Deconstructing the machinery of cinema.
In the 1950s and 1960s the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu managed to find itself a profitable niche with a string of pulp action flicks, boasting energetic jazz scores, police and private detectives, yakuza and other mobsters, and a lot of shootouts, punch-ups and chases. Rather than spend money hiring movie stars, Nikkatsu made stars of ...
For international audiences it is generally thought that Akira Kurosawa is Japan's greatest-ever film director. In Japan, however, the overwhelming consensus gives that honour to Yasujiro Ozu. Between 1927 and his death in 1962 Ozu directed numerous comedies and dramas, each of which seemed to perfectly capture the changing landscape of Japanese domestic life. His ...
Akio (Kentaro Sakaguchi) is a junior advertising executive who holds an obsession for the online videogame Final Fantasy XIV. When his father Akira (Kotaro Yoshida) - an aloof figure with whom Akio has always struggled to relate - suddenly ups and quits his senior management job, Akio is desperate to find out why. When he ...
Brooding former pop star Jyo Kaieda (Shodai Fukuyama) has abandoned his dreams of musical success in favour of studying for a law degree. Chance, however, leads him into reluctantly coaching three high schoolers in learning to play musical instruments and forming their own band. When his former band partner returns from America, however, Kaieda is ...
Kohichi (Kohki Maeda) and Ryunosuke (Ohshiro Maeda) are two brothers with separated parents. After a failed marriage, father Kenji (Joe Odagiri) has returned to Osaka with Ryunosuke to try and find commercial success with his band. Mother Nozomi (Nene Otsuka) has moved into her parents' home in Kagoshima with Kohichi. A new bullet train service ...
An inflatable sex doll spontaneously comes to life. When her owner heads out to work each day, Nozomi (Bae Doona) sneaks out herself. She meets the various people living in her neighbourhood. She finds herself a job at the local video library. She even tentatively begins a romance with a co-worker. Through her adventures, she ...
In suburban Tokyo, the seemingly idyllic Akechi family self-destructs. Daughter Tomoko (Miho Tsumiki) stresses over introducing her new boyfriend to the family. Son Shuji (Hiroyuki Miyasako) is a thief, long ostracized from his parents. Mother (Naoko Otani) is slowly going homicidal over caring full-time for her demented father-in-law. And Father (Sei Hiraizumi), seemingly an upper-ranking ...
