Discoveries from Japan World Cinema

Two men who run an operation of offering prostitutes disguised as masseuses to inns and resorts lose their best wage earner. Desperate to find a replacement they try to recruit women off the street until they finally scout a white woman and a black woman who are willing to work for them. Business booms as hotel clients get a taste of exotic excitement.

The Domain: Severed Relations

Three engineers cannot make a robot work in time for a science show, and hire a man to inhabit the robot's shell to save their jobs. The robot's performance at the show attracts media attention and scrutiny from a science student.

Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.

8-year old boy, Shimpei, who loves fishing and painting, lives with his beautiful mother, surrounded by nature. His mother, Satsuki, has a weak constitution and lost her husband years ago. She takes care of her son lovingly but sometimes strictly, on her own. Shimpei's childhood sweetheart, Sayuri, is deaf, but somehow they can understand each other and they always spend time together.

Kuki Fumihiro is a son from a wealthy zaibatsu (conglomerate) family. His father raises him to become pure evil. Kuki kills his father to protect his adopted sister Kaori. Afterward, Kuki disappears. He undergoes plastic surgery and takes the identity of Koichi Shintani. He watches Kaori and faces the great evil that exists within the Kuki family.

She and Her Cat details the life of a cat, entirely from the cat's perspective, as it passes time with its owner, a young woman.

The life of entertainers in Asakusa’s pleasure quarters. An exciting yakuza story with superb action.

A Crowd of Three tells the story of two men, Kenta & Jun, who grew up as almost brothers at a children's facility. Kenta & Jun now works as part of a demolition crew but become fed up with their jobs. The friends then decide to take a road trip up north to visit Kenta's brother at the Abashiri prison.

From June 1944, twelve Japanese seamen are stranded for seven years on an abandoned and forgotten island called Anatahan.

Small-time con man Jiro makes his living tricking small businesses out of large sums of money. In the process he acquires a helpmate Kumiko, a refugee from her stepfather's sexual abuse. But things start to get out of control when yakuza boss Kamewada muscles in on the action.

Yuuto Matsubara is a 27-year-old man who works in the sales department of a major toy maker, but he isn't able to pursue his dreams, and he feels hollow every day. He's even given up on love with his childhood sweetheart Ai. One day a "Time Driver" robot that runs on the power of dreams appears in front of him, and he is forced into the cockpit against his will. Inside is a 12-year-old version of himself.

After a boy is shipwrecked on a deserted island, he finds a pink egg which hatches into the pink dragon (referred to as a dinosaur in the English-language theme song) named Serendipity. A feature-length compilation of the 26 episode Nippon TV series.

The stage play is an alternate retelling of the end of the Yorknew City arc, where Kurapika captures Chrollo and forces the Phantom Troupe to exchange their hostages of Gon and Killua for their leader. This play also features flashbacks of before the Phantom Troupe first came to be. Unlike the first two stage plays, this is not a musical.

Miyamura is quiet and keeps to himself, and honors student Kyoko is cheerful and popular. They are polar opposites but both have a secret persona that no one knows about. They get to know each other after randomly discovering each other's secret side.

B-Robo Kabutack: The Epic Christmas Battle!! is a special that features cameos by Blue Beet from Juukou B-Fighter and the title hero from B-Fighter Kabuto.

When Yasuko (Eriko Hatsune) was a child, her mother left their home. She grew up not knowing what an ordinary family is. Satoshi's (Kengo Kora) mother was the girlfriend of Yasuko's late father. One day, Satoshi appears in front of Yasuko. Since that moment, Yasuko's monotonous life begins to change.

The Kimagure Orange Road series centers on a teenage romantic triangle: Hikaru and Madoka were best friends until they fell for Kyosuke, an understated hero with psychic powers. In 1991, the 19-year-old Kyosuke is struck by car and propelled three years into the future, where he tries to understand the changes that have taken place in his world. Madoka and Hikaru have grown up to become a promising songwriter and a student of drama and dance, respectively; the older Kyosuke is a student-photographer on assignment in Bosnia. The problem of two Kyosukes coexisting is played for laughs, including a sequence where the 22-year-old Kyosuke counsels his younger self. The filmmakers expect the viewer to know the characters from the OAVs, although designs have been changed. The result is a Pax-style romantic fantasy, rather than a sci-fi adventure.

They have the reputation of being the top martial arts team in the world. They have combat techniques which can control the very elements. They have a small penguin. They are the Ninku, full of martial art prowess, low on brain power, and totally devoid of the respect they deserve.

Aiko, a bar hostess, falls for the son of a company president who also keeps a mistress, and whose family disapproves of his relationship with the bar hostess.

Long takes and a highly theatrical visual approach combine to form a tense and confrontational look at the decline of a socialist student activists' movement in Japan.

Akira Yamazaki and Akira Kaido are new employees at Industrial Central Bank. They are both outstanding at their jobs and fierce rivals, but they come from totally different backgrounds. When Akira Yamazaki was a child, his father's factory went bankrupt and his family ran away in the middle of the night. Because of that experience, Akira Yamazaki wants to work as a banker to save people. On the other hand, Akira Kaido was born into a family that runs a large company. He works with a calm demeanor. Due to a case, Akira Yamazaki receives a demotion. Akira Kaido continues to be successful at work, but his family's company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to their family-oriented management style. The employees there and their families are all in a crisis situation. With this desperate situation unfolding, the reversal of fate of these two men begin.

New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more.

A quiet killer is looking for a room. The real state agent, shy and expressionless, guides him through Tokyo, towards the ruins the decadent economy has left behind, in hopes of finding The Room.

A woman has a fine life with rewarding work, a nice house, and a serious boyfriend in the lowlands of Japan. In walks her long lost husband who years ago disappeared and abandoned her. The wife allows her lost husband to secretly live in her house. More specifically, he lives in the wife's closet. The closet has a peep hole, so he does nothing day and night but watch his wife live her life.

Following the showdown with his arch nemesis Ando, Detective Ango Ishikawa takes on a new case with his uncanny ability to communicate with the dead.

Underground people who exhale toxic gas appear in Tokyo's S-Ward, which is dealing with construction noise from urban development projects. Everyone panic, but it turns out that five middle-aged guys are unaffected by the poisonous gas. They undergo vigorous training to fight the underworld people, but are they going to be able to save the world…?

Two young men are recruited into the Japanese air force just before outbreak of WW2 by the test pilot of Japans new super fighter - the Zero. The movie is told in reverse from the point of one of the young men who don't qualify for the pilot training and instead joins the ground crew. It chronicles the entire history of the famous fighter from the first prototype test flights all through the war.

Yuma Nakahara is the CEO of an IT company and he is a workaholic. He is focused only on expanding his company. He receives a phone call from his former co-worker and friend Kouhei, but Kouhei doesn't say anything. Yuma gets the sense that something is wrong and heads to Kouhei's hometown of Shinminato, Toyama Prefecture, Japan. In Shinminato, Yuma meets other people and becomes involved in the Shinminato Hikiyama Festival. His outlook on life begins to change.

Miho, a high school student, refuses to approve of her widowed mother’s potential husband when they meet each other at a restaurant. As she flounces out of the restaurant, she drops her cell phone. At the moment there is an earthquake and she drops her cell phone down a staircase. The phone is found by Tokijiro, a boy that lives in 1912.

A young man walks through the streets holding a sign that reads, “The trial for the Tobata Incident 19 years ago was a frame-up!” He has taken up the fight alone on behalf of his innocent father, who is serving time for murder.

Girls in the Orchard (1953) is about tension between the life of a family in a rural area with all the traditions (continuing family business, taking care of the land)-- and the modernity and lure of a life in the city.

The narrative centers on Taichi Tamiya, a television scriptwriter living in modern-day Tokyo with his family. Their ordinary lives are disrupted when they inexplicably time-travel to June 1944, during the height of World War II. Confronted with the harsh realities of wartime Japan—scarcity of resources, constant air raids, and societal pressures—the family struggles to adapt and survive. The story delves into their attempts to navigate this perilous era while seeking a way back to their original time.

The story of a strange living situation in a 2LDK apartment in suburban Tokyo. There are five residents ranging in age from eighteen to twenty-eight. They are not in any way romantically involved with one another, but one can see subtle hints of affection and friendship among them. In the end, however, none of them really know each other.

Set in Japan during the bubble era, this unique home comedy cheerfully and humorously depicts the daily life of a strange family that works together to accumulate a small amount of money, while mixing irony and satire.

At a university hospital, a love story is drawn between a dull resident, Nobuhiko Kitagawa, who finds the secret drug to become a transparent human being, and a beautiful nurse, Narumi Sano.

Norbert, the posh conservative aristocrat vampire, must find a pure blooded woman to bite if he wants to survive and not be rejected by his parents. Sent by ship to Japan, along with his museum watchman butler, he’s shipwrecked on Boulet Rouge Island…

When a rare species of butterfly is found in a mysterious valley in Japan, a pair of entomologists go to investigate and find more. They discover Varan, a giant monster, who decides to leave the valley and head straight for Tokyo.

The hero Nike and magic user Kukuri learn of the "Pickle of Happiness", an item that will grant a wish to the one who eats it. With the help of old friends, they must beat the monsters to the Pickle and convince its guardian dragon to give it to them.

Koichiro Shimada is sent to a research facility in Kenya, Africa by a teaching hospital in Japan. He encounters a desperate situation and decides to work there as a doctor, treating patients hurt in battles. He struggles with nurses and colleagues at the hospital. Koichiro Shimada then encounters a boy soldier severely wounded mentally. This changes Koichiro Shimada’s fate.

6th EVENT The New Frontier is an upcoming live event for Umamusume: Pretty Derby. It will have a Spring and Autumn leg and will be held at Saitama Super Arena.

Roman Porno film depicting the great uproar that the children cause in the division of their property, even before their parents are dead, as they claw at their greed.

Kayoko is a young girl in 1940, just starting first grade. Nothing can prepare her for 1945, and the bleak times that are soon to come.

A conflict erupts between the girl gangs of Kinjou Gakuen High School and Shiiba Girls’ High School. Sex, fights and rock music ensue.

Mako and her girl friends enter a dispute with rival street gangsters The Eagles, a band of racist macho pigs led by the evil Baron, who hate half-breeds. When one of the girls start dating a half-breed, they start a terror campaign to take all of them out of town. Mako and her gang fight back, helping their new friend Kazuma find his long gone sister.

For one year, Master Swordsman Eiji Shinjo has been haunted by the memory of his battle with the renegade champion, Gaia. A battle that was cut short by the forces of the malevolent syndicate known as "The Organization." Denied victory, Eiji left the tournament followed by his opponent's mocking laughter. Worse still, Eiji walked away no closer to finding his long lost brother, Sho. But now, a mysterious warrior is hunting down the champions of the previous tournament and using their own moves against them, and it looks like that person may be Sho. Who is this powerful, new foe and who be his next target? Eiji and Kayin, his closest friend and greatest rival, struggle to unravel the mystery before they too join the ranks of the defeated. The answer lies at the heart of The Organization and its plans for world domination. At last, the ultimate battle between the greatest fighters in the world will be decided. But if Eiji loses, his friend, Ellis, may Die...

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?

An attempt is made to suppress a journalist's investigation of collusion between a rural police chief and the local gangster bosses.

Kinichi and Akiko meet when they visit their fathers in prison. After successfully gambling on a bicycle race, they spend an enjoyable day together at the beach.

Job-hunting Daisuke heads to the Antiquarian Bookshop Biblia in Kita-Kamakura with a book signed by Natsume Soseki that his deceased grandmother left behind. He asks the beautiful shop owner Shioriko to authenticate the book. However, the book in question hides an unexpected secret from his grandmother.

Story teller Kinya Aikawa serves as a guide in this horror drama series, which is presented in an omnibus format with two stories each based on the stories of people who have experienced horror. Kanako (Yasuko Sawaguchi) looks through the viewfinder of a second-hand camera she bought and sees a boy with a look of hatred on his face staring back at her. When she looks up, the boy is gone, and when she looks through the viewfinder again, she sees the boy staring back at her. Kanako is now haunted by the spirit of the boy and the adults who are close to him....

Two seriously wounded samurai find refuge from a storm at an isolated temple, the home of a swordsman and a mysterious young woman. One samurai awakes to find that not only has his comrade died, but that his wounds have miraculously healed. He discovers that he has been given the power of immortality by the swordsman, a man once known as the legendary Miyamoto Musashi, who now lives an endless existence as Aragami, a "god of battle".

Shima Nishikata, a beautiful teacher of classical literature at a private high school, teaches during the day but wanders the streets at night seeking men — not for money, but because she fears she has inherited the licentious nature of her aunt who raised her.

A marriage is weaker without something in common. Sayoko (SHINDO Manami) is a seemingly carefree woman but she hides doubts about her marriage behind her cheerful demeanour. After five years of being in Tokyo, it is apparent that she has little in common with her husband and so she begins scoping out apartments which is how she meets Yohei (YOSHIMURA Kaito), a real estate agent who is nursing a broken heart. As they tour properties, Sayoko's girlish charms work their magic on the downhearted man and she convinces him to look for the wife who abandoned him but their journey brings the two closer.