Discoveries from Japan World Cinema

With high school graduation right around the corner, Takumi Fujiwara has a lot on his mind and a lot to prepare for. Everything becomes even more complicated when Takumi is offered a spot on Ryosuke Takahashi's elite Kengai Racing Team, which seeks to assemble the greatest racers in the Gunma area for a tour of Japan's mountain passes. Before he can accept however, Takumi feels the need to settle the score with the Lancer Evo driving Emperor team, defend his downhill-racer crown against the son of his father's greatest rival, and finally settle things with his unfaithful girlfriend Natsuki.

The story follows Akane, a girl with no self-confidence. On the day before her birthday, she meets a mysterious alchemist, Hippocrates, and his student, Pipo, who both tell her they're on a mission to save the world. Together, they set out from the basement for "Wonderland," and Akane finds herself labelled Wonderland's savior.

This unique work depicts in a thrilling way the fear of being isolated in a locked room in the urban jungle, through a man's abnormal sexual urges and a woman who is his target.

After Nami steals the Going Merry, Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, and later Monkey D. Luffy and Sanji (along with Johnny and Yosaku) set after her and wind up in Cocoyasi Village, Nami's hometown ruled by the tyrannical fishman Arlong. It is here that Nami's past and true motives come to light.

The target of hitgirl Mikura is a wealthy baseball team owner, but he turns out to be a powerful underworld boss. Mikura and her team are beset by countless heavily armed bodyguards and the boss' vicious daughter.

In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.

A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.

A Tokyo college student is attacked by a ghoul, a super-powered human who feeds on human flesh. He survives, but has become part ghoul and becomes a fugitive on the run.

After losing the titanic match against Kainan High, Team Shohoku and a newly shaven Hanamichi Sakuragi are challenged to an exhibition match by virtual basketball unknowns Ryoukufu High. Coach Anzai sees this as an opportunity for Shohoku to regain their confidence, but Ryoukufu are revealed to have a newly assembled championship calibre lineup and may give Sakuragi & Co their toughest test yet.

The world has begun to collapse. The rampaging Meicoomon absorbs Tailmon, who underwent a dark evolution, and changes form into the immensely powerful Ordinemon. In accordance with Yggdrasil's expectation, the real world is about to be engulfed by the Digital World. Meanwhile, Homeostasis considers Ordinemon to be out of control and puts into motion its final plan that will entangle the real world. Then the time comes for the DigiDestined to arrive at a final decision. What future do they choose for themselves?

Only three days before the school festival, a newly formed high school band rushes to put together a set for their big show — including a hit single by '80s by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts.

Utae and Aiko attend an all-girl private school where the devoutly religious principal seems to be raping some of the students, including Utae.

It's the year of destiny, and 15 year old Kamui Shiro, a powerful psychic, has returned to Toyko after a 6 year absence, having left when he was very young. He wants to be with his childhood friends, Fuma (his best friend) and Kotori, Fuma's little sister (and Kamui's possible girlfriend). He wants to protect them from all dangers, but destiny and fate are haunting Kamui and pulling in himself and his beloved childhood friends. It is his destiny and his sole decision to decide the fate of the world, no matter if he wants the role or not. Now it is a matter of if he will join the side of the Seven Seals and become the Dragon of Heaven to save mankind or join the Seven Angels and become the Dragon of Earth to destroy all civilization so the earth can heal itself from man's destruction.

When a wealthy woman and her son die in a hunting accident, it's up to Conan Edogawa to solve the case. Meanwhile, Lupin the Third is after the Queen Crown, owned by the Vesparand royal family. When these two legendary characters meet, who will win the day?! Followed by “Lupin the Third vs. Detective Conan: The Movie” (2013).

Riho and Shinichi had broken up by the time they returned from their honeymoon. The cause was sex. Riho says that sex isn't like that, it's more of a gentle, careful caress. Shinichi is criticized for his lack of technique and suffers psychological damage, but at the same time, he senses that Riho longs for another, and cannot forgive Riho for such a thing.

Gritty softcore thriller about a female assassin brutally victimized in her past, her target, and her sadistic yakuza handler.

Afro Samurai avenged his father and found a life of peace. But the legendary master is forced back into the game by a beautiful and deadly woman from his past. The sparks of violence dropped along Afro’s bloody path now burn out of control – and nowhere are the flames of hatred more intense than in the eyes of Sio.

A saga of class relations and changing times in an Edwardian England on the brink of modernity, the film centers on liberal Margaret Schlegel, who, along with her sister Helen, becomes involved with two couples: wealthy, conservative industrialist Henry Wilcox and his wife Ruth, and the downwardly mobile working-class Leonard Bast and his mistress Jackie.

One late night in June 1942, Sakuma Seitaro dangles from the frame of a skylight in an isolation cell in Akita Prison. He forces open the glass window and breaks out of jail. This crime even reaches the ears of Urata Susumu, the chief warden of Kosuge Prison in Tokyo. Urata had been in charge of those sentenced to life in the prison until last year. Although Sakuma is a dangerous person who had also broken out of jail in Aomori, he submits to Urata who is the only person who had treated him kindly in the past. However, three months after escaping from jail, Sakuma shows up at Urata’s house. He has come to complain about the inhumane Akita prison officers. But he is locked up again after Urata notifies the police during an unguarded moment. A year later, Sakuma is sent to Abashiri Prison and Urata is also ordered to transfer as the prison’s chief warden.

Hyoga is missing somewhere in Asgard... When Seiya and the others are looking for him, Athena is kidnapped and they have to rescue her from Dolvar and some mysterious warriors.

A mysterious extraterrestrial being resembling Godzilla rapidly approaches Earth. The monster, dubbed SpaceGodzilla, lands to challenge the King of the Monsters.

A samurai's path leads him to a young waitress whose hometown was destroyed by a dragon. He doesn't want any trouble — but it finds them anyway.

Set in the icy wilderness of Hokkaido during the early days of the Meiji era, where the brutal warden of Kabato Prison terrorizes convicts sentenced to forced labor to build the roads needed to open up the territory.

Taken in by the yakuza at a young age, Kenji swears allegiance to his old-school boss, pledging to adhere to the family code amid ever-changing times.

While enjoying the flower gardens, Sailor Moon and friends encounter an old childhood friend of Mamoru's: an alien! He's come back to give Mamoru a special flower but doesn't like Usagi and the rest of the planet's inhabitants. Sailor Moon must defend the earth from the evil Kisenian Flower he's brought back... before the evil vines and blossoms overrun the planet!

A teacher, Sakiko Kurata, receives a phone call regarding one of her former students. Young Sueko is accused of being a prostitute and has requested Sakiko’s help. This minx seduces random strangers for sex, but does not ask for payment. Sakiko has moved to another town and barely remembers Sueko, but there’s something about her that awakens painful memories of her own secretive past. What is that strange paint thinner smell on Sueko? Who is the man in the nylon ski mask that violently assaulted Sakiko many years ago? In her search for answers, Sakiko discovers that her past may have inadvertently destroyed another family’s future.

An unemployed man learns that his ex-girlfriend was murdered. He suddenly finds himself travelling through time to his middle school years and has chance to change the future and save the girl. He aims to rise to the top of the most brutal delinquent gang.

Kiyohime, a daughter of Tokugawa Ienari is married-off to Tadateru Ogura, the lord of a Kyushu clan. However, the lord's sexual inexperience and Kiyohime's strict morals lead to significant crisis in their marriage. To improve his sexual prowess, the lord is introduced to Sandra, a French woman held captive by usurer-smuggler Hatakaya. This results in the lord's choosing Sandra as his mistress. Kiyohime's attendants see this move as an insult and have Sandra beaten and imprisoned. Nevertheless, Sandra escapes with the help of Morita, a retainer of the lord. Out of bitterness and as some sort of revenge, the lord imposes a sex ban on his subjects.

5 girls and 5 guys find themselves mysteriously trapped in a room and are forced to play a psychological game of dare.

In order to make money for my husband who has reduced his salary Housewife Hamasaki, who has been working for 2 years. If you use your body for business, you will receive advice on working in the company. Although the proposal was accepted because of money. Because of myself, I am satisfied with the rising business performance, Couple life is facing crisis.

In the exotic location of Los Angeles, California a business woman enjoys all the men in her life whether it’s her older husband, a younger relative or a former fiancé.

Following in the aftermath of a terrible Demon-Human war, turn of the century Japan is preparing a new fighting force in case the demons decide to return. A squadron of giant robots are built to be controlled by the spirit of the pilot, but it is discovered that the only people with sufficient spirit are young women. After recruiting a team of youths from around the world, the Japanese government decides to keep them a secret by disguising them as a theater troupe, thus requiring them to spend as much time memorizing Shakespeare as they do on military training.

In the near future, the economy has collapsed and the country has turned into a ghetto. A secret agency, Gokuraku, has been created by the government. Secret agents Aya and Chinatsu's mission is to fight against one of the largest international companies, Kuroda Group. Secret agents are called 'Lady Ninja', and they use a traditional Japanese umbrella-like tool called 'sangoku' to defeat evil.

The Super Dimensional Demon Etelgar forces a beautiful young alien princess to use her magic to trap Ultraman all across the galaxy! In order to stop Etelgar and save their fellow Ultra Heroes, two brave young men named Hikaru and Sho must transform into Ultraman Ginga and Ultraman Victory. But will even their combined powers be enough to defeat Etelgar and his army?

Kato is a small time TV producer. He has a wife Masako, and a young son Taro. Kato also has a friend Yamazaki who he knew since college. Yamazaki has a girl friend Riko who lives with her younger sister Yuko who's an actress. Yamazaki is a lyric writer/womanizer and he starts to have an affair with Masako, but he's still going out with Riko.

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

Two delinquents and a pervy bus station janitor hijack a bus full of upper class high school students and a female teacher. They proceed to rape and terrorize the ones they find attractive.

Kôichi is a Japanese man living alone in Berlin. He has no job and hardly any friends. One night Kôichi meets Ryota at a bar which is also a sex club. Ryota came to Berlin to visit a German guy whom he had "met" on a dating app. His high hopes for romance (and marriage?) were quickly crushed since the German was only interested in sex, not even letting Ryota stay for the night. That is why Ryota ended up spending the night in the dark room of the sex club. Kôichi for some reason lets Ryota stay at his apartment. They have sex. Ryota goes out almost everyday to get laid by various local men and comes home to Kôichi's. Increasingly caught up with a strange feeling that is akin to but not quite frustration or curiosity (needless to say, it is not even close to love), Kôichi gradually gives himself up to sex with Ryota.

Convinced of the final outcome, a team of scientists travels back in time to stop the spread of a virus turning men into zombified rapists through society and causes them to finally uncover the source of the deadly disease which causes them to attempt to stop it before it happens again.

Prince Siddhartha is heir to the Shakya kingdom, which is constantly at war with the more powerful Kosala kingdom. His father tries to raise as him as a warrior leader and to shield him from the miseries of the world. Meeting the young outcast girl Migaila, Siddhartha experiences love for the first time but also witnesses the suffering that afflicts humankind. Meanwhile, in Kosala, Chapra rises through the military, despite his lowly origins, to become a hero and general of the army. A final showdown between the two kingdoms forces Siddhartha to re-evaluate the path he is following.

In the slums of Osaka, various marginalized misfits have their own interpretations of love. Completely alienated from the outside world, they commit sexual perversions, violence and cannibalism.

"The human whose name is written in the Death Note shall die." After making the hardest decision ever, another serious case confronts L. There are only 23 days left and without his best partner Watari, L has to solve the case all by himself for the very first time.

After losing the titanic match against Kainan High, Team Shohoku and a newly shaven Hanamichi Sakuragi are challenged to an exhibition match by virtual basketball unknowns Ryoukufu High. Coach Anzai sees this as an opportunity for Shohoku to regain their confidence, but Ryoukufu are revealed to have a newly assembled championship calibre lineup and may give Sakuragi & Co their toughest test yet.

Danger lurks around every corner. A psychopathic serial killer is tying up, raping and murdering Tokyo's sexy young women! Kathy is trying to divorce her husband, all the while conducting a hot affair with her divorce attorney, Sean. As she walks through the park one day, she witnesses the killer disposing of the dead body of his latest victim. The killer begins stalking her, throwing her otherwise normal life into a paranoid frenzy.Mr. Pink (Yutaka Ikejima) masterfully directs this suspenseful Pink-Film retelling of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

Six complete strangers with widely varying personalities are involuntarily placed in an endless maze of interlocking cube-shaped rooms containing deadly traps.

With high school graduation right around the corner, Takumi Fujiwara has a lot on his mind and a lot to prepare for. Everything becomes even more complicated when Takumi is offered a spot on Ryosuke Takahashi's elite Kengai Racing Team, which seeks to assemble the greatest racers in the Gunma area for a tour of Japan's mountain passes. Before he can accept however, Takumi feels the need to settle the score with the Lancer Evo driving Emperor team, defend his downhill-racer crown against the son of his father's greatest rival, and finally settle things with his unfaithful girlfriend Natsuki.

A dying girl meets a nonchalant boy who found out her secret. She decided to fulfill her bucket list with none-other-than the boy who couldn't care less about the world.

Ayato and Haruka are middle-school sweethearts whose lives take a dire turn when the mysterious Mu invade Tokyo in the year 2012. Protecting humanity from the Mu may be Ayato's destiny, but what he really wants is to regain the relationship he once had with Haruka... a love that will have to transcend space, time, and reality itself.

Nobita, currently obsessed with fantasy fiction, wishes upon Doraemon's Moshimo-Box for the world to have real magic and sorcery. This doesn't go as he'd hoped, of course, and Nobita must navigate the strangely-bureaucratic magical world he'd made while also learning to conjure on his own in preparation for an attack by the underground-dwelling Demon World.

Luca follows in his father's footsteps to rescue his mother from evil Ladja. Finding the heavenly hero who wields the Zenithian sword is his only hope.

The Giant Artificial Brain Gilbaris is trying to eliminate all intellectual life forms throughout the universe. Ultraman Geed confronts the harsh fate against a mighty enemy who withstands the power of Ultra Warriors' light. Ultraman Orb, Jugglus Juggler, and Ultraman Zero rush to the crisis! And the heated feelings inside Riku awakens Geed's Ultimate form - Ultimate Final!

A high school student steals the panties of a girl he likes but is witnessed, which sets off a chain of events that send his life and the lives of others around him out of control.

On the planet Latimer, Takeshi Kovacs must protect a tattooist while investigating the death of a yakuza boss alongside a no-nonsense CTAC.

On a future Earth, war between the Kingdom of Honneamise and its rival, The Republic, is inevitable. As evolving technology creates new ways to wage war, a small group seeks to propel mankind into space in their world’s first spaceflight program. For astronaut candidate Shirotsugh Lhadatt, it’s a personal odyssey as he grows from an aimless young man into a leader willing to put everything on the line in order to move the human race forward and away from the brink of Armageddon.

The target of hitgirl Mikura is a wealthy baseball team owner, but he turns out to be a powerful underworld boss. Mikura and her team are beset by countless heavily armed bodyguards and the boss' vicious daughter.

Pikachu and the gang learn responsibility, teamwork as well as cooperation during their Summer vacation at Pokemon Island.

Revisit events from Bocchi joining Kessoku Band to their first successful gig.

Yamada may be shy and rather clumsy, but the flower gardens at her school have always brought her happiness. Suddenly, a different sort of beauty catches her eye—the vivacious track star, Kase-san. Although the two girls don't seem to have much in common, they soon start a romance where each must learn an important lesson in tending their budding relationship. Can the two girls, so different from each other, learn how to make their first love blossom?

The story follows Akane, a girl with no self-confidence. On the day before her birthday, she meets a mysterious alchemist, Hippocrates, and his student, Pipo, who both tell her they're on a mission to save the world. Together, they set out from the basement for "Wonderland," and Akane finds herself labelled Wonderland's savior.

After Nami steals the Going Merry, Roronoa Zoro, Usopp, and later Monkey D. Luffy and Sanji (along with Johnny and Yosaku) set after her and wind up in Cocoyasi Village, Nami's hometown ruled by the tyrannical fishman Arlong. It is here that Nami's past and true motives come to light.