Discoveries from Japan World Cinema

In the spring of Genroku 14 (1701), Oishi Kuranosuke (Tamura Masakazu), the chief retainer of the Asano family in Ako domain is shocked to learn that his feudal lord, Asano Takumi-no-kami Naganori (Tamayama Tetsuji), had stabbed Kira Kozukenosuke Yoshinaka (Nishida Toshiyuki), the master of ceremonies, at Edo castle. Lord Asano was ordered to commit ritual suicide and the Ako clan abolished. Facing up to the gravity of this unfair ruling, since only one party was being punished instead of both as would be usual, Oishi decides to lead the loyal former retainers in an attack on Lord Kira so that he could take Kira’s head to his lord’s gravesite so that Lord Asano could finally rest in peace.

A young woman turns to the supernatural to wreak revenge on a murderous warlord.

A traveling ronin perceived as a fool impresses a samurai leader with his fishing skills and gains employment.

Japanese drama film.

On a cold winter day, Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) and Masahiko murder the mob boss of Meishin-Kai. The deed costs them time in prison, but Goro had no shred of regret. When Goro is released 2 years later, Masahiko is dying in prison hospital and entrusts his last wish; "find my sister and take care of her." Goro leaves as a free man with a mission, but soon finds that he might have been better off in jail.

Tsuchiya, who lives with his single mother in Osaka, does not get serious work once he graduates from high school, but rather devotes himself to mailing jokes to the “Ohgiri” variety show. Seeking to be recognized as a show “Legend,” he devotes his entire life to laughter, setting himself the task of submitting hundreds of entries per day. At loose ends, he encounters a drifter, Pink, who finds him work at his bar while Tsuchiya now devotes himself to becoming a “postcard craftsman” who submits material to a radio program. The entertainers on the program begin to use material from his postcards. A comedian Tsuchiya admires, one of a comic duo called “Bacon,” says on the air that he admires Tsuchiya’s material and that he wants “to do material together.” Dreaming of another chance, Tsuchiya heads for Tokyo.

When Pikachu and friends decide to stop by a tropical island for some rest and relaxation, they got more than they had bargained for after Chatot discovers a Treasure Map! They follow the map to Wailord’s Tear, a mysterious place located in a sunken pirate ship. Will Pikachu and friends find the treasure? What mysteries and dangers are in store? Will our pals return safely? Find out in Pikachu’s Ocean Adventure!

A dangerous mobster threatens the life of a businessman's mother in this thriller. As Ryuji oversees the building of a bridge in Japan, a powerful gangster plans to stop the project. By any means necessary.

A woman has recently married an adult toy manufacturer. He researches new vibrators in the product development department. She hopes that if she marries such a man, she will be able to use the vibrator as much as she likes and have fun every night, but her husband never uses a vibrator on her. She is extremely dissatisfied with this. Meanwhile, her husband's boss, the section chief, is currently developing an anal vibrator, and in the name of experimenting with it, he only uses the anal vibrator on his wife. Her boss's wife wants him to use a normal vibrator, but she is dissatisfied that he only uses it on her anus. As the wives were talking about this, the new wife expressed her interest in anal vibrators, so they decided to swap husbands and have fun with the one in the front and the one in the back. They immediately decided to swap wives...

After Isao has reached retirement, he receives a phone call from an ex- elementary school classmate Norio inviting him to a reunion. During the reunion, none of them can claim to have had a wonderful life since graduating from primary school and have their respective problems now. It leads them to rethink that their lives are far from over and that there is still hope for them even at this stage of their lives. They encounter many unexpected happenings during the journey which reminds them of the excitement they experienced as kids and find new hope in their bleak lives.

Film compilation of the TV series with new scenes and characters.

Lord Taro must deliver a money chest but is robbed by brigands led by Jibu. One of Jibu's men, Rokuro, steals the money from Jibu, but after meeting and befriending Taro, Rokuro decides to return the money to Taro. But Taro's unscrupulous brother Jiro falsely accuse Taro of the theft, and Taro reactively joins the outlaw band and encourages them to steal from the nobles and give to the poor.

Yumechiyo, a geisha house madam recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, yearns to do something constructive with the little time she has left. Though her responsibility lies in taking care of her girls, she finds purpose in helping a man wrongfully accused of murder and in the process discovers love.

In this arousing adventure of super ninja skill, Suzukane and Okan are two beautiful female warriors in training who must hunt down and rescue their ninja clan lord's sacred and protective ninjitsu scroll. Kagerou is the sultry duo's archnemesis -- a sex- and money-loving female fighter with equally dazzling skill and beauty. It's a passionate battle of good vs. evil when the seductive vixens face their most provocative exploit ever.

Mina and Mizuki sisters attended a ballet class in Tokyo. One day, the sisters return home separately, but younger sister, Mizuki, is kidnapped on the way home and discovered as a corpse. On that day, Mina blames herself for returning home, leaving her sister to practice ballet staying. Her mother, Teruko, is also very upset by the news of the discovery of her body, causing deep emotional wounds. The incident was featured on a variety show, and the mother and daughter, who couldn't stand the curiosity of the world, moved to a quiet country town far from the city. Although they started a new life, Teruko is bullied by a mysterious mad woman and Mina is bullied at school. And a mysterious murder case occurs again around them.

#37 in the series, following "Yakuza Finance."

A Japanese sailor finds a colony of Eskimos in the Arctic and decides to stay with them. He comes off at a certain moment to look for his luck in the gold rush in Alaska. But he does not forget them.

Nami’s deco-truck business is booming. It all started in high school when her late father, Torajiro, became tangled up in crime. This third installment of the smash hit series centers on Nami’s desperate early days when she gets to know her pals Kikuo and Ayano even more in her father’s troubles. It throbs, hums, and mesmerizes with all the style of a deco truck rolling down the highway!

A descendant of an ancient tea tribe heads to Taiwan to look for the legendary black tea to break the curse of a tribal rivalry. Meanwhile, in an "underground tea market" somewhere in Taiwan that sells rare expensive tea from around the world, tribe members have other motives up their sleeves regarding the black tea legacy. Each for their own cause, rival tribal members become tangled up in a web of love and hate.

A straight young woman living in Tokyo becomes involved in the lives of a gay man and his married lover.

Keroppi in the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

After overcoming differences, Rio Kijima and Haruhiko Kusumi grow closer. But tensions rise when family secrets and outside questions threaten their deepening bond.

After serving 10 years in prison for murdering a rival boss, Tetsu is appalled to see his yakuza family overgrown and dysfunctional upon his release.

Coffee-shop waitress Kanako, divorced with a young son, finds herself obliged to honour a rash promise she made to a long-time customer. He always wanted to be buried in the land rather than a cemetery, so that his body would be 'useful' - and now he's dead. Kanako and her boy enlist the help of a friendly florist with a small truck, steal the corpse, and head for the mountains.

In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.

Sawako, working in a bank, tired of the usual everyday life, once she met the chef of French cuisine Yukio Goto and spent the night with him. Sawako pretends to be the daughter of an upscale hotel owner and has an affair with Yukio.

With a Kansai syndicate vying for Tokyo, one man reunites with his roguish half-brother in the midst of negotiations, when all hell breaks loose.

The second Hunter x Hunter musical. The story takes place after the Hunter Exam when Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio set off to Kukuroo Mountain to retrieve Killua from his family of assassins.

While testing the Birth X Driver, Shintaro Gotou is shunted into a parallel world filled with many familiar faces in unfamiliar places. Can he master the secrets of the Birth X Driver and return home?

A suicidal high school student, a ramen shop owner closing shop after the passing of his wife, and a cuisine researcher stranded in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region get connected due to a bowl of ramen.

Yoshiko finds new life and love interests when she takes a new job as an office worker.

Tenshin Okakura left the great achievement to the Japanese modern art. This is a story of Tenshin's life and conflict and teacher-student love between Tenshin, who rediscovered art of Japan and tried to produce new beauty in Meiji period, and his young pupils, Taikan Yokoyama, Shunsou Hishida, Kanzan Shimomura, Buzan Kimura.

Based on the best selling manga, Haruna Nagashima (Ito Ono) devoted herself to softball while in middle school. Now that she is in high school, Haruna believes its time find a boyfriend. Unfortunately for Haruna, she didn't pay attention to trends and is now clueless on how to attract a boy. Through a fortuitous event, Haruna encounters popular upperclassman You Komiyama (Junpei Mizobata) Haruna asks You to teach her how to become attractive to boys. You agrees but with one catch. She can't fall in love with him ...

A Japanese-American college student travels to her grandfather's beloved homeland to see and experience the "real Japan" she has so often read and heard about. Yet when she arrives she discovers that the Japan of her dreams is so much more different from what she expected and struggles to adapt to her newfound life there.

Hikaru and Ichiro are close friends in high school. Hikaru's elder brother Tadashi fell in love with Ichiro's elder sister, Mikako at first sight. Although she gave the cold shoulder to Tadashi, she gradually became fond of Tadashi.

From rising cult filmmaker Kenichi Ugana, a misfit horror-themed rock band moves to the Japanese countryside to write the greatest punk anthem in the world.

Set in Shibuya in 1949, this is another film based on real life former yakuza boss Noboru Ando's memoirs.

Rin, Yuu, Koyomi and Keita are friends in high school who live in the same apartment building. Rin and Yuu like each other, but they don’t tell each other, until Kazuma shows up.

It is not Tag. It is not Battle Royale. It is Battle Royale Tag. Sena walks up to the school rooftop to return Yudachi's handkerchief. Yudachi is not there and Sena falls asleep waiting. It is dark, she is confined and locked up at her school when Sena wakes up. The school has turned bloody red and the girls have to fight to the death. Who will survive the carnage is up to the girls.

A hard-working section chief, fast approaching retirement and beset by stress from all directions, joins a jazz band and reignites his youthful passion for the music, giving him a chance to set things right in his life.

When the man who seduced the famous painter Otoko as a teenager--and then wrote a bestselling novel about it--reappears in her life, her pupil--and lesbian lover--hatches a plot to destroy the man and his family.

Not too long ago, Soichiro was considered one of the most powerful men in business. But his business had failed, his granddaughter had committed suicide. There was nothing in his life anymore that he could look forward to. Sochiro was ready to put an to it end to all. As he drives down the Usui Pass, headed toward his summer house in Karuizawa, a girl in red heels, wearing nothing else but a coat jumps in front of the car.

An off-beat comedy about 3 'damejin' (useless persons), who don't work and spend their lives doing nothing. They actually don't want to work. When they hear 'in India one can live without working' they take it seriously. They begin to raise the money to go to India by doing anything but working, such as ripping off stamps from others' letters to sell, robbery at the bank which itself went bankrupt, etc.

College students come up with a scam to rob a gambling house. When it comes time to collect, the money isn't there, leading the young men into even more serious crime.

A suspense drama based on Miyuki Miyabe. In contrast to herself, she and two women lived a free-spirited life, forcing a restaurant owner to raise funds because of the Shinjuku incident. An office lady who impulsively jumps out of the company because she can't stand the sarcasm of girls at the company witnesses a motorboat accident. However, the accident was treated as suicide...

A botanist woos the secretary of an industrialist whose company threatens the local water supply.

August 1945. In a converted theological seminary on the outskirts of Nagasaki, a young doctor works to help his patients, as unsettling news comes of a new weapon used by the Americans on the city of Hiroshima. When the second nuclear weapon is dropped on Nagasaki, the hospital staff must work to save lives in the midst of the concentric circles of death that their city has become.

Set in Sapporo during the oil crisis of the early '70s, the film centers on the Hokkaitei soba stand run by a stoic patriarch and his perky wife. One New Year's day, a haggard-looking mother and her two adorable moppets poke their heads into the restaurant and ask for a single bowl of kakesoba. Noticing that the trio is looking a little low in the heels, she puts in an extra scoop of noodles. The youngest boy declares that the soba is delicious. The next year, the same threesome appears again asking for one bowl of kakesoba. This time the old man dumps in two helpings. He is struck by how much the youngest looks like their own son who was hit by a truck three years previous. The following year, the three return and this time the mother tells her story...

Naruse Uta is a "unique" 13 year old child. She possessed the talent to read sheet music even before she could speak, but has now come to the point where she hates playing the piano. Her father was also a piano virtuoso, but mysteriously disappeared from her life at a young age. Because of her father's disappearance Uta's mother had to move out of their posh home and into a far modest working class neighborhood. In this working class neighborhood there is a local grocer. The grocer's son Kikuna Oto happens to be a budding musician, but lacks the drive to truly succeed. That is until Uta Naruse comes into his life...

Welcome to the Big House! It looks like any other prison, but this specialized penitentiary was designed from the ground up to hold Japan's most ruthless female inmates. That makes it doubly deadly, because while the guards may be brutal and sadistic, the inmates outnumber them by a hundred to one! At any second the final, fatal riot may erupt, stoking the flames of a thousand forbidden desires into an all-consuming inferno where it's every woman for herself! The shocking reality of Japan's secret prison system is exposed in Chain Gang Girls!

Taking place after the final episode, the Iggarashi Family and FENIX reunite for one last battle against Giff and the Deadmans.

One evening, Mimi and students were stargazing through a telescope. When Creampanda peeped into the telescope, burning objects were falling. When Anpanman landed on one of them, Princess Yada appeared. The princess said that her home star of Yada was full of garbage, and asked for Anpanman's help. Anpanman thought that only Gomira could solve this and headed for Yada star with Gomira. However, on Yada star Baikinman and the giant robot "Dust Demon" were waiting in ambush.

Yumiko has been invited by her cousin to spend summer vacation in a rural village. Once they arrive, she is mad to feel very unwelcome by the mysterious locals who keep referring to her as "Snake Girl."

Grown up son arrives home to learn his father, the newly elected mayor, has been assassinated. So he journeys down a path to find the assassin and gets involved with two opposing yakuza gangs.

Mazinkaizer SKL (マジンカイザースカル Majinkaizā Sukaru?) is a Japanese OVA spinoff of Go Nagai's Mazinkaiser, which was in itself a spinoff of Mazinger Z. The first episode was released on November 27, 2010 and was first screened on November 27, 2010. It also has a novel adaptation serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Hobby Magazine and a manga adaptation published in the mobile phone magazine Shu 2 Comic Gekkin. Like Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z Hen, characters and references to other works of Go Nagai appear in this series.