Discoveries from Japan World Cinema

In 1941, overpopulated Japan faces an economic boycott and its armed forces push further to the south. And despite negotiations between Japan and the U. S. A. war is declared with the attack on Pearl Harbour. Victories follow for Japan on land and sea and her forces push forward to the borders of India. But gradually the tide turns in favour of the Allies and after the atom bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan is compelled to accept the Potsdam Declaration and by the order of the Emperor agrees to unconditional surrender. Under the supervision of the occupation forces the International Military Tribunal opens in Tokyo to try the Japanese war leaders. Established in the cause of justice, and to prevent future aggressive wars the trials drag on for two and a half years. And on December 23, 1948, General Tojo and six other war leaders mount the thirteen steps to the gallows at Tokyo's Sugamo prison.

A hunchbacked caretaker presides over a forlorn mansion inhabited by the ghosts of his previous masters. An unbelieving trio (a doctor, his assistant and his niece) fail to heed the caretaker's warnings and are slaughtered horribly by the jealous occupants.

A human drama of joys and sorrows about a married woman living in an apartment complex who suddenly finds herself with a large sum of money and the people around her who are seized by greed.

Linked to episodes 32 and 33 of the Ryusoulger TV series, the movie will reveal the meaning of Nada’s video message which he left for the Ryusoulgers at the end of episode 33.

During a training session, Ban and Tetsu try to prove they are the strongest of the SPD.

When Magman makes a blunder that finally makes him lose the Black Cross Furher's trust, he begins a rampage against EAGLE with Navarone Fortress, the Gorenger must finally stop them. It features the destruction of Volcano Mask General Magman and his Mobile Fortress Navarone, as well as the Gorenger Machines, and the first appearance of his successor Commander-in-Chief Golden Mask. This is a theatrical version of episode 54 of the Himitsu Sentai Gorenger television series.

Two Japanese men help a Vietnam war deserter escape from Japan for Sweden. They plan to fund the escape by selling LSD pills. After word of the drug deal gets spread around they find themselves fending off rival gangs.

Hamtaro is a kind Ham-Ham with a big heart. He lives happily with his owner Laura and his other Ham-Ham friends until... One day, while Hamtaro and the other Ham-Hams are out tunnel-digging, they accidentally stumble upon the entrance to a legendary place called Ham-Ham Land. Ham-Ham Land is a wondrous place where only hamsters live. Legend has it that somewhere in Ham-Ham Land, there is a magical sunflower seed that gives hamsters the power to talk with humans... So, with great excitement, Hamtaro sets out on a big adventure in search of the magical sunflower seed that will give him the power to share his thoughts with Laura. The great little adventure of Hamtaro in Ham-Ham land is about to begin! Will Hamtaro find the amazing magical sunflower seed of his dreams?

After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, there was a series of battles fought while the former supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate retreated to the north where they actually started a sovereign nation that was recognized by more than one European country. Survivors of the Shinsengumi were among the followers of Enomoto Takeaki who took them to the northernmost island of Ezo where they fought their final battle at the star shaped fort, Goryokaku. The Japanese Civil Wars fought in the name of the emperor signaled the complete end of the feudal system and Japan’s entry into the modern world as those brave samurai tried to halt progress and learned that the age of modern warfare and weaponry had passed them by. Swords were no match for rifles and cannons, nor was any man a match for the power of the imperial flag. Japanese loyalty to the emperor has long defined the nation and culture despite the changing times.

Deep in the forest, as Sora is pressured to finish a high-paying kidnapping gig, a monstrous bear suddenly appears. A chaos-driven fight for survival erupts.

Tange Sazen: Hyakuman Ryo no Tsubo is a remake of a classic 1935 film of the same name by Yamanaka Sadao. Tange Sazen, the one-armd, one-eyed ex-samurai swordsman is the creation of Hayashi Fubo and was one of the most popular characters of the era. This remake is helmed by freshman director Tsuda Toshio, starring Toyokawa Etsushi as Sazen and Wakui Emi as Ofuji, his quick-witted wife. This marks the 34th film in the series of Tange Sazen, and involves an Urn that is worth a million Ryo!.

The body of Kazuyoshi Kawagishi, a construction company worker, is discovered stabbed to death in Shinjuku Central Park in Tokyo. Detective Masanao Ushio of Shinjuku West PD begins an investigation and finds that the murdered Kawagishi was an honest person who didn't have any troubles. Kawagishi worked for a company in Kofu City in Yamanashi, leaving behind his wife and daughter on Awaji Island in Hyogo. He seems to have started working as a laborer 3 years ago, having fallen on hard times when the company went bankrupt. Saeko Kawamura, Ushio's reporter friend, calls him wanting to talk about the case. According to Saeko, Kawagishi was one of the survivors of the "bus hijack arson case" that happened three years ago. In the bus hijack arson case, a man who was hallucinating under the influence of dangerous drugs set fire to an intercity bus going to Shinjuku and departing from Kofu Station...

Jo has just come back to Japan for the funeral of his parents, who were killed in tribal warfare in Africa where the family had been living throughout most of Jo's life. Once the funeral was over, he missed the boat that was going to take him back home, and, because of an altered itinerary, he ends up stopping in a town for awhile -- striking up an acquaintance with a teenager and her grandfather when he captures their runaway horse. He would have been glad to leave after the proper amenities were completed, but the girl's journalist brother is murdered -- he was getting too close to wrapping a major news story. At that point, Jo and a friend cannot easily drop the matter as though nothing had occurred, and the two start to track down the source of the trouble -- a factory that makes poison gas for Third World buyers. Now their task is to dismantle the operation, prevent one train shipment from arriving at a transfer point, and find the journalist's killer.

A street war breaks loose between two rival gangs in the Kansai region of Japan. Goro is in the middle of action. Through a knife fight against Sueo, a high profile gangster from Busou-kai, Goro notices a familiar face approaching him from amidst the chaos - his girlfriend, Yuri. Goro had sent her to safety, but she had returned, aching to see him. Caught between Goro and his enemy knife, she reunites with her love - the price was her life.

The Dai-bosatsu toge trilogy is based on Kaizan Nakazato's unfinished long series of novels (41 books, written from 1913 to 1941). Set in the last period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Daibosatsu Toge tells the story of Ryunosuke Tsukue, a nihilistic swordmaster who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone, bad or good.

It incorporates plenty of elements from the popular teleplay club at the time, and with its heartrending voice and obscene whispers, it instantly blows everyone away. Coupled with a thrilling story, this is a light Nikkatsu Roman Porno that will definitely make you cum.

On the night of August 19, 1980, a bus was set on fire by the vagrant Hirofumi Maruyama at the Shinjuku West Exit Bus Terminal. In the burning flames, Mitsuko, who was exhausted by her affair, suddenly thought of suicide. As a result, she escaped too late from the bus and suffered a serious injury. From there, she was hospitalized for a long time. As she gradually recovered, the wife of her affair partner, Soroku Sugihara, died of cancer. Soroku proposed to Mitsuko again, and they lived together. Due to Soroku's mounting debt, they decided to flee to Tojinbo. With the desperate persuasion of her acquaintances, Mitsuko regained her desire to "live again."

A young lord lives against the will of his father Lord Tokugawa.

Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in postwar Japan.

Kato, a scriptwriter, is in love with Miho—but he can never manage to muster up enough courage to make the relationship anything more than a platonic friendship. Seemingly oblivious to Kato's feelings for her, Miho is always calling him up and spilling her guts about her own love problems. She's in love with someone else, it turns out, but Kato swallows his pride—hearing about it all is almost too much to bear, but he wants to be with Miho as much as he can.

Toko grew up unloved by her mother Mizuho who continues to adore her deceased son. She lives alone in an apartment the electricity has been cut off and the trash is piling up. One late night, Toko enters a gloomy building in order to escape from a threatening stalker, Tomita. There she finds a handgun. She brings it back home and confirms it is loaded with four bullets. One day, the family living next door who have already been enduring poverty and violence end up murdering a man. Toko helps them bury the man's body, shooting it with the handgun. Toko becomes captivated by the gun itself. She is further entangled in the true circumstances of the incident due to the detective searching for the handgun and a suspicious man Kazunari who knows a secret about the handgun. Toko tries to throw herself into the whirlpool but then the lid is blown off her "past."

The series follow the story of a high school boy who lives in Tokyo, and his childhood friend, Hakatano Donko-chan, who is from Hakata and really talks in Hakata dialect! People around her sometimes get confused because of it, but her dialect makes them smile!

Yoshito grew up with his mother Yasue after his father passed away. His mother ran a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant that his father had left behind. Yoshito enjoyed eating his mother's cooking and their restaurant was loved by many people. Things changed after popular food critic Furuyama Tatsuya published false statements about their yakiniku restaurant. Due to that, their restaurant saw a sharp drop in customers. Yasue worked hard to recover business for the restaurant. Due to Yoshito's behavior in wanting attention from his mom, Yasue decided to shut down the restaurant. 18 years later, Yoshito lives alone and he works as a freelance writer. One day, he takes work for a new online foodie website. He works with editor Takenaka Shizuka. Their first assignment involves yakiniku. Around that time, Yoshito hears that his estranged mother Yasue has collapsed.

Marg was deprived his little brother, Mars, by Zure, and lost his parents. Therefore, he was living alone on the planet, Gishin. He became a member of guerrilla to riot against the dictator Zure, and he fell in love with Ruru, the daughter of the leader, Ura. However, the organization was destroyed. He was trapped by Zure, and he was brainwashed to become a soldier. Then, his long cherished wish that he would meet his brother again was realized… as a duel with him.

When Tom's brother Peter gets measles, he is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen in a flat with no garden and an elderly landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, living upstairs. Because he may be infectious, he is not allowed to play outside and feels lonely. Without exercise he is less sleepy at night and when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13, he investigates and finds the small back yard is now a large sunlit garden.

15-year-old Aya Kito was an ordinary girl, the daughter of a family who works at a tofu shop, and a soon-to-be high schooler. However, odd things have been happening to Aya lately. She has been falling down often and walks strange. Her mother, Shioka, takes Aya to see the doctor. How will Aya react when told about her disease? And how will Aya live from now on?

On Ishigaki Island, conflict brews over a large-scale bridge construction project. One day, Yajima (Sho Aoyagi), a public official from the Ministry of Environment, is sent to Ishigaki Island. Yajima announces to his colleagues that he is absolutely opposed to the bridge construction project and that he wil become a coral ranger who protects the coral reef there. This surprises his colleagues.

Nobuko Otowa plays a former Seto Inland Sea island farmer who has moved to the mainland in order to find work, but instead ends up dead. The film begins with the discovery of her corpse, which leads to an investigation that uncovers the narcotics, prostitution, and murder in which many poor farmers had found themselves trapped after World War II.

The short features previously unseen Evangelion storyboard art. Evangelion director Hideaki Anno supervised the "petit film," and Mahiro Maeda directed and storyboarded it. Shiro Sagisu provided the music, and voice actress Megumi Hayashibara narrates the Japanese version of the English lyrics. Sagisu made a few comments about the video on his website and posted the Japanese version of the lyrics. According to Sagisu, when they were finishing work on Q, Anno told him this would be the last time they used the F2 (Next Episode) theme, which made Sagisu want to make a extended version of it. He says the video actually contains four versions of the song: An unreleased version by the London Studio Orchestra (at the start), the Takahashi version from Xpressions, the version from Piano Forte #1, and Hayashibara's narrated version.

When Honjo is selected as Kansai district's chairman, Iwasa of the rival gang asks Itsuki to do everything possible to have Honjo step down, which puts Itsuki between a rock and a hard place.

Three high school girls living out in the country build stories out from their local environment, mountainous and bordered by an unkempt buried forest.

Based on a semi-autobiographical story by Ogai Mori, about a Japanese medical student who goes to Berlin to study in the 1880s and falls in love with a German ballet dancer.

A student travels back to Kobe for the summer. Once there, he meets his friend Rat, hangs on the usual place, listening to the Beach Boys and meets a mysterious twin girl.

Authentic eroticism returns in part two of this much-anticipated sequel. Reveals the hearts and bodies of five young women who descend into a life of compromise for the sake of money...

Yuko Aso, wearing a leotard, was performing her rhythmic gymnastics ribbon routine alone in the gymnasium of Shiroyama Minami High School. Hitomi Aoyama, wearing a sailor uniform, was gazing at her with a passionate gaze. Yuko was a new female teacher who had come to fill in for a vacancy at the prestigious Shiratori Women's College of Physical Education, a gymnast with a high level of rhythmic gymnastics.

A 33-year-old supermarket worker at a provincial city used to be an idol, but could not see a future as a singer. Sick of everything, she moved to a provincial town and met Yoshio, a pet cat she saw at a store.

Dr. Black Jack forgot his doctor's bag, and his assistant (plus self-claimed "wife") Pinoko rushed to deliver the bag but found herself lost in the forest. Guided by a butterfly, she found that many animals in the forest are sick or injured, and Pinoko used her knowledge to help those animals.

A high-tech terrorist plagues the ocean... To counter the subversive activities of the USR, a shadowy terrorist group menacing the seas, the leading nations of the world join forces to form the Peace Keeping Navy (PKN). Its inauguration ceremony, however, quickly turns into disaster as Admiral Red, charismatic leader of the USR, launches a surprise attack on the PKN. With fi erce fi repower, Red lets his intentions be known that he will destroy anything that gets in the way of his twisted vision of an ideal future... Dive into this exciting deep-sea military action-adventure thriller, as Captain Hayami and the crew of the 707 try to outwit Admiral Red's gargantuan nuclear submarine!

Yuichi Koga is an upper-class business executive, running his own adult video company, and living a successful life with his wife and daughter. Outwardly, his family seems really happy, but in reality Yuichi enjoys sex with everyone but his wife Chikako. One day, he gets a phone call from a woman named Sanae, an old elementary school classmate of his.

A young lawyer falls in love with the daughter of his former professor, whom he's hired to tutor his children.

Sena has had a care-free deco-truck business, but one day, she receives a strange request by a cheap hoodlum, Takizawa, to carry a blind stripper, Azumi, to a certain location. She reluctantly accepts it, but yakuza members begin a persistent search for Takizawa, who turns out to have stolen their company’s money. Here comes the long-awaited new deco-truck series featuring the idol, Saori Hara, rolling down the highway on a ton of love, action, and steam!

The real mother of the two children of a respectable university professor is not his wife, but his mistress, the hostess of a Ginza bar the family frequents.

The film depicts the story of a family who runs a Bishu wool textile factory in the Bishu region, where Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture is located. The region is known worldwide as one of the world's three largest woolen textile-producing areas. Still, in recent years, many factories and companies are struggling with various problems and issues.

A young tofu maker, Eikichi comes from Kyoto to open a tofu shop in a friendly neighborhood. He meets there a feisty local girl Ofumi who befriends him as he sets up his shop, Kyo-ya and in spite of the difficulties stemming from cultural differences between the two ancient capitals including the favored taste of tofu itself, they eventually marry and become the owner of a tofu shop on a more respectable street. Behind the rock-solid business of Kyo-ya, their son, Eitaro bears the brunt of other tofu shops' animosity toward Kyo-ya's refusal to comply with Edo's way of running business and starts to frequent a gambling hall run by the mysterious "Boss", which throws the family into a critical situation that threaten to pull them apart...

Goro (Tetsuya Watari) wants to put his dark past behind. He heads to Hirosaki City to offer his condolences to Yumeko and to reunite with Yukiko (Chieko Matsubara), but finds that Yumeko is fatally ill. Although Yukiko was taking care of her, she is pressed for money. Goro wants to help and knows that there is only one way to come up with fast money.

Thieves broke into Yamashiroya, a drug wholesaler, and stole 780 ryo. In the storehouse, there was a sticker with a picture of an umbrella, the signature of Yahei Kasayama, a great thief who once ransacked the entire Kanto region. Heizo Hasegawa (Kichiemon Nakamura), the director of the reform of the thieves, learns that the theft was the work of Yahei's son Yataro (Somegoro Ichikawa [now Koshiro Matsumoto]) and his gang, thanks to the help of a spy named Isaji (Koichi Miura). He learns that Yataro is in the process of marrying Oito (Tomoka Kurokawa), the daughter of Shigezo of Narumi, a great thief from Owari. Heizo learns the true identity of the thread and the evil plans of the second generation Narumi Shigezo (Fuse Hiroshi), and he meets Nagashima no Kugoro (Matsudaira Ken), a former thief who is trying to arrange a marriage deal to return the favor to the previous generation Kasayama and the previous generation Narumi. ) while hiding his identity...

A gift from the gods of the mountains. Deep in the northern mountains, there are people who have been living with the blessings of the mountains. A boy, who is coming of age, journeys into the mountains for his first hunt. He must find the "Kuroshishi." The mountain is a world where life and death are divided by a paper-thin line. Sometimes, nature will show its fangs...

Saeko and Yukako live together in a small apartment complex in Tokyo. After the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, both live in a state of unease. Saeko, who is in a divorce, is worried that her daughter is exposed to radiation. Yukako is also afraid of radiation and tries to convince her husband to move. The two become friends after Yukako tries to save Saeko after a suicide attempt.

Drama set in the historical Warring States Era of Japan. Tokaido name Imagawa Yoshimoto personally led his army to invade Owari Province territory, now in Aichi Prefecture Nagoya City area, was the leader Nobunaga of this surprising burst of death. After the war, the Imagawa clan who originally dominated the Tokaido region fell away, and the victorious Oda Nobunaga quickly expanded his power in Central Japan and the Kinki region, laying the foundation for his future control of the central government of Japan.

During the military phase of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Sentaro joins a local militia loyal to the Tokugawa Shogunate in order to fight Imperial troops. But Sentaro's friendship with a pickpocket, who switches sides whenever it suits his needs, leads to complications that could cost Sentaro his life as they infiltrate enemy lines.

A demobilized soldier becomes a day laborer with a road construction gang, and his wife goes to work to bolster their income. Their modest dream is to see their son grow and to be happy as a family.

When the head of the touring magician's group "Magical Fantasy" is murdered on a train while on his way to Hokkaido, young Kindaichi, who also just happens to be on board, is fast on the case to find the culprit. But just as quickly as the case unfolds, the body disappears only to be rediscovered again, along with other new bodies.

An irresponsible salaryman works his way to the top of the corporate ladder.

Actress Asada Kaori finally gets wet. A place where desire and betrayal intersect. And that's where the two meet... The Hong Kong mafia and a secret investigation organization. The battle between people with no tomorrow is about to begin.

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, a writer remembers travelling with his family to bury his brother after World War II.

Datenshi-tachi no Kyōen is an OAV (1985) where the younger sister of a family (who gets in way over their heads) ends up owing the yakuza money. Because she can't pay, she is taken by the gang members to be used as a sexual toy. Then she vows to take gruesome revenge upon her perpetrators.

Hikaru is given a phone call asking him to appear in the Japan/China/Korea Junior's Tournament but he finds out he will have to take part in a preliminary tournament to choose Japan's three contestants. Upon discussing this with Akira, he discovers that Akira has already been chosen for the tournament and will not be taking place in the preliminaries. Hikaru then decides not to visit Akira's Go Salon until he takes his place on the team with Akira. That may be tougher than originally planned...