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Grandson of a Monster

The late Shinzo Abe was the longest-serving prime minister of all time, holding office for 2,822 consecutive days. While his hawkish foreign policy and "Abenomics" economic policies won him support, he also attracted public attention for his controversial words, actions and scandals. Nobusuke Kishi, a politician and the maternal grandfather of former Prime Minister Abe, was nicknamed the "Monster of the Showa Era" for his ability to manipulate the political and business worlds by walking the fronts and backs of society. The film explores the mysteries of his blood and upbringing that led him to adopt an extremely "forward-looking" political stance in order to realize his ambitions, which were imprinted in his childhood mind as his "grandfather's teachings". With black humor and satirical picture books, the film unravels who former Prime Minister Abe was and what he left behind for this country.

Grandson of a Monster

10.0 2023
Shunga: The Lost Japanese Erotica

In the foundation of the culture of Japanese MANGA and animation, there lies the humor filled art form, shunga. Shunga is a type of Japanese art by famous ukiyo-e artists of the Edo Period, such as Utamaro, Hokusai, and Kiyonaga, but the artform’s development was thwarted by social norms that tabooed sex. The film Introduces the world of shunga through enthusiasts - collectors, curators, and scholars, including Andrew Gerstle who inspired The British Museum’s historical shunga exhibition in 2013 and Michael Fornitz who owns an auction house in Denmark. Exploring the significance of shunga by analyzing it from historical, cultural, artistic and contemporary female points of view.

Shunga: The Lost Japanese Erotica

NR 2023
Naniwa Danshi Debut Tour 2022 1st Love

This package captures the November 2nd Yokohama Arena performance from Naniwa Danshi's first arena tour since their debut, which ran from July to November 2022 across 9 cities nationwide for a total of 39 shows. Featuring their debut song “Ubu LOVE,” performed after making their entrance with a “Platinum Jet” reminiscent of their debut day, this live package delivers the ultimate “Debut Tour” experience! It packs in nearly all their original songs from their Johnny's Jr. days and tracks released after their CD debut. Enjoy a concert richly condensed with Naniwa Danshi's ‘Love,’ showcasing their continued growth following their debut.

Naniwa Danshi Debut Tour 2022 1st Love

NR 2023
Jazz Godfather

​Isao Suzuki is a legendary Japanese jazz bassist known worldwide. Once elected as one of the top 20 jazz musicians in the world, he is better known outside of Japan than inside, thanks to his sessions with many renowned musicians. What kind of life has he led as a musician, what kind of influence has he had on his younger students, and what has he been like in his later years as the Godfather of Jazz? We take a look back at his life through interviews and his personal life.

Jazz Godfather

4.8 2023
The J-Horror Virus

How did a single ‘Big in Japan’ videotape change the course of global horror history? Find out in this insightful documentary charting the origins, evolution and diffusion across the world of a distinctive brand of Japanese supernatural chillers featuring vengeful ghosts manifesting themselves through contemporary technology against a backdrop of urban alienation and social decay. From Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1988) and straight-to-video scary true stories to such key titles as Ring (1998), Pulse (2001) and The Grudge (2002), critics and filmmakers reflect on how the bleak Dystopian visions and unsettling atmospheres infiltrated their way into the world’s shocker consciousness.

The J-Horror Virus

NR 2023
The Chocolate Man

In Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture, “QUON CHOCOLATE” is gaining popularity for its carefully selected flavors and colorful designs. This brand, which now has 52 locations nationwide, has continued to offer a creative workplace to people of many diverse backgrounds, including those with mental or physical disabilities, single parents, those who have never attended school, to sexual minorities, and many others. This film depicts the tumultuous 19 years of the chocolate brand’s pursuit of ideals. The newest work of the producer of the documentary “Life is Fruity.”

The Chocolate Man

NR 2023
Pacific Mother

Pacific Mother journeys from Japan, to Hawaii, Tahiti, Rarotonga and Aotearoa to share interwoven stories of formidable women who live at one with the Pacific Ocean – freediving, spearfishing and paddling waka through its depths and playing with their children in its shallows – a stark contrast to fast-paced lifestyles of larger towns or cities. These women are all mothers who experienced diverse births in hospital, at home and by the sea, with and without medical assistance. Fukumoto also meets Māori and Japanese midwives who share indigenous traditions and rituals around birth that have been lost over recent generations, and are now gradually being reclaimed. Their stories demonstrate just how disconnected the global default maternity system is from the instinctive and cultural needs of mothers and families. They inspire a call to action on birthing rights, as well as a call for parents’ reconnection with their role as nurturers and protectors of their natural environment.

Pacific Mother

9.0 2023
Record of Life: Those Who Fought  in the Okawa Tsunami Trial

On March 11, 2011, Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki City was engulfed by a tsunami, and 74 children, or 70% of the school's children, were killed. 51 minutes elapsed between the earthquake and when the tsunami reached the school. The school was informed of the tsunami and a school bus was on standby, but students did not evacuate. Okawa Elementary was the only school that suffered a large number of casualties in this earthquake. This documentary follows the lawsuit that followed the disaster, where the parents sought the truth behind the tragedy.

Record of Life: Those Who Fought in the Okawa Tsunami Trial

NR 2023
Men with Cameras - Capture the Great Kanto Earthquake

The film is set on September 1th, 1923 , when a huge earthquake hits Tokyo . The quake caused buildings to collapse, and the city was reduced to ashes by fire. The Great Kanto Earthquake killed more than 105,000 people. 100-year-old films recording this catastrophe have been found all over the country.But who filmed the turmoil of Tokyo, chased by raging fires?After investigating, I come across three cameramen. They turned the hand-cranked camera in a trance without being ordered by anyone.

Men with Cameras - Capture the Great Kanto Earthquake

NR 2023
It Was All A Dream

Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto was a national star who led the Japanese martial arts world in the 2000s and was called the “Son of God.” "Yamamoto KID's Love and Dream ~IT WAS ALL A DREAM~", will explore his life and life based on interviews from the time and testimonies of those involved. Follow the legendary matches. In addition, some unreleased footage from over a decade is also included. Among them, his last interview before his death, filmed in 2018, contains the last precious glimpses of KID Yamamoto talking about his family and love for martial arts even while battling illness. The dreams drawn by martial artist KID, the truth that can only be spoken about now, and the intense way of life of a man who influenced many people and is still loved by many, are told by his ally Yosuke Kubozuka.

It Was All A Dream

NR 2023
Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak

In 2001, 85,000 baby teeth were discovered in Missouri, collected 50 years earlier in a study on the radioactive consequences of nuclear testing conducted on US soil. Carried by the wind, radioactive material produced by more than 100 nuclear explosions contaminated pastures, vegetables and water across the continent. Scientists and mothers in St. Louis, who launched the ambitious project to measure Strontium 90 in baby teeth, uncovered the disturbing environmental consequences of nuclear arms testing. Featuring narration from Alec Baldwin, director Hideaki Ito unveils the shocking legacy of nuclear testing in the US and the ongoing policy decisions shaping our future.

Silent Fallout: Baby Teeth Speak

7.2 2023
Miyama, Kyōto Prefecture

The follow-up film to “Barstow, California” takes us to the mountains of Miyama, a remote forest and tourist area north of Kyoto. Uwe Walter, a shakuhachi player from Germany, lives there with his wife Mitsuyo for 30 years. Together with the villagers he prepares the annual Gion Festival. On the eve of the festival, the village representatives tell him that his self-built studio is to be demolished. This brings back memories for him of earlier times and his first steps as a Nō actor. In the manner of a fresco, the film interweaves rural depictions of everyday life with the story of its German protagonist. In the village community with its togetherness of generations, Uwe shares life with his neighbours, with farmers, hunters, woodsmen, poultry farmers and anglers, tills his kitchen garden, and like other tradition-conscious villagers, he also grows his rice. The film shows them in a harsh mountain landscape between the rainy season and the first snow.

Miyama, Kyōto Prefecture

8.0 2023
Tokyo Poltergeist

I have captured something unbelievable. Are you brave enough to see real ghosts? 1. The smell of incense sticks in a room 2. Curtains and whiteboards swaying in an empty room 3.vibrating and flashing lighting fixtures 4. wall clock blows 5. don! Don! and the sound or voice that hits the wall violently 6. a mirror that spouts water 7. Human voices and bells that shouldn't be there 8. A ball suddenly thrown from the ceiling 9. white human hand floating in the mirror 10. and finally! A white hand appeared in front of us from a place no human can enter! ! *No CG or editing has been added to the ghost images in this movie.

Tokyo Poltergeist

1.0 2023
Tooi & Masato

This is a story about a Japanese photographer and his journey to discover his roots. As a child, his name was “Tooi”. Born and raised in Thailand, he was suddenly taken to Japan when he has eight years old and became Japanese with the name, “Masato”. The reason was his father had been a “Zanryu Nihonhei”. “Zanryu Nihonhei” were Japanese soldiers who didn’t or couldn’t return to Japan after the war’s end for various reasons. A big reason was Japan’s defeat. It’s believed there were 10,000 across Asia and the former Soviet Union, with 1,000 in Thailand alone. The exact number remains unclear. His father was also among them. When “Masato” was 28, he travelled back to Thailand where he was born. And he remembers his past and words.

Tooi & Masato

NR 2023
Memories of Kenji Eno

Behind game titles such as “D” or “Enemy Zero”, Kenji Eno is a creator who was one step ahead in pushing the boundaries of storytelling in the game medium, influencing many people throughout his career. Commemorating the 10 years since his sudden passing in 2013, we will premiere a documentary gathering testimonials from people who were close to him, starting with his wife Yuka Iino, creators such as Hideo Kojima, Fumito Ueda and artists such as Pierre Taki or Tadanobu Asano.

Memories of Kenji Eno

NR 2023
SUNRISE TO SUNSET

DISK 1: SUNRISE TO SUNSET Documentary SUNRISE TO SUNSET + BLARE FEST 2020 live Song list (BLARE FEST 2020): 1. Ligarse 2. Resurrection (feat. Masato from coldrain/ Hazuki from lynch.) 3. Weight of my pride (feat. MAH from SiM) 4. Respect for the dead man (feat. Koie & Teru from Crossfaith / NAOKI & NOBUYA from ROTTENGRAFFTY) 5. Pictures (Feat AG from Noisemaker / Yosh from Survive Said The Prophet) 6. Voice (feat. Taka from ONE OK ROCK) 7. Rain 8. This life DISK 2: SUNRISE TO SUNSET INTERVIEWS (UNRELEASED FOOTAGE) DISK 3: FROM HERE TO SOMEWHERE (2013.12.30 ZEPP TOKYO) Song list: 01. Sweetest vengeance 02. Here I'm singing 03. Drive 04. Deprogrammer 05. Wallow in self pity 06. The answer is not in the tv 07. Gift 08. Weight of my pride 09. Home 10. Rain 11. Another day comes 12. This life 13. Greed 14. The sun, love and myself 15. Black sheep 16. Lose your own 17. Paralyzed ocean 18. Against the pill

SUNRISE TO SUNSET

NR 2023
=LOVE Today is your Trigger THE MOVIE

A captivating concert film that captures the Japanese idol group =LOVE's pivotal performance at the Nippon Budokan during their 2023 nationwide tour "Today is your Trigger." Formed in April 2017 under the production of Rino Sashihara, this marked a significant turning point in the group's career. Beyond the electrifying live performances, the film offers exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and intimate member interviews that fans won't find anywhere else. Available in standard 2D as well as special formats including ScreenX, 4DX, and 4DX Screen for an immersive experience.

=LOVE Today is your Trigger THE MOVIE

NR 2023
Echigo World’s Largest Yon-shakudama Katakai Festival

The Katakai Festival, one of Niigata and Echigo's Three Great Fireworks Festivals, has a 400-year history. Held annually on September 9th and 10th in Katakai Town, it features fireworks dedicated to Asahara Shrine, filled with wishes and prayers. Highlights include Japan’s largest 'San-shakudama' and the world's largest 'Yon-shakudama,' which impress spectators with their grandeur. The small hill behind the launch site amplifies the fireworks' powerful bursts. This work condenses the festival's two-day fireworks displays. It captures the fleeting beauty of each firework, the vibrant rapid-fire starmine displays, and the grand 'San-shakudama' and 'Yon-shakudama' that fill the night sky, creating an emotional and resonant experience. Filmed in ultra-high-definition 4K/8K60P, it faithfully reproduces the grand fireworks and fine sparks. Enjoy the immersive experience with high-resolution audio at 96kHz24bit, emphasizing the fireworks' explosive sounds and echoes.

Echigo World’s Largest Yon-shakudama Katakai Festival

NR 2023
This Magic Moment

Lim Kah Wai, director of Your Lovely Smile, embarks on a similar journey as the protagonist in his film, visiting dozens of mini theatres from Okinawa to Hokkaido. Lim is not pitching his new film, but meeting the staff and owners of the theatres to make a documentary about how they struggle in the shrinking market. In empty cinema houses, the people speak of the common and personal challenges they encounter. Although they might have made different decisions – whether to hang on or move on, they share a pure love for and a genuine belief in cinema that they wish to pass on to the next generation.

This Magic Moment

NR 2023
Hokusai Up Close: Paintings from the Freer Gallery of Art

In 2018 Japan’s NHK television network was given unprecedented access to the Freer Gallery of Art’s collection of works by Katsushika Hokusai so they could film the details of paintings using a state-of-the-art 8K video camera. The resulting documentary is hosted by actor Iura Arata and features commentary from the James Ulak, former curator at the National Museum of Asian Art, and Tim Clark, former curator at the British Museum. The film’s intended premiere in April 2020 was canceled due to the pandemic. We are proud to finally screen it. Explore masterpieces at a never-before-seen level of detail and enjoy new insights into the artist’s genius.

Hokusai Up Close: Paintings from the Freer Gallery of Art

NR 2023
The Falconer's Legacy

Matsubara Hidetoshi, one of Japan's last traditional falconers, resides in rural Tohoku with only the company of his birds. A high school student requests to become the apprentice of falconer Matsubara, who resolves to pass on his knowledge in recognition of her enthusiasm. Matsubara and his apprentice train on Mt. Gassan, a site of religious pilgrimages that over centuries has been the hunting grounds for many falconers and their birds. The two struggle to control a hawk that never misses them. A sudden request by a young city-dweller may be key to retaining his legacy. It depicts the forgotten lives in modern times that are deeply connected to the nature around us.

The Falconer's Legacy

NR 2023
Reviving Japan's Economy: Breaking Free of 3 Decades of Stagnation

Three "lost" decades of economic stagnation since the collapse of Japan's bubble era have fundamentally altered the country's global image, and spawned the term "Cheap Japan." What will it take to truly revive Japan's economy once again? In a rapidly changing world, the question of how the globe's third largest economy can avoid being left behind is perhaps more pertinent than ever. Drawing on both expert guidance and in-depth analysis of a wide range of available data, we hunt for clues that might point the way to Japan's ever-elusive economic renaissance.

Reviving Japan's Economy: Breaking Free of 3 Decades of Stagnation

NR 2023
Watashi ga Watashi de Aru Basho

Japan has an estimated 24000 actors and talents working in the media, mostly playing nameless roles in independent films. A large portion of these actors are unrecognized by the general audiences and not even listed in the talent directories. This documentary provides an intimate look into the lives of these actors, the aspirations behind their dreams, and the challenges they face in the film industry. The subjects in this film are the actors who appeared and participated in the audition of Takaomi Ogata's movie "Cinderella Girl."

Watashi ga Watashi de Aru Basho

NR 2023