JAPANESE TO WATCH

A group of Chinese youths living in Japan struggle to make their way in life and eventually find trouble with the local crime syndicate.

Two troubled souls living on the fringes of a port town fall in love, but their trials are far from over.

Tanaka is a yakuza who collects 'protection money' from establishments. He has just been released from jail, where he had spent eight years, and finds out that his boss wants to get rid of him.

The ups and downs of the Takezawa family after one of the four daughters found out that their father had been in an unknown love affair.

The story of Dr. Koichiro, who moves from Japan to Kenya to volunteer as a doctor for child soldiers.

About a young woman living in a seaside town haunted by the ghosts of a ship's crew murdered by modern-day pirates.

Isazo is a traveling gambler and living legend in the world of Yakuza, known for his swordsmanship and bravery, his impeccable manners, and his brilliant talent in gambling.

Ryo once rode with a biker gang; ever since his friend Tetsuji died riding in September, he's retired from biking, trying to forget the past.

Strange things lurk in dreams. For Mukoda Tetsurou and the doctors tending to him, things have begun to get stranger as Mukoda begins having longer and longer dreams every night. Can one dream infinity in the span of a night?

A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief, or lack of it, in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.

Matsutaro Yasuda, a retired girl's High School Principal who has lost his wife to alcoholism and is forsaken by his daughter, moves to an old apartment in a country town. Yasuda, at his new address, meets a little five years old girl who lives next door. Sachi, the little girl, clenches on an iron fence at the apartment. All alone, she is gazing into the distance. Angel's wings made of cardboard are on her back. She is barefoot and wears a summer dress in spite of it being winter. On her leg there are scratches and bruises. Yasuda speaks to Sachi but she does not smile or say a word. When night falls, violent voices can be heard from next door to the mother and her lover echoing in Yasuda's room almost every night. Yasuda blocked out his emotions. He didn't want to hear or see anything. However, little by little something moved his emotions we can call it passion. When he looked into the little girl's eyes, which are also lacking in emotion, something seemed to overlap his wounded heart. "Have you ever seen a blue sky? Where clouds appear like cotton candy and a white bird is flying high?" "Would you like to walk with me?" Yasuda and Sachi begin their long walk... During their walk, the two meet a young boy named Wataru at a small desolate train station. Wataru seems to be easygoing. However, he is also lonely and holds an empty feeling in his heart. The passing Wataru joins the two on their journey but the trip goes in an unexpected direction when one day Sachi begins to open her heart to Yasuda and Wataru. Cardboard Angel wings begin to fly toward a real sky...

Sen Rikyu is a ceremonial tea master who advises warlord Hideyoshi in sixteenth-century feudal Japan. His daughter, the beautiful Lady Ogin, has an unrequited love for Lord Ukon, who has angered Hideyoshi by becoming a Christian convert. Ogin's father Rikyu also displeases Hideyoshi by opposing the warlord's plan to invade China and Korea. When the animalistic Hideyoshi is rejected by Ogin, he threatens her and her father with arrest and worse.

Lavish Japanese-Chinese coproduction based on an ancient Chinese legend about a man who falls in love with a snake goddess in human form.

Inspired by her grandfather's stories, young Shinko embarks on wild flights of fancy about the history of the little town she lives in. But dreams can't fend off the realities of growing up.

Young military doctor goes to study in 1880s Berlin and falls in love with a local dancer. Tragedy ensues.

A former kindergarten teacher has quit her job. One day she meets a magician at the beach and undertake to travel together in his car. She wants to travel to Osaka to meet a man - whose son she used to take care of - after passing through Shizuoka before heading to Okinawa.

The behind-the-scenes of the Japanese Porn Industry told through the eyes of a dedicated make-up artist.

Scene: Mashike, a city on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Nobuo Honma is a 63-year-old sake producer. He has lived with Yasuo since his wife died two years ago. Yasuo is his youngest son to whom he has entrusted his trade. Every day Nobuo goes for a walk which leads him to a fish-breeding center, located in the mountains. He fills his loneliness by attentively observing the development of thousands of little fish poured into the pool. The second anniversary of his wife's death approaches. Nobuo insists on the presence of Ryoichi, his elder son whom he hasn't seen for a long time. Nobuo and his two sons, along with their partners, gather for the commemoration. Unspoken feelings resurface and clash with each other.

A metaphysical mystery involving a university student's camera getting stolen, and the thief then committing suicide. Looking back upon the event, the situation comes to be questioned if it happened at all.

A married kleptomaniac (Sonoko) and a younger woman (Mitsuko) begin an unusual love affair which develops fast into a kinky sexual love triangle when Sonoko's husband gets involved.

Two blind masseurs travel to a mountain retreat. One of them falls for a visiting lady from Tokyo and investigates a series of thefts.

This anthology tells three separate stories, all about yakuza (Japan's gangsters) in the feudal period. In the first, Sentaro, a roaming yakuza, seeks sanctuary with a gang which then asks his help in a fight against its rivals. His attention is drawn primarily to a young woman who waits in vain for the man she loves. In the second tale, two gamblers barely escape from their pursuers after being caught cheating. They rest in a cabin where a young woman lives. The older gambler, it turns out, has a history with the young woman, a history that changes all three lives. The third tale concerns a young yakuza, a braggart and coward, who is asked by villagers to kill the hated official who torments them. Despite being a gangster, he finds himself sympathetic to the villagers' plight. Now if he can only find the courage to help them.

A mysterious story involving the disappearance of Tatsuo's three brothers. Tatsuo, thinks that he too may disappear and has a nervous breakdown. His fiance visits a neurologist, who suggests that Tatsuo recount his dreams as a means of solving the mystery, since humans have an instinct that foretells the near future in the form of a dream.

Cat Kagami tries leaving her troubled past, but a botched assassination puts her in brutal killers' sights. Her co-worker and a woman with a company-threatening secret are endangered. Cat seeks revenge.

MENTAL is a feature-length documentary that observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers, in cinema-verite style. The film breaks a major taboo against discussing mental illness prevalent in Japanese society, and captures the candid lives of people coping with suicidal tendencies, poverty, a sense of shame, apprehension, and fear of society.