Discoveries from Japan World Cinema

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influence.

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

A trilogy of separate stories. In "Labyrinth labyrinthos", a girl and her cat enter a strange world. In "Running Man", a racer takes on the ultimate opponent. In "Construction Cancellation Order", a man must shut down worker robots.

It all begins when a secret agent hiding in the ship where dinner Futaba school students. The Pig Hoof follow and take the boat with her, Shin Chan and his friends on board. From there, Shin Chan, Masao, Nene, Kazama and Boo Chan van with Agent everywhere as their hostages.

Features an anthology centred on the experiences of a witch doctor, a film-maker and a disgruntled extra determined to take revenge on him, and a novelist as well as her twin sister.

In turn of the 20th Century Japan, a period characterized by widespread innovation and social restructuring, Benio Hanamura endeavors to take modernization to new heights. With a tomboy nature, Benio rails against traditional ideas that women should take care of the home—serving their husbands rather than pursuing their own dreams. Her values as a modern woman come under fire as the one man who supports her independence, Lieutenant Shinobu Ijuin, goes missing in action. Resurfacing back in Japan, Shinobu has lost all memory of his true identity. In this stunning sequel, will Benio be able to reconnect with Shinobu before she is married off to a new man?

In 1976, a drifting star named Gorath is discovered to be on a collision course with Earth. Although it is smaller than Earth, its enormous mass is enough to destroy the planet totally. A mission sent to observe Gorath is destroyed after the ship is drawn into the star, with a later mission barely escaping the same fate. However, Astronaut Tatsuma Kanai is left in a catatonic state due to his near death experience. Unable to destroy the invading star, Earth's scientists undertake a desperate plan to build giant rockets at the South Pole to move the planet out of Gorath's path before it is too late.

When a space probe crash-lands on a far-flung Pacific atoll, the craft's alien stowaways decide to take over their new world one creature at a time. Soon, the parasitic life forms latch onto three indigenous critters -- a squid, a crab and a snapping turtle -- and transform them into colossal mutant monsters.

Fuma ninja clan is a secret ninja tribe that is waiting for the "Orochi" (gigantic snake) to resurrect for generations. Shirasu and his twin brother Ichiu grew up in this viscous environment and this tells how they become the leaders of the clan.

In the town of Saima, when summer is about to begin, a group of six high school students intend to live a secret adventure by spending seven carefree days in a ruined mining facility.

Love is love. Someday, the pain of being in love will be an endearing memory. No matter who the feelings are towards, no matter what form it takes, all love and lifestyles have the same value. An omnibus anime tells the stories of “The wedding of an ex”, “a student and a teacher at an all-boys’ school” and “childhood friends whose bodies and hearts change with adolescence.”

Kyotaro Ichikawa is a painfully awkward middle school boy deep in the throes of eighth-grader syndrome, spending his days obsessed reading morbid books like The Encyclopedia of Murder and anatomical diagrams. His quiet, isolated world is suddenly turned upside down when Anna Yamada, the classroom star, unexpectedly steps into his life. Whether she’s casually eating rice balls in the library, humming to herself, or suddenly closing the distance between them, Yamada’s unpredictable behavior leaves Ichikawa constantly off balance. And before he knows it, she is occupying his everyday thoughts. As they spend more time together, Yamada too begins to find herself drawn to Ichikawa in ways she never expected. It’s the first time either of them has truly understood what it means to “like” someone. Through misunderstandings and clumsy, heartfelt emotions, the distance between them slowly, but surely, begins to close.

When Princess Peach is kidnapped by the monster King Koopa, Mario and his brother Luigi journey to the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue her.

A female teacher Kumi Yamamoto was raped by a man who attempted suicide. During Kumi's class, a woman in a miniskirt suddenly entered the classroom and shouted, "Is Yuichi Kobayashi's son here?" Yuichi Kobayashi was the name of the man who raped her. The woman in the miniskirt was Maria, a debt collector, and she had come to find out where Yuichi was, calling for his son, Kotaro. Kumi learns that Yuichi is on the run from his debts. Yuichi tries to have sex with Kumi again, but she vehemently rejects him. The next day, as Kumi is comforting Kotaro, the biology teacher, Saiki, enters the classroom and makes advances on her. Kumi calls Yuichi and demands sex from him. Meanwhile, Kotaro succumbs to Maria's temptation and becomes addicted to sex.

"Tales of the Bizarre: 2023 Summer Special" (世にも奇妙な物語 '23夏の特別編) aired on Fuji TV on June 17, 2023, featuring four mysterious tales: 1. "Princess Club" A housewife revisits a childhood club to relive her dreams, facing unexpected consequences. 2. "Kobayashi Family Wonderland" A family turns their home into a theme park, but their ambitious project spirals out of control. 3. "Gaze" A student discovers a new eye drop causes everyone to fixate on her, revealing an unsettling truth. 4. "Rainbow" A photographer captures a mysterious girl under a rainbow, unveiling a connection that transcends time.

A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.

After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.

In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.

Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.

Natsume Mochizuki works as a teen model in Tokyo, but she learns that she has to move to her father's hometown of Ukigumo. She is in a desperate situation because she can't do the things she wants to do in Ukigumo. One day, she meets Koichiro Hasegawa. He is the successor of the Hasegawa family. His family is wealthy and is respected in the area. Natsume Mochizuki and Koichiro Hasegawa become attracted to each other, but something changes their fate.

At the end of the 19th century, Shanghai is divided into several foreign concessions. In the British concession, a number of luxurious “flower houses” are reserved for the male elite of the city. Since Chinese dignitaries are not allowed to frequent brothels, these establishments are the only ones that these men can visit. They form a self-contained world, with its own rites, traditions and even its own language. The men don’t only visit the houses to frequent the courtesans but also to dine, smoke opium, play mahjong and relax. The women working there are known as the “flowers of Shanghai”.

It's three years after the events of the original Battle Royale, and Shuya Nanahara is now an internationally-known terrorist determined to bring down the government. His terrorist group, Wild Seven, stages an attack that levels several buildings in Tokyo on Christmas Day, killing 8000 people. In order for the government to study the benefits of "teamwork", the new students work in pairs, with their collars electronically linked so that if one of them is killed, the other dies as well. They must kill Nanahara in three days - or die.

After failing to land a job, Shimizu Misora stumbles into an internship at funeral company Bando Kaikan and trains under the strict but compassionate Urushibara Reiji. As she learns to care for the bereaved, her discouragement turns into admiration, and a new sense of purpose.

The sextuplets attend a high school class reunion. There, they see all their former classmates who have become "proper" adults with company jobs. The sextuplets sulk about this and go home and drink until they fall asleep. But when they wake up, a certain scene awaits them.

When Sonoko enters a traditional Japanese arranged marriage with Amamiya facilitated by her parents the resulting union is loveless including the functional and goal-oriented sex. When the husband and wife move for his work she falls for her husband's boss and takes on the role of a betrayer.

An Okinawan prophecy that foretells the destruction of the Earth is seeming fulfilled when Godzilla emerges to return to his destructive roots. But not all is what it seems after Godzilla breaks his ally Anguirus's jaw. Matters are further complicated when a second Godzilla emerges, revealing the doppelgänger as a mechanical weapon.

After the older DigiDestined are abducted by the mysterious Kokomon, the next generation of kids team up with American DigiDestined Willis to rescue them - only to discover that their enigmatic enemy has an unexpected connection to their new friend!

Having achieved miraculous victories in a series of battles against the Britannian Army, Lelouch Lamperouge has brought the Black Knights, his paramilitary organization, to a more powerful state than ever before. Nothing seems impossible for him when he utilizes his military strength, intellect, and Geass power of absolute obedience. However, obstacles in the face of the uprising never cease, putting Lelouch in a difficult predicament. Most worryingly, Kururugi Suzaku's combat prowess and the appearance of a mysterious child named V.V. threaten to put an end Lelouch's great rebellion.

Heart is a tyrannosaurus who is found and raised bv a herbivore mother. After learning his true nature as a meat eater, he runs away from home and finds a baby ankylosaurus egg that hatches and thinks Heart is his father. After accidentally naming the baby Yummie - thinking he looked tasty - their love for one another tests the bounds of nature vs. nurture.

A rising photographer is asked by a mysterious woman to take pictures of her body, engaging both his talent and personal life.

The name of a Japanese female ninja; in the past, during the Shogunate era, female ninjas pretended to be ordinary women, and they used temptations, charms, and other methods to achieve their missions through relationship with men. It is the fate of the female tolerant to complete the task with the body.

A film adaptation of Koichiro Uno's original work that depicts the madness and debauchery that unfolds in a nurses' dormitory where men are strictly prohibited.

A young man decides one day to start killing yakuza. After he kills his first two he gets roped into helping a wannabe gangster and his bumbling underlings to perform a hit. While things work out in the beginning, this young psychopath quickly becomes more trouble than the gang expected. Will they be able to rid themselves of him, or will they be his next victims?

A Japanese bullet train is threatened with a bomb that will explode automatically if the train slows below 80 km/h, unless a ransom is paid. Police race to find the bombers so the train crew can learn how to defuse the bomb.

The mysterious Ultraman, Tregear, has suddenly appeared in Ayaka City. Tregear asks what one would do to make their dreams come true, prompting Katsumi to search for his own dream. As a monster appears for the first time in a year, Ultraman Blu and Ultraman Rosso are joined by Ultraman Geed to face off against this new threat. Walking towards their dream with the heart of the Minato family in hand, Ultraman Gruebe is born.

Slacker Ichiko gets into a fight with her younger sister and begins to live on her own, working the late shift at a 100 yen shop. On her way home, she passes a gym and meets boxer Kano who trains there in silence...

Hideyuki Mitamura, a student at a private school near Osaka, is kidnapped on his way home from school.

A secretary is introduced to the world of BDSM by her boss. She becomes his personal slave as they take a walk on the wild side of experimentations. This film is based on main actress Rinako Hirasawa’s personal experiences.

Following a brutal war, former soldier Van toils in a mine controlled by the ruling empire. One day, his solitary existence is upended when a pack of wild dogs carrying a deadly and incurable disease attack, leaving only Van and a young girl named Yuna as survivors. Finally free, the pair seek out a simple existence in the countryside but are pursued by nefarious forces. Intent on protecting Yuna at all costs, Van must uncover the true cause of the plague ravaging the kingdom—and its possible cure.

The story follows a boy named Quon and others who suddenly wake up with supernatural powers.

While struggling to make friends after his parents’ divorce, Koyomi Takasaki meets Kazune Takigawa, but apparently, they already have. Kazune reveals that she’s from World Line 85, an alternate universe in which she and Koyomi are lovers. But in a reality where moving between dimensions is natural, could Koyomi be the one from another world?

Blowing like a wind and a cloud, a blue-eyed female ninja with a painful destiny has arrived! A blue-eyed ninja, Hijiri, is a fierce and cold-blooded assassin. She encounters a thief after the scroll of esoteric immortality from the treasure house of a Christian daimyo, Rokusha, and she gets into a sword fight with him. In the close battle, she is wounded, but is rescued by a Christian named Seitaro, and they begin falling for each other. But her happy days don’t last. Openly critical of Christianity, “a bad foreign religion”, the Dainichi Shinkyo weaves dark intrigues to kill Hijiri and Christians.

When the evil Yo-Kai Kin, Gin and Bronzlow makes the Yo-Kai Watch disappear from time so they can help Dame Dedtime prevent humans and Yo-Kai from being friends, Nate Adams finds help in the Yo-Kai Hovernyan, who takes Nate, Whisper and Jibanyan 60 years to the past, when the Yo-Kai Watch was first invented by Nate's grandfather, Nathaniel Adams, while he was a boy. Together, the 2 boys fight Dame Dedtime and her evil Wicked Yo-Kai minions to save the world from her evil plans.

The mysterious life of Princess Nouhime.

Ritsuko is a popular madame of a nightclub but, ever since her gangster husband got caught and imprisoned, her life has taken a turn for the worst. Now, in order to pay off his debts to a yakuza loan shark, Ritsuko is forced to engage in private sex shows for the VIP clientele. After a year of these special shows, the loan is almost paid off.

In Enchanted Parade, Akko, Lotte and Sucy, having gotten in trouble yet again, are forced to team up with three other troublemakers; Amanda O'Neill, Constance Braunschweig Albrechtsburger and Jasmineka Antonenko, and must make an annual witch parade a success or else face expulsion.

After failing his university entrance exam, Yuki Hirano sets his eyes on the role of a forestry trainee. Setting off for training he doubts his decision many times, but eventually after passing the training course, he is sent to Kamusari Village for a year of work experience - where he becomes assimilated with the beauty of nature and the warm-hearted people of the village.

Fashion model Haruka is faints during the shoot due to food restrictions. On the way back, she hears the voice of the butcher Anharu with whom, she realises, she shares the gift of telepathy. Haruka is frightened but she gradually resolves the situation with Anharu. Haruka and Anharu, both of whom are married. eventually grow closer.

Three weeks have gone by since the alien spaceship crash landed on the Graviton City spire, and since then the aliens have been hard at work converting their ship to a pleasure district, hoping to make friends with the humans!… Not. Perpetually late and continually over-eating A-ko, spacy and cheerful C-ko, and brilliant and bold B-ko are about to enter summer break from school, and it just so happens the alien ship is open for business. When a free meal turns into a sob story about how the aliens just want to go home, will it be A-ko or B-ko who can get the ship into orbit again?

A floating space without gravity where an infinite number of lights shine in different colors: The "Box of Wisdom." Inside of this box, there are multiple worlds, multiple timelines, and there used to be many different people. This is where Dual and Dorothy were fighting with enemies called "Viruses." Worlds infected by viruses must be erased. That is the duty, the job of these girls. However, one day, Dual and Dorothy feel the presence of a new Virus. Arriving at the scene, they see a girl being attacked by Viruses. After saving the girl, the duo wait for her to awaken so they can ask who she is, where she came from, and where she is going. Finally, when the girl opened her eyes, she gave her name, Rimo, and whispered only one sentence... "I must return to the flower patch..."

An elite superhuman agent must stop a foreign military unit from seizing control of an ancient artifact that holds the key to ultimate power.

A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.

A trio of young scientists investigate a source of uranium at the base of a sacred mountain, and after running over a dog, find themselves cursed by the locals.

In the year Universal Century 0079, humans have colonized the area of space lying in between the Earth and the moon. However, the ambitious Zabi family, rulers of the Duchy of Zeon, the grouping of colonies furthest from the earth, has sparked a war.

Spring break turns into a summer war when the evil Diaboromon wreaks havoc on the internet, and Tai and Matt must achieve a new Digivolution to defeat him! Will Tai and the Digidestined save the world, and will Sora ever forgive Tai for giving her a hair clip?

After witnessing a strange explosion, Shinnosuke Tomari is later visited by a young man claiming to be his son Eiji Tomari from the year 2035. Eiji warns Shinnosuke that a year from now, Mr. Belt's AI will go berserk and lead to the Roidmudes overtaking humanity. However, Shinnosuke cannot immediately deal with this new information when the evil Kamen Rider Dark Drive also comes from the future, causing enough mayhem that leads to Shinnosuke being framed for it and becoming the public's most wanted.

After an airplane crash during a school trip, Oribe Mutsumi and her classmates were stranded on a seemingly deserted island. Mutsumi found the other survivors, and used her wilderness knowledge to help them. She expects that they will be rescued in about three days, which doesn't seem so long to endure. However, she didn't account for the fact that the island is populated with gigantic killer insects. Her knowledge of butterflies, wasps, and more may be the only thing that will help any of her classmates survive to be rescued!

Earth is peaceful following the Tournament of Power. Realizing that the universes still hold many more strong people yet to see, Goku spends all his days training to reach even greater heights. Then one day, Goku and Vegeta are faced by a Saiyan called 'Broly' who they've never seen before. The Saiyans were supposed to have been almost completely wiped out in the destruction of Planet Vegeta, so what's this one doing on Earth? This encounter between the three Saiyans who have followed completely different destinies turns into a stupendous battle, with even Frieza (back from Hell) getting caught up in the mix.

In the middle of the 16th century, Hideyoshi, a power hungry warlord sets out to destroy the Momochi clan. He sends his war commander in search of the clan's hidden gold only to find that two daggers are the key to the hiding place of the treasured gold. Spanning decades, the quest for the missing daggers takes Shiranui through war and ancient tradition.