to Japan after the war. I found several of them who had remained in Thailand. Two years later, I invited one of them to make his first return visit to Japan and documented it in Outlaw-Matsu Returns Home. During the filming, my subject Fujita asked me to buy him a cleaver so that he could kill his ‘vicious brother.’ I was shocked, and asked him to wait a day so that I could plan how to film the scene. By the next morning, to my relief, Fujita had calmed down and changed his mind about killing his brother. But I couldn’t have had a sharper insight into the ethical questions provoked by this kind of documentary filmmaking.” —Shôhei Imamura
Outlaw-Matsu Comes Home
This film is about the journey that the artist Yoshitomo Nara took along with Hideki Toyoshima and graf AtoZ team, and the others who contributed to the creation of his exhibit AtoZ in Nara's hometown of Hirosaki, Japan. This personal documentary allows one to get a glimpse of the artist's nature, creation process, where Nara came from and where he stands now, plus valuable images of the never-to-be-seen-again fictitious town A to Z and allows one to relive it once again.
Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara
A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process behind Juzo Itami's "Minbo no Onna" a.k.a. "Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion".
The Making of "Minbo: the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion"
Also known as the "Kobe earthquake," the massive earthquake struck the southern Hyogo prefecture on January 17, 1995 and resulted in more than 6,400 casualties. The drama will focus on the reporters working for the Kobe Shimbun, who were determined to keep the newspaper running without interruption, despite the damage suffered during the earthquake. The characters in the drama will all be based on real people, using their real names. Sakurai stars as the photo reporter Tomohiko Mitsuyama, who had joined Kobe Shimbun four years before the earthquake. The show will also have documentary segments such as interviews, including an appearance by Mitsuyama himself.
Kobe Shinbun no Nanokakan
Doraemon's Mother: The Story of Nobuyo Oyama
京都・祇園祭 ~至宝に秘められた謎~
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Seven Samurai" (1954).
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Seven Samurai'
NHK documentary about "Grave of the Fireflies" and 7 notebooks written by Isao Takahata that were found after his death. The film was based on a novel, but also on the director's personal experience, who fled the bombings with his sister.
Hotaru no Haka to Takahata Isao to 7-satsu no Nōto
Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#21~60 Songs~
梶浦由記 『Yuki Kajiura LIVE vol.#21~60 Songs~』
The Unnameable Dance shows the life and dance of Tanaka Min, an elderly dancer in his 70s, in a multifaceted and dynamic manner.
The Unnameable Dance
Documentary on the film "Pulse"
Terror from the Internet
Storyboard showcase of Anno's ghibli museum short.
The Invention of Imaginary Machines of Destruction - First Storyboards, in Motion Short Director
A collection of deleted scenes and bloopers from the library of Toho Studios films, including several films from the famous Godzilla franchise.
Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection
SPYAIR's annual outdoor solo live concert "Just Like This 2024" held at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Tokyo on September 29, 2024 (Sun.) is now on film! SPYAIR, who had focused on performing on the streets until their major label debut, held their first outdoor concert "Just Like This 2011" at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Tokyo. Four years later, they moved to Fuji-Q Highland Conifer Forest to hold "JUST LIKE THIS 2015". In 2024, "JUST LIKE THIS" will be held at its original venue.
SPYAIR Just Like This 2024
Actor Masato Sakai brings you an unprecedented adventure! The world's first attempt to ski down the huge cliffs of Denali (6190m), the highest peak in North America. The challenge is undertaken by 40-year-old mountain skier Daisuke Sasaki. Denali is the mountain where Naoki Uemura, the adventurer he admired, lost his life. It has long been a dream of his to face it head-on. The temperature is minus 30 degrees Celsius and the oxygen is half that of the flat terrain. Will he succeed in his descent? The 4K camera captures the powerful footage. You, too, can join in on the ultimate adventure!
世界初 極北の冒険 デナリ大滑降
Famous kabuki performer Kikugoro IV performs the Lion Dance, in which a young girl is possessed by the spirit of a lion and transforms into the demonic beast.
The Lion Dance
A documentary about the 1972 Winter Olympic Games in Sapporo, Japan.
Sapporo Winter Olympics
V6 live tour 2011 Sexy.Honey.Bunny!
V6 live tour 2011 Sexy.Honey.Bunny!
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Throne of Blood" (1957).
Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: 'Throne of Blood'
A documentary about the making and shooting of Yojiro Takita’s ‘Departures’ (2008)
Making of "Departures"
MGA MAGICAL 10 YEARS ANNIVERSARY LIVE ~FJORD~ ON SCREEN
Live of popular singer Emi Nitta held at Nakano Sun Plaza in August 2017 during two days!
Nitta Emi LIVE "Trace of EMUSIC ~ THE LIVE THE HISTORY ~"
Shizuka Yokomizo’s video installation for the Taipei Biennial 2025 captures a quiet, personal scene: her elderly mother tending to 70 plant species on a small balcony in Tokyo. The artist observes the exchange between her mother and the plants—a system of care shaped by weather, seasons, and attentive listening. Though the plants appear indifferent, her mother sees their silence as a gift. Yokomizo reflects on the parallels between human aging and plant life cycles. The work explores care, time, and the quiet companionship between two living beings moving through life.
Recipients
Crew and actors prepare for Mamoru Oshii's stage version of Tetsujin 28.
28½
The history and art of ikebana, a centuries old Japanese art of flower arrangement and a look inside the Sogetsu School of Ikebana, where the director's father Sofu Teshigahara worked as the grand master of the school.
Ikebana
After the millennium time, the truth of revealed now. You can understand all of the mysterious! She goes on a journey across the thousand year’s space-time to learn the truth of the greatest mystery of Japanese history [the legendary cloud]. "Sakuya Youkai" The super-mystery experience drama starring Nozomi Ando.
Onmyōji Abenoseimei
In Japan, there is an informal agreement between mainstream media and the government that is hardly ever questioned: Journalists are not too persistent in their criticism, in turn representatives of the government grant direct access to select information through press conferences. Isoko Mochizuki, reporter for the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, has established herself as a spoilsport in this system.
i -Documentary of the Journalist-
Masato Sakai Visit Native Americans living today.
堺雅人 今を生きるネイティブアメリカンを訪ねて
After the waning of the protests in Sanrizuka, Ogawa Pro started questioning the future of the collective and looking for other subjects to film. Following the method developed in the previous films, the filmmakers moved to the slum of Kotobuchi in the port city of Yokohama, where more than 6000 people were struggling to get by without any means of survival, exposed to industrial accidents and diseases. The result is one of the most moving films produced by the collective, a series of beautifully filmed portraits, voicing the silenced stories and songs of a group of people living in this community. Credit: ICA London
Dokkoi! Songs from the Bottom
In this contemporary documentary, the cast and the crew share their experiences of making the film.
The Making Of The Katakuris
Now one of the world’s most celebrated artists, Yayoi Kusama broke free of the rigid society in which she was raised, and overcame sexism, racism, and mental illness to bring her artistic vision to the world stage. At 88 she lives in a mental hospital and continues to create art.
Kusama: Infinity
Renowned cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa collaborated with a number of great Japanese filmmakers, including Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Kon Ichikawa, and Yasujiro Ozu. The following excerpts from the Japanese television documentary THE WORLD OF KAZUO MIYAGAWA explore Miyagawa and Kurosawa’s working relationship on RASHOMON.