Discover Movies

A Voice at Midnight, Doll Room, Brother and Sister, Devotion

trf TOUR '95 dAnce to positive Overnight Sensation was a nationwide tour held by trf in 1995. The shows were held in support of their studio album of the same name, dAnce to positive.

In a Balinese village, families go to great trouble and expense for their extravagant cremation ceremony. They provide special foods to mourners and prepare a bounty of offerings for the deceased, from gifts of money to symbolic baskets. The atmosphere is almost festive as a shadow puppet show is performed for the entertainment of the deceased, inheritances are distributed, and musical processions of mourners walk the streets. Dead family members seem almost present as their bones are uncovered, washed, and arranged for cremation with accompanying prayer rites. During the cremation, the village is filled with smoke from enormous burning pyres shaped like bulls, as the souls of the dead are cleansed of impurity and then sent out to sea so that they may continue their journey to heaven. Shot in 16mm, the film documents and explains the intricacies of these funeral rites and Balinese-Hindu beliefs about death.

"Self recognition changes according to the condition of mental health. When the person is not healthy, the image of oneself looks distorted like the ones reflected on a spoon. Maybe screaming happens when the gap between the ideal self and the reflected self is too big. The person is retrieved when he/she forgets about the ideal." - Tamami Asada

Is this Japan in the near future or a place that closely resembles Japan? In a town where the weather forecast always ends with an announcement about a 'dull rain', people live their lives constantly worrying about the rain. The 'dull rain' is said to be the vapour that forms when a substance called H.U.A.N. in the air combines with another substance called Violence (VIOLENCE), which rises into the sky and forms clouds. However, neither clouds nor rain is visible to the human eye, nor do we know what happens when they fall.

The film is brilliantly directed with a high level of tension, as if it were a gag comic straight out of a live-action comic book. The ideas are seemingly cheap, but with a speedy sharpness and sense of style, they are even gorgeous. What makes the most of it is the orthodox story section, which carefully holds down the portrayal of the characters, and the "Is this really live-action?" It is probably the workmanship that spares no time or effort after thinking about it.

Made by the deathcult Oumu Shinrikyou, this OVA follows the "quirky" adventures of the immaculate leader Shoko Asahara. The cult later carried out the deadly '95 Tokyo subway attacks.

Love that takes one step back and two steps forward. A man who likes to reason and seems to be able to talk as much as he wants, and a woman whose words cannot keep up with her feelings. The two young lovers have opposite personalities and quarrel constantly over trivial matters. However, their quarrels usually end with the man arguing unilaterally, but that day was different. The woman's resentment exploded. Will it be the end for them? A little love that exists everywhere. The quarrels and make-ups that all lovers repeat. The film succeeds in creating a love that is unique to these two people by casually but carefully depicting "why does he love her like that" and "why does she love him like that", despite the fact that this is a typical example.

For his own trauma, which he hates but cherishes. There is a man who was sexually violated as a child. He is troubled by the presence of another self, who appears before his eyes and reminds him of that time. The man hates the boy, but not completely, as he tries to control him by force but cannot. The boy silently adores the man. In the end, the two decide to live together in a world that is always looking for curiosity. The psychological symbols hidden here and there are not only rhetorical but also beautiful and striking enough as visuals to give a sense of sadness born of inevitability. The fact that the faces of the people are not shown clearly gives the film the effect of a scene from a dream.

Whoever wins, in the end, wins in the end? What is the difference between logic and quibbling? The world is full of things we don't understand, but there are plenty of examples. So one man set out to deal with the evils of the world, and all its falsehoods, at random. His name is Ipponsuji. Don't worry about his real name! This is a documentary made in the grammar of fiction, focusing on the character of the ally of justice, his work, interviews and films he has made", says the director. This is a superhero film with a radical mix of wildness and seriousness, with a commercial break in the middle.

A friend of mine suddenly turned into a monkey. It was one day during spring break, when everyone got together and started playing cards as usual. But for some reason, Takizawa was the only one who kept losing. As a punishment, he is made to drink whisky in one gulp, but as soon as he puts on a toy monkey mask, he turns into a real monkey. Kinoshita, who is now living with the monkey Takizawa, tries somehow to turn him back into a human, but without success. When the new school year begins with Takizawa still a monkey, Kinoshita becomes impatient and decides to make a last-ditch effort... What is human identity? is blended into the everyday scenery and cartoony setting without any sense of discomfort. The audience will find themselves moved by the seemingly ridiculous laughter.

Born in 1964, graduated from Tama Art University with a degree in Fine Arts. During his university days, he formed an indie band with his classmates and was active for several years. He then began filmmaking under the tutelage of Sakumi Hagiwara. In his early works, he created numerous pieces characterized by a "structural style that manipulates light, objects (or the film itself) through frame-by-frame editing." Eventually, his works began to incorporate narrative elements and shifted toward a more analytical exploration of his inner world. In 1994, the premiere screening of "Cat Ears" (1994) at the East Gallery in Ebisu achieved record attendance. Additionally, he has collaborated with performance units and directed the video opera "Satyricon" (2004), consistently exploring boundary-crossing visual expressions.

The first film in the 'Japanese Archipelago' series. This is a video that shows images of places with explanations of ghost zones such as Maruyama-cho, which is called the birthplace of the famous candy store ghost, and the Chichibu sacred site Eifukuji Temple, which is said to be a zone of fear and haunted by ghosts.

A Film by Hideaki Sasaki

Chisato Moritaka 3rd Live video 1 {KOREKKIRI ByeBye}: [Nerver again, bye bye] 2 {HI-JITSURYOKUHA SENGEN}: [Non-ability declaration] ¡ 3 {HATACHI}: [Twenty] 4 The Stress [Stress {CHUUKINTOU} version] 5 {SHIRITAGARI}: [Curiousity] 6 {WATASHI-WA ONCHI}: [I'm tone-deaf] 7 {JUNANA-SAI}: [Seventeen] 8 {YORU-NO ENTOTSU}: [Chimney at night] 9 GET SMILE 10 {MITE}: [Look] 11 {DAITE}: [Hold me] [Las Vegas version] 12 {JUNANA-SAI}: [Seventeen] [Orange Mix] 13 {KAIO-SEI-NO DENSETSU}

British-based filmmaker Toichi Nakata invited his Japanese pal Minoru to visit him in London. Minoru, who has cerebral palsy, tells Toichi he has a confession to make.

Lulu Ogawa's fascinating 1998 video documentary depicts a wide cross-section of Japanese transgendered people, from drag queens to FTMs to intersex activists to male transvestites. They tell familiar stories of exclusion and abuse while growing up, discuss the need for safe spaces where they can express their complex identities, and reveal the cost of black-market hormones and the physical pain of sex-reassignment surgery.

The scenery of the forest in Ogawa and the city of Kyoto and the abstract animation conceived from there are juxtaposed.

Akemi Edo, the leading vocal of the legendary 80s rock band ,"Jagarta", dies a sudden death in 1990. This piece is triggered by the shocking news of his death. Though launched with such reason, other than Akemi Edo's still photo shot in the opening of the film, there is no sign of directly grieving the singer's death. What evolves is Yanase's impoverished poetry overlapping a view of a town cut into tiny pieces. "The eyes were married", "My life is long", "From here to there. Here here here here...". The repeated typing of words that seem to be squeezed out of the unconscious shows a strange unity with Akemi Edo's live concerts – conveying funky loneliness – and intrigues the souls of the viewers.

Short based on Gunbare! The Game Paradise 2.

"This Is a Camera Which Shoots This" and "As I See You You See Me" are both set up facing two cameras and monitors and the performer walks between them while voicing the sentence of the title. Here the words "This" and "You" have the same form in the nominative and the objective cases, switching the roles of not only the signifier (word) but also the signified (object).

VISUAL - King of Super Vision - GEN HOSOYA SEE GEE GEN MUSIC - Muzak Kingsley - HAJIME TACHIBANA 1. DEEP RIVER MANSION 2. OSCILLATOR MUSIC #3 3. COMPUTER IN LOVE 4. THE MENUET OF THE ROBOT 5. FANTASY 6. SHANK 7. ASTRO MUSIC #10 8. GIVE IT UP OR TURNIT LOOSE 9. LAY LADY LAY 10. MANGO GUITAR

Rare 8mm independent film featuring, among other obscure things, evil spirits and a giant monster

Ikumi is an up-and-coming pop singer with millions of fans and a promising acting career. She should be looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, but she's got man trouble. The love of her life just isn't sure he can handle Ikumi's fame and fortune. To make matters worse, while shooting on location, a jealous costar finds a strange wooden idol in an abandoned temple and uses it to invoke a hideous demon to be the instrument of her revenge. Will Ikumi's next concert be her last curtain call? She's about to discover that there really are fates worse than death.

An elderly Japanese man witnesses the subjects from the paintings of Dutch Baroque artist Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) come to life. Following their real-life manifestation, the paintings formulate a mysterious romance story set in late-Meiji Japan in which a young woman’s relatives die under unusual circumstances concurrent with the arrival of a monk and a suspicious maid.

Experimental work by Isao Yamada (Color, 8mm).

Experimental work by Isao Yamada (Color, 8mm).

Part 7 of Koike Teruo’s Ecosystem series. 8mm

An educational short film about bullying.

A mere traditional Japanese restaurant owner who triggered an unprecedented massive fraudulent lending scandal and manipulated a staggering 600 billion yen at the height of the bubble economy. A mysterious, psychic market manipulator who rose from abject poverty and, using her beauty as a weapon, even had a state-owned bank at her mercy. This work is a shocking work of fiction that delves into the true identity of a woman who has until now been shrouded in mystery!

Short film by Japanese filmmaker Jun’ichi Okuyama.

A medium-length diary film edited and composed of private footage shot during a week in summer. Two years after moving to Tokyo, the director visited again his grandmother's country, with a camera at hand.

Each song from the original EP is presented with live concert snippets and photoshoot scenes. The film also features a bunch of live videos after the ending credits roll, all in a very bootleg-ish sonic quality. They seem to be from the same footage used on 1992年6月22日 インクスティック.スズエ. (at least, the same tour), but the snippets here are generally longer or different from the other tape.

Short film by Yasumasa Morimura

Ode I is a document of the filmmaker's two female friends over four years. Their S&M show's violent scenes are another world and a strong contrast to their everyday life with their cats, in their peaceful garden, and walking among the trees.

Japanese horror movie from 1998.

Early work by Kenji Onishi.

Compilation of heroines from various Toei tokusatsu series.

The central character is a 7 year old girl called Sachiko. She has just lost her immediate family in the firebombing of Tokyo and takes the train to her uncle’s family in Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture. She is not out of danger yet, for the train gets shot at by a plane along the journey. Her uncle meets her at the station and he and his whole family welcome her with open arms. With her cousins, Sachiko explores the beauty of the natural landscape around Kumagaya. Sadly, these beautiful days of late summer are not to last. The final movement of the film depicts the final air raid of the war. The city descends into fear and chaos and Sachiko gets separated from her family with tragic results.

A parody of Round Vernian Vifam set in 1920's Chicago. Originally released as an extra on the Round Vernian Vifam: Memory of Ms. Kate VHS tape.

Super8 Films (silence): Frankfurt am Main in Germany in 1994 (Ankunft: arrival) and 1996 (Abflug: departure). All scenes were edited in the camera by single frame shooting.

Sueoka is an artist who creates new works with found footage, and develops the film stock himself. In this work, he uses The Wizard of Oz. By repeating the famous musical number “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” over and over, it deconstructs standard narrative style and shifts to a different mode of filmic experience.

A man returns home one day and comes across something that changes his life...

Shot in Venice by the sea at night, struck by a thousand lights.

A story of two couples that begins in a watch shop. Ishikawa, a cook, and Iwamoto, a waitress, work in a spaghetti house. During a break on an empty embankment, the two have a rather absent-minded conversation. Iwamoto, is there anything you want? 'Well, a hoover...' Meanwhile, Shinichi and Chika are about to rob a bank. Shinichi and Chika are about to rob a bank, and they take a Polaroid photo of themselves for what might be the last time. Chika is worried: "Will I be able to take a bath every day in prison? Their stories proceed in parallel, as they spend the same time in different places. The only thing they have in common is that they both give watches as gifts. The only thing they have in common is that they both give a watch as a gift, a gift that both couples will never forget. One is soft pastel, the other a harsh primary colour. The artist's sensitivity in choosing the colours to suit the story conveys the pure emotions of the lovers of the 1990s in a warm atmosphere.

A Film by Hideaki Sasaki

Fifth entry in the Lady in the Sea of Blood series.

Originally working with super 8 animation pieces, Noshioka switches on to video-making from 1991. From time control with frame shooting to gaze fix with live action filming, her technology and texture change greatly. This first work in video indeed straightforwardly defines the relationship between "living space" and "physicality". Through repetition of thundering and quietude, the power of Nishioka's pure solitude and intense observation turn and reshape the warmhearted town of Osaka into something hard and inorganic. The adherence to a suddenly rising unrealistic and gigantic vapor pillar, the ever-turning ventilation fan and the ever-watching eye – All of these are ways to love Osaka permissible only to this filmmaker.

The legendary yakuza ‘Oni no Tora Seiji’, who sent shockwaves through the underworld nationwide, is said to have a tattoo of a golden Chinese lion and peony on his back. Heitaro Bonno, the boss of the Ordinary Folks Gang, had managed to conceal the fact that he was a yakuza from his daughter, Niko, for 18 years. However, the unsuspecting Niko falls in love with Tsuyoshi, the second-generation head of the Arakai-gumi. Hiranoya panics, desperate to prevent their relationship from blossoming. But just then, the Himuro-gumi of the Kobe Sannō-kai launches an attack on his territory. As the conflict escalates, the Himuro-gumi finally kidnaps Niko! Enraged, Hiranoya’s hidden tattoo emerges on his back…!!

Uesugi has become accustomed to the host club industry, whilst Kato remains, as ever, a specialist in covering for others. One night at ‘American Dream’, a woman who requested Kato turned out to be a spy from a rival club. Unaware of this, an elated Kato let the information slip, resulting in the club’s top client being poached. Kato faces the sack unless he can win the client back. Behind the scenes, the industry’s number one host, Samezu, was pulling the strings. Upon learning this, Uesugi’s fighting spirit is ignited. ‘I’ll poach the top client from his club—that mysterious woman dressed in Chanel, known as the “Angel of Massacre”!’ However, the woman’s true identity turned out to be that of an incredibly influential figure…

One day, Akira Uesugi is left at a loss when his girlfriend, Chihiro, suddenly breaks up with him. It seems the reason is that she has fallen head over heels for Samezu, the number one host in the industry. Staking his pride as a man, Uesugi resolves to become a gigolo—a man who can surpass the number one host—and joins the long-established host club, American Dream. Beneath the glitzy façade, the industry was a whirlpool of problems: conflicts between hosts over money and clients, female jealousy, drugs and the yakuza… Akira teams up with Kato, a fellow rookie host, and hones his skills, rising from being a ‘help’ to a ‘booked host’, and eventually transforming from a host into a first-class gigolo.

A V-cinema adaptation of the car action manga serialised in *Weekly Manga Goraku*. Eiji Yamakawa—the first president of the former Kanto Street Racing Federation and a legendary super-tuner capable of transforming any car into a custom racing machine—metes out divine retribution to the despicable scoundrels who exploit a man’s desire to marry his beloved in order to extort a huge sum of money from him.

Satake is hospitalized in Fukushima, where his family lives, after a motorcycle accident while riding with a passenger. Although he has almost fully recovered physically, he suffers from severe amnesia. He cannot remember that the girlfriend riding behind him was killed in the accident, nor can he recall the childhood friend who regularly comes to visit him in the hospital.

As winter draws near, a 30 million yen bank robbery takes place. The following day, Chiaki, a devoted younger sister, visits her older brother Hiroki as she always does. Having lost their parents, the two live alone as siblings, but the impoverished Hiroki has nothing he can give his sister.

Experimental short by Yosuke Okawado.

Experimental short by Yosuke Okawado.